10 Best Employee Recognition Products You Must Know About in 2024

Employee recognition products are more than just tools for rewarding employees—they’re game-changers for boosting morale, enhancing productivity, and fostering a positive work culture. In today's competitive business landscape, acknowledging and valuing employees' contributions can make a significant difference in their engagement and overall job satisfaction. 

When employees feel appreciated, they’re more likely to stay motivated, committed to their roles, and loyal to the organization. Employee recognition products offer a structured and efficient way to consistently show appreciation, making it easier for managers and peers to recognize each other's efforts, thus cultivating an environment where everyone feels valued and motivated to perform at their best.

In this blog, we’ll dive into the diverse range of employee recognition products available, exploring various software solutions that can be tailored to meet the unique needs of your organization. We’ll discuss how these tools can be effectively implemented to create a culture of appreciation and recognition.

10 Best employee recognition products to enhance productivity

1. Empuls

Empuls is an AI-powered employee recognition and rewards platform that goes beyond traditional approaches by making recognition more timely, inclusive, and impactful. The platform enables businesses to celebrate wins and milestones while driving measurable improvements in employee engagement and retention. 

With features like multiple award types, custom workflows, and real-time insights, Empuls creates a seamless and engaging recognition experience for both employees and managers. Empuls also amplifies visibility with a social intranet that shines a spotlight on achievements, making employees feel valued and appreciated. 

Additionally, its intelligent assistant, Em, enhances recognition efforts with smart nudges and automated award creation, ensuring no accomplishment goes unnoticed.

Features of Empuls

• AI-powered recognition: Empuls’ AI assistant, Em, prompts employees to log achievements and helps managers recognize their teams instantly.
• Multiple award types: Offers spot awards, value badges, and peer awards for in-the-moment recognition, with approval-based awards for larger achievements.
• Custom workflows: Automates award processes, including nominators, moderators, and jury panels, with triggers for special events and milestones.
• Branding and customization: Tailor the platform to reflect your company’s branding and create custom certificates and award templates.
• Social intranet: Boosts visibility for every recognition through a social platform where employees can react, comment, and share achievements.
• Real-time budget tracking: Get instant visibility into reward points, budget utilization, and pending nominations with real-time reports.
• Automated award creation: Generative AI crafts personalized award graphics and messages to make recognition seamless and effortless.

Pros

• Boosts employee engagement: Empuls encourages timely and frequent recognition, leading to increased employee motivation and retention.
• Simplifies the recognition process: Automation of awards and budgets reduces administrative burdens and makes the recognition process effortless.
• Data-driven insights: Provides managers with insights to ensure balanced recognition across teams and offers ROI visibility for stakeholders.

Pricing structure

• Rewards: $3 per employee (includes peer-to-peer awards, leadership awards, and more)
• Surveys: $3 per employee (includes eNPS surveys, pulse surveys, and lifecycle surveys)
• Social intranet: $1 per employee (includes social newsfeed, polls, custom groups, team pages, and more)
• Perks and benefits: $2 per employee (includes prepaid fuel cards, meal cards, transit cards, and more)

G2 rating - 4.6 / 5

Capterra rating - 4.5 / 5

2. Bonusly

Bonusly stands out as a widеly еmbracеd rеcognition platform known for its user-friendliness. It boasts an extensive rеwards catalog and offеrs in-dеpth analytics. This platform catеrs to both rеgular usеrs and administrators, fostering peer-to-peer recognition that rеinforcеs company valuеs. 

Bonusly еvеn streamlines celebrations for birthdays and work annivеrsariеs whilе providing thе flеxibility to customizе awards to suit your prеfеrеncеs.

Features of Bonusly

• Fostering collaboration between teams: Encourages cross-team recognition, helping to build a culture of appreciation and collaboration throughout the organization.
• Peer-to-peer recognition: Empowers employees to recognize their peers for accomplishments, fostering a sense of camaraderie and teamwork.
• Actionable employee experience data: Provides detailed insights and analytics on recognition patterns, offering actionable data to improve employee engagement and retention.

Pros

• Quality platform design.
• Great software for employee recognition and peer-to-peer feedback.
• Fosters a culture of appreciation.

Pricing structure

• Core - $3 per user and per month.
• Pro - $5 per user and per month.

G2 rating - 4.8 / 5

Capterra rating - 4.8 / 5

3. Nectar

Nectar's 360 recognition and rewards platform empowers team members to offer frequent, meaningful, and timely recognition to their peers. This approach not only strengthens a company's core values but also enhances employee engagement and retention. 

Whether your workforce is centralized or spread across different locations, Nectar helps you cultivate a vibrant culture of recognition.

Features of Nectar

• Shoutouts: Allows managers to celebrate and recognize outstanding work.
• Incentivized recognition: Encourages employees to participate in recognition efforts.
• Diverse reward options: Offers five reward options, including Amazon integration, a quality catalog of gift cards, custom rewards, company apparel, and charity donations.

Pros

• Anniversary rewards: Facilitates scheduling of anniversary rewards.
• Automated birthday shoutouts: Sets up automated birthday greetings.
• Customized challenges: Helps create personalized challenges for employees.

Pricing structure

• Standard: $2.75 per user per month.
• Plus: $4 per user per month.

G2 rating - 4.7 / 5

Capterra rating - 4 / 5

4. Kudos

Kudos stands out as one of the best employee recognition software solutions. While it does offer rewards as part of its recognition program, Kudos places special emphasis on the intrinsic value of recognition to ignite genuine positivity and boost employee engagement.

With Kudos, employees come together to celebrate accomplishments, teamwork, and important milestones, serving as mutual motivators to bring out their best. This platform is particularly well-suited for companies with a workforce of over 500 employees.

Features of Kudos

• Multiple levels of recognition: Attracts performance and appreciation through various recognition levels.
• Extensive rewards selection: Provides access to an unlimited selection of rewards, including merchandise and gift cards.
• Kudos people analytics: User-friendly dashboard offering insights on workplace culture, performance, and employee experience.

Pros

• Employee engagement priority: Puts employee engagement at the forefront.
• Enhanced workforce: Promotes an engaged workforce, stronger culture, improved performance, and comprehensive people analytics.

Pricing structure

• Plus: $5 per user per month.
• Enterprise: $7 per user per month.

G2 rating - 4.8 / 5

Capterra Rating - 4.8 / 5

5. Motivosity

Motivosity firmly embraces the power of social recognition as a catalyst for enhancing engagement, motivation, and overall satisfaction among employees. The platform empowers employees to recognize their colleagues through a real-time social feed.

Features of Motivosity

• Mental health support: Enhances organizational mental health with rewards and recognition for employees.
• Quality habits for success: Helps managers cultivate quality habits that contribute to employee success.
• Seamless integration: Integrates smoothly with other applications.

Pros

• Internal social collaboration: Facilitates internal social collaboration.
• User-friendly dashboard: Offers an intuitive and user-friendly dashboard.
• Talent and skill recognition: Helps recognize and celebrate employee talent and skills.

Pricing structure

• Recognition and rewards: $2 per user per month.
• Employee insights: $2 per user per month.

G2 rating - 4.7/5

Capterra rating - 4.8/5

6. Guusto

Guusto's gift-based recognition platform offers several distinct advantages. Firstly, it provides employees with the flexibility to select their own gifts, making recognition more personal. 

Secondly, it includes a pay-it-forward feature, enabling employees to pass their gift along to someone else if they wish. The platform also employs a point-based redemption system, ensuring that employees receive full credit for unclaimed gifts. 

What sets Guusto apart is its purpose-driven mission: for every gift given, the company donates one day's worth of clean water to those in need.

Features of Guusto

• Employee recognition programs: Facilitates various recognition programs.
• Diverse reward options: Offers a wide range of reward options, including gift cards, custom rewards, and more.
• Non-monetary shoutouts: Allows for non-monetary recognition to celebrate great work.
• Performance tracking: Helps in tracking and rewarding top performers.

Pros

• Phased approach: Implements a phased approach for easy adoption.
• Budget control: Includes budget control systems to manage expenses.

Pricing structure

• Lite: $40 per month.
• Essential: $80 per month.
• Premium: $400 per month.

Guusto g2 rating - 4.9 / 5

Guusto capterra rating - 4.9 / 5

7. Workday Peakon

Workday Peakon is a platform designed to transform employee feedback into actionable insights, evolving into a comprehensive Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for improving employee retention. 

Workday Peakon focuses on three key areas: boosting employee engagement, proactively addressing employee issues, and conducting competitor analysis by comparing engagement data with industry-specific benchmarks.

Features of Workday Peakon

• Employee-centric platform: Allows companies to collect and analyze feedback, providing valuable insights into the employee experience.
• Engagement and retention: Creates opportunities to enhance employee engagement and retention.
• Employee voice approach: Utilizes scientific methods to boost engagement.

Pros

• Business growth from feedback: Transforms employee feedback into actionable strategies for business growth.
• Custom applications: Enables companies to build their own custom applications.

Pricing structure

• Essential: $3.50 per user per month.
• Premium: $4.50 per user per month.

G2 rating - 4.5 / 5

Capterra rating - 4.6 / 5

8. Fond

Fond, now part of Reward Gateway, is a global SaaS platform that streamlines and integrates employee rewards and recognition tasks into a user-friendly package. With Fond, both employees and managers can appreciate each other, redeem rewards, enjoy corporate discounts, and evaluate the effectiveness of these initiatives. 

This allows HR departments to save time on program management and focus on achieving tangible outcomes. Fond is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Features of Fond

• Culture of recognition: Helps in fostering a culture of recognition within the organization.
• Showcasing achievements: Provides opportunities for meaningful recognition of team and individual achievements.
• On-the-spot rewards: Allows for immediate rewards for employees.
• Amazon integration: Seamlessly integrates with Amazon for reward options.
• Value-based recognition: Emphasizes value-based recognition.

Pros

• Employee perks: Offers a platform for employee recognition enhanced by employee perks.
• Timely rewards: Strengthens employee recognition by rewarding employees at the right time.

Pricing structure: Fond hasn’t provided a detailed pricing structure. However, they have mentioned that their pricing includes no markups or hidden fees.

G2 Rating - 4.7 / 5

Capterra rating - 4.6 / 5

9. Cooleaf

Cooleaf is a premier experience platform used by top companies to engage, motivate, and connect their employees. The platform includes pulse surveys to gauge employee sentiments, recognition and virtual activities to bring teams closer, and robust dashboards for measuring employee experience. 

Cooleaf's mission is to create fulfilling and engaging workplace cultures. They are dedicated to helping their customers cherish and support their employees.

Features of Cooleaf

• Team recognition: Celebrates team achievements, core values, work anniversaries, and more.
• Employee programs: Brings people together through learning and development initiatives, engagement activities, and more.
• Pulse surveys: provides real-time employee feedback, reports, and insights.
• Performance incentives: Offers performance incentives and reward programs.

Pros

• User experience: Delivers a great user experience.
• Collaboration hub: Creates a hub for collaboration and communication.
• Core values: Brings core values to life in the workplace.

G2 Rating - 4.9 / 5

Capterra Rating - 4.9 / 5

10. Achievers

Achievers acts as a trusted ally for organizations, enabling them to truly understand their employees' needs and sentiments. Through pulse surveys, it provides a means for organizations to actively listen to their workforce and take steps to enhance engagement and staff retention. 

This platform equips managers and HR professionals with valuable insights to discover what employees want and identify areas for engagement improvement, all while using organizational key performance indicators and benchmarks for reference.

Features of Achievers

• Employee recognition programs: Enhances organizational growth through employee recognition.
• Celebration platform: Facilitates celebrating employee milestones and achievements.
• Listening engine: Ensures employees are heard.
• Employee pairing and networking: Offers solutions for employee networking and pairing.

Pros

• Engagement and retention tools: Helps attract and retain employees with effective measuring tools.
• Rewards and recognition marketplace: Provides a best-in-class marketplace for rewards and recognition.

Pricing structure: Achievers haven’t mentioned their prices. However, contacting their sales representatives might be a good option to get regular updates.

G2 rating - 4.6/5

Capterra rating - 4.5/5

Conclusion

In conclusion, employee recognition products, especially software solutions, play a crucial role in fostering a positive and productive work culture. By effectively implementing these tools, organizations can boost employee morale, enhance engagement, and drive overall performance. 

Investing in the right recognition software not only benefits employees but also contributes to the long-term success and growth of the company. Embrace the power of recognition and watch your workplace thrive.