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

Lockton
Talented, motivated, competitive people are just attracted to this brand. Humans are very similar. They wanna be seen. They wanna be recognized. They wanna be valued.
Melissa York
SVP, Head of People & Culture
Americare Senior Living
Thanks to Christi and the Awardco Center of Excellence, we now have a strong thought partner that shares new and different strategies to help us further elevate the Americare recognition experience. We have tested the market, and this collaborative consultation and creative problem solving from recognition practitioners differentiates Awardco. In practice, it has built our confidence that we have business partners who are sincerely invested in helping us take recognition from being a perk to a powerful strategic driver that delivers tangible impact.
Sarah Mazzocco
Chief People Officer
4Refuel
Seventy-five percent of our employees are out in the field, so how do we get them excited and engaged? The safety programs really got them energized. They had the opportunity to earn a lot of points, but they also received meaningful recognition. I was really impressed by how much our login engagement increased over time.
Marna Lagerquist
Manager, Talent Acquisition and Development
Ampirical
I could rave to millions of people that I think this should be the platform of choice.
Ryan Zellner
Marketing & Corporate Communications Manager
Americare Senior Living
Caregivers want more than a paycheque—they want to feel valued. Recognition makes that possible.
Sarah Mazzocco
Chief People Officer
NIBCO
Awardco has definitely helped us do recognition even better. Recognizing someone you work with, even if you don’t see them every day, has been empowering.
Ashley Martin
President & CEO
Texas Roadhouse
We needed something to unify our recognition programs for all our different locations, and we found that and more with Awardco.
Storey O'Barr
Recognition and Communications Specialist
Our investment to leverage the Center of Excellence team at Awardco was the best decision we made. Katie didn’t just advise, she partnered. She brought deep healthcare expertise and helped us translate what recognition should feel like for clinicians into something that actually works for a deskless, clinical workforce. With her leadership, we built our Awardco instance as a true virtual haven: a values-based recognition experience designed with and for our teams, easily accessible, and directly tied to our mission. The result is an always-on program that makes it easy to celebrate the moments that matter — strengthening connection, belonging, and pride across the organization.
Megan Vera Weaklend
SVP of Marketing & Customer Experience
 
 

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.