Forum Discussion
How do you handle employee recognition in Microsoft Teams without it feeling forced?
Hey community,
Our HR team is trying to implement a point-based recognitions / incentive program (or rewards whatever you are all calling it in your companies). We are having a bit of trouble finding the right features inside MS Teams to do this. We really don't want this to live outside of Teams because you know how initiatives work in modern work: If people don't see it, they are going to forget about it in a month or two tops.
Any recommendations?
4 Replies
Late to this thread but it keeps coming up in search so adding a perspective. Full disclosure: I build Boostr (a recognition bot for Teams/Slack), so I'm biased — but your instinct about not letting it live outside Teams is the single biggest predictor of whether a program survives. Every failed rollout I've seen died because recognition required opening a separate portal.
A few honest options depending on what you need:
Built-in Praise app — free, zero setup, fine for simple badges. No points, no analytics, and in practice usage fades because there's no nudge mechanic.
Teamflect — solid if you also want reviews/1:1s; recognition is part of a bigger performance suite, so it's heavier than a pure recognition tool.
Bonusly — biggest rewards catalog, but it's fundamentally a web app with a Teams integration bolted on, and it's ~$3–5/user/mo.
Boostr (mine) — recognition happens in seconds right in the channel, points included, nothing outside Teams. Built specifically for the "people forget portals" problem you described.
On ingeLLa's popularity-contest concern — whatever you pick, cap how much any one person can give per week and make values-tagging mandatory. That turns "points for the popular people" into "evidence of who actually lives the values," which is also what makes the data useful to HR.
I came across this thread while trying to look for options on how people are using Praise overall. There are plenty of built-in recognitions apps that fit pretty neatly inside Teams. We tried a bunch of them, liked a whole lot but eventually settled with Teamflect. It's been pretty fun so far. You can really make it your own with points, rewards, etc. So you can build something that feels more natural for your company I think.
Just a reflection. I really like that we should lift each other up more. But what is your point of using a points system? Will it lead to a higher salary for those with high points?
Should everyone see the points or is it just for management?
If your idea is to make it visible to everyone and this gains momentum, those who get a lot of points will be very happy, but those who have never gotten any points and probably already know that they are not the "popular" ones may risk being embarrassed when it becomes so visible.
I would invest more in getting users to use Praise in Teams and SharePoint. Encourage posting in channels so that many people see.
Good for those who get attention, but not as "elitist".
We want a company where everyone feels like they belong.
Just a reflection, but the bottom line: I love that you want to highlight good work 💞
Honestly I want to experiment with more gamification at work and encourage more praise and recognition between peers. There definitely should be some guardrails placed around turning recognition into an elitist popularity club. Thank you for seeing where I am coming from. We are all out here trying to make work feel a bit less like work :)
