Empuls: One of the Best OC Tanner Competitors for Modern Employee Engagement

Employee engagement and recognition directly influence performance, retention, and workplace culture. As businesses grow and teams become more distributed, choosing the right platform to support ongoing appreciation and motivation becomes essential. Empuls and OC Tanner are two widely adopted solutions built for this purpose.  

While both aim to improve employee experience, they take different approaches in terms of features, pricing, and usability.  

While OC Tanner is known for milestone-based recognition, Empuls delivers a modern, all-in-one employee engagement experience—blending recognition, rewards, surveys, social intranet, perks, benefits, and AI-driven insights into a single cohesive platform. 

From gamified recognition, public appreciation walls, and QR-code-based rewards, to sentiment analysis, personalized conversations, and global reward redemption across 100+ countries, Empuls goes far beyond the basics.  

For companies seeking a smarter, scalable, and more interactive alternative to OC Tanner, Empuls checks every box—and more. This comparison explores how the two platforms differ and why many organizations are seeking an OC Tanner alternative like Empuls. 

Deep dive: Empuls 

Empuls by Xoxoday is built as an all-in-one employee engagement platform that goes beyond just rewards and recognition. It combines feedback, communication, and motivation into a single, easy-to-use experience for employees and HR teams alike. 

Core modules 

Following are the core modules: 

• Recognition: Peer-to-peer and manager-led appreciation with customizable awards and badges. 
• Rewards: Includes global redemption options, point-based systems, and personalized rewards. 
• Surveys: Lifecycle, pulse, and feedback surveys with action planning tools. 
• Communication (social intranet): Internal communications, announcements, and employee communities. 
• Benefits and perks: Financial wellness, exclusive employee discounts, and everyday savings. 

Strengths in 

• Lifecycle and 360° feedback surveys: Supports onboarding, exit, engagement, and eNPS surveys with built-in analytics. 
• Global reward catalog: Access to over 10 million reward options across 100+ countries. 
• Intranet, community groups, employee directory: Helps build a sense of belonging and transparency within the organization. 
• Gamified leaderboards, nudges, and memory books: Keeps engagement interactive and consistent throughout the year. 
• Seamless integration with tools: Compatible with Microsoft Teams, Slack, popular HRMS, PMS, and LMS platforms. 

Empuls is designed to boost engagement, collaboration, and morale across distributed teams. 

Deep dive: OC Tanner 

OC Tanner is a long-established recognition provider known for helping organizations celebrate service milestones and recognize achievements. It focuses on building meaningful workplace cultures through personalized appreciation. 

Core modules 

• Recognition: Includes service awards, spot recognition, and custom trophy programs. 
• Rewards: Offers merchandise, experiences, and custom awards as part of recognition events. 
• Surveys: Basic tools for gathering feedback and assessing cultural strengths. 
• Communication: Recognition stories and moments shared across the platform. 
• Benefits and perks: Not a dedicated feature area. 

Strengths in 

• Service award programs: Robust solutions for tenure-based recognition and milestone celebrations. 
• Custom award design and delivery: Includes trophies, plaques, and personalized items. 
• Localized fulfillment: Supports global reward delivery with regional logistics. 
• Enterprise-focused tools: Built for scalability and deep customization. 
• Recognition stories: Captures and shares appreciation moments across teams. 

Empuls vs OC Tanner: comparing key platform features 

Here’s a detailed comparison of Empuls and OC Tanner across core platform capabilities. This breakdown helps you understand how each solution performs in key areas of employee engagement. 

Recognition 

Recognition is the foundation of a strong employee engagement strategy. It drives motivation, builds morale, and fosters a culture of appreciation. This section compares how Empuls and OC Tanner support diverse recognition formats, fairness in peer-to-peer awards, and personalization through AI-powered tools. 

Reward 

Rewarding employees meaningfully contributes to retention and satisfaction. Empuls and OC Tanner differ in how they automate, personalize, and deliver rewards. This comparison includes reward cycles, flexible vouchers, and budgeting capabilities.

Perks 

Employee perks go beyond salary and help attract and retain top talent. This category compares how Empuls and OC Tanner offer lifestyle perks, financial benefits, and wellness advantages to enhance the everyday experience of employees. 

Benefits 

Beyond rewards and perks, providing core benefits like wellness support and financial planning is essential for employee well-being. This section shows how each platform contributes to holistic employee care.

Surveys 

Regular employee feedback helps organizations identify issues early and improve engagement efforts. This category highlights the survey capabilities of Empuls and OC Tanner, including lifecycle surveys, analytics, and sentiment analysis. 

Social intranet 

A social intranet helps teams communicate, share updates, and build community spirit. This section explores how each platform facilitates collaboration with features like announcements, feeds, polls, and spotlight messages. 

Employee profile 

Employee profiles centralize important information and achievements. This comparison looks at directory features, skill tracking, custom fields, and how personal milestones and recognitions are displayed. 

Community groups 

Community groups foster connections among employees based on shared interests or projects. This section reviews the group functionality in both platforms, including gamified participation and engagement tools. 

User access setting 

Configurable access ensures users have the right permissions based on their roles. This section compares role-based access, SSO support, and custom permissions. 

AI capabilities 

AI features enhance platform intelligence, automate processes, and generate actionable insights. This section compares how Empuls and OC Tanner use AI across analytics, personalization, skill mapping, and moderation.

Reward catalogs 

A comprehensive and localized reward catalog ensures global employees feel valued. This section examines the variety, reach, and flexibility of reward offerings on both platforms. 

Reports 

Reporting provides visibility into program effectiveness and helps HR teams make informed decisions. This category compares built-in analytics, usage reports, and custom reporting options. 

Personalization 

Tailored experiences make platforms more engaging and user-friendly. This section compares customization capabilities, from branding to dynamic dashboards and targeted communication. 

Security and compliance 

Ensuring employee data privacy and platform security is non-negotiable. This section explores how Empuls and OC Tanner meet global compliance standards and offer additional security features. 

Enterprise capabilities 

Scalable platforms are key for growing or global organizations. This section compares multilingual support, global operations, dedicated success teams, and advanced admin capabilities. 

Integrations 

Seamless integration with existing tools enhances workflow and user adoption. This section compares how each platform connects with HRMS, communication, LMS, and productivity tools. 

Empuls has it, OC Tanner doesn’t: A modern engagement breakdown 

Empuls stands out as a modern, integrated, and scalable alternative to traditional recognition platforms like OC Tanner. While OC Tanner offers legacy value through formal service award programs, Empuls delivers a broader, more dynamic experience built for today’s workforce. 

While OC Tanner offers a legacy approach rooted in service awards, Empuls redefines employee engagement for the modern workplace. Its expansive capabilities—such as AI-powered recognition automation, engagement surveys with action planning, tax-free and fringe benefits administration, digital signage, public and private recognition, and global reward catalogs—set it apart as a future-ready platform.  

With seamless integrations into Microsoft Teams, Slack, HRMS, and LMS tools, Empuls fits naturally into your workflow and scales effortlessly with your business. If you're looking to move beyond one-dimensional recognition programs and truly empower your people, Empuls is not just an alternative to OC Tanner—it's the upgrade your culture needs.