Explore the new State of Recognition 2026 report

 

Employee Competitions & Challenges

Challenge. Motivate. Reward.

Whether it’s a sales SPIFF, wellness challenge, or safety initiative, Awardco helps teams stay motivated, engaged, and rewarded every step of the way.

Competition & Challenge Features

Tools to incentivize, reward, and delight your teams

Everything needed to run meaningful competitions that boost motivation and incentivize performance.

Custom Challenges

Motivate positive participation with minimal management.

Offer specialty rewards tailored for specific audiences
Launch to the entire company or target a specific group
Quick and easy to launch

Gamification

Real-time rankings keep participation and momentum high.

Automated leaderboards encourage participation
Healthy competition and real-time stats
Push notifications that drive engagement

Easy Administration

Consolidated program management and tracking.

Upload data manually or integrate with existing tools
Visual real-time participation dashboards
Keep it simple and scalable, no matter the challenge type

Automate Rewards

Automatically reward participation and achievement.

Award points and adjust values for different challenges
Custom reward catalogs for specific programs
Recognize individual and team accomplishments 

Spot Recognition

Keep the energy high with instant kudos.

Celebrate small wins throughout the challenge
Recognize teamwork and milestones
Boost morale with frequent, meaningful moments of praise

Return on recognition

Motivation meets psychology

Humans are wired for achievement, progress, and a little healthy competition. Challenge-based recognition taps into our drive and keeps performance on the rise.

60
%
increase in employee engagement when gamification is used.
89
%
more productivity and happier employees with incentives and recognition.
83
%
of employees feel motivated by gamified elements.

testimonials

See how teams succeed with Awardco

Citizens Business Bank
How do we better recognize our associates on the day to day? One of our engagement survey questions is, 'In the last seven days, have you been recognized for doing good work?' Awardco really allows us to to do that and to do a better job of that.
Jenny Ketchepaw
VP, Talent Engagement
Aptive Environmental
With Awardco we now have more visibility into our incentive budgets than ever, and can be more judicious about our incentive spend.
Lacy Andersen
Project Manager
Hertz
We think a lot about our frontline employees. They're the ones that make us who we are and drive our business, and we wanted to make sure they knew we appreciated them. Awardco does that.
Annasuela Fritz
HR Projects and Recognition Manager
Texas Roadhouse
Awardco's fast, compassionate service ensured an employee received a much-needed gift card in time for an urgent personal purchase. It wasn't just a reward—it was a meaningful act of support when it mattered most.
Storey O'Barr
Recognition and Communications Specialist
The Nest Schools
The best decision we made was switching from our previous platform to Awardco. The customer service is excellent, the features are amazing, and we LOVE that they take our ideas and make them happen. They are always looking at innovating, which is one of our core values. We are extremely satisfied with Awardco and everyone here at The Nest LOVES the program.
Sara Beer
Director of Core Values
Lockton
You get the same feeling when you are recognized as when you are recognizing someone else. Awardco gives you that platform and makes it so easy to gain those feelings. I love seeing my team being recognized or my leaders recognizing the teams.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner
Children's Nebraska
Being a nurse, I know that oftentimes it's hard to keep coming back day over day. It often goes without recognition or without gratitude, but Sunshine's given us the opportunity to empower our team, empower our leaders to have that ability proud that we've had such a high engagement of our team members submitting recognitions on the platform.
Madeline Quinn
Employee Experience Manager
Pilot Company
We appreciate the user-friendly interface and the ample functionality of the platform, which has enabled us to better recognize team members as well as better support end users.
Sica Simon
HR Analyst
 
 

Motivate, incentivize, and challenge your teams

Ready to drive performance with smarter challenges and better rewards? Let’s build a competition program your team will be excited about.