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

4Refuel
Everybody at 4Refuel understands how they make a difference. Whether you’re on a customer site or supporting from the office, you bring value every day.
Shawn McGuire
Manager, Communications - North America
Percepta
Our operational leaders really appreciate how easy it is to reward their teams through the Awardco platform, irrespective of global location. For the staff that are receiving recognition, being able to access and spend the points straight away enhances the perceived value of the reward.
Scott Collins
Executive Director
Amur Equipment Finance
We recently pulled an in-platform report to check on usage, and then we reached out to people individually to improve adoption—especially managers. Since then, engagement has been significantly higher, and our culture of recognition is growing—even our executives are recognizing.
Hannah Fagan
Human Resource Leader
Beckman Coulter
Change management was a concern when exploring new vendors. However, our leadership, HR, and associates have smoothly transitioned to Awardco, and they appreciate its straightforward and intuitive design, which surpasses the complexities of previous platforms.
Kerie Rogers
HR Operations Leader
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
Paramount
I was really looking for a user-friendly, up-to-speed, and easy-to-use program that can expand in different ways, and I found it with Awardco.
Shaye McCoy
Manager, Global Total Rewards Experience
Children's Nebraska
[Awardco] was something that was easy to use. I knew that healthcare provider's first priority is their patient, so how do we make it so easy that they can participate and still make sure that they're still taking care of the patient.
Madeline Quinn
Employee Experience Manager
4Refuel
We have a lot of different programs to ensure we encompass all our employees. Three of them tie directly to our core values: our peer-to-peer program, our manager-led programs, and our safety programs—like our Safety All-Stars, which is a monthly automated award.
Marna Lagerquist
Manager, Talent Acquisition and Development
 
 

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.