Micro Incentives for Employees

Instantly incentivize almost anything

Perfect for driving specific behaviors without complicated processes or fanfare, micro incentives can be an important part of any recognition strategy.

Return on Recognition

Incentives that drive behavior

Not every incentive needs to be life-changing to be effective—micro incentives are built to subtly reinforce and reward behaviors without taking too much time or effort on admins’ part. And the results don’t lie.

22
%
increase in productivity
87
%
increase in retention
300
%
greater engagement

Custom incentive programs

Small behaviors. Big impact.

Build micro incentives to drive almost any behavior, small or large, and let automation minimize administrative hassle.

How it works

Build programs people actually use

STEP 1

Create goal-oriented micro incentives

What do you hope employees will do with a little more motivation?

STEP 2

Set specific parameters

Who qualifies to participate in the micro incentive? Cater these to teams, locations, or other employee data.

STEP 3

Decide on the reward for participation

What point amount is the right reward for the action?

Testimonials

What our customers say

Since joining, I’ve found myKudos [Awardco] posts to be a great way to learn what others are doing across the agency. I’ve even picked up ideas from shoutouts that I’ve been able to implement on my own accounts. It’s more than recognition—it’s a source of inspiration.
Smiling young man with short brown hair and beard wearing a checkered shirt against a dark background.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
PMG
Awardco actually cost us less than what we were doing in the past, and it's had a bigger impact on our ROI and employee engagement.
Jay Adhvaryu
Director of Finance and Compliance
WOW! mobile boutique
Recognition fits into our strategies for turnover and helping us retain good caregivers… because everyone wants to know how they're performing. They want to know if they're doing a good job. And sometimes we forget to stop and say thank you. Recognition helps us do that easily and consistently.
Smiling woman with wavy blonde hair wearing a red blazer and a silver cross necklace against a blue background.
Mary Eaves
Senior VP of Operations (Assisted Living Division)
Americare Senior Living
All of our locations have TV screens in some area of the facility. When you look up at the screen, not only do you get to see the recognition that you may have shared with somebody or that you may have received, but you get to see it across the company. Having a program that enables that to be done and shared is very special.
Smiling woman with straight black hair wearing a purple cardigan, black top, and white pendant necklace, standing with hands on hips.
Ashley Cato
Vice President People and Culture
Greenfield Global
It’s really meaningful to see CRPs who are out on the road by themselves, along with employees working from home, still interacting and connecting through the platform. It’s almost like our 4Refuel Facebook—bringing everyone together no matter where they’re working.
Woman with blonde hair wearing a black and white patterned jacket, smiling with arms crossed against a light background.
Lynne Harkness
VP, People & Culture
4Refuel
We wanted to make recognition easy and exciting for our blue collar workers to participate in, and Awardco's capabilities have made that possible.
Smiling man with dark hair and beard wearing a gray suit jacket and checkered shirt outdoors with blurry trees in the background.
Mason Ongarato
HR Software & Employee Benefits Expert
All Access Staging and Productions
From a reporting standpoint, Awardco excels by allowing users to access desired reports quickly through easily accessible links, eliminating the need to navigate through multiple pages as was the case with previous platforms. The platform has garnered significant positive feedback for its user-friendly nature and seamless navigation.
Smiling woman with glasses and blonde hair tied back, wearing a black top and red shirt with a heart necklace.
Kerie Rogers
HR Operations Leader
Beckman Coulter
Our turnover definitely went down after implementing Awardco, especially compared to the previous year. We've noticed that recognition, along with rewards like Amazon items and prepaid Visa cards, has had a big impact on retention without being a huge cost to the company.
Sonia Magdaleno
Talent and Engagement Specialist
MagnaFlow

Integrations

Seamless connectivity

Connect incentives to your existing processes and platforms, ensuring everyone can participate without adding to anyone's workload.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can micro-incentives require proof or approval?
 

Yes, where the selected workflow supports it. A program can be designed to collect evidence, such as a form response, photo, screenshot, completion record, or other supporting documentation, and route the submission to an appropriate reviewer.

Approval may be assigned to a manager, program owner, safety or quality team, administrator, or another designated reviewer. Organizations can also define budgets, limits, eligibility rules, and other guardrails to help manage how rewards are issued.

The right level of review depends on the risk, value, frequency, and purpose of the program. Requiring unnecessary approval for a low-value, high-volume activity can reduce participation, while insufficient review can create budget, fairness, or compliance concerns.

How do employees earn a micro-incentive?
 

The earning experience depends on the program design. Employees may complete an activity in Awardco, submit a response or proof, use an award code or QR code, participate in a challenge, or have qualifying data flow into the platform from another system.

Some programs allow employees to indicate that they completed the requirement. Others require manager or administrator review before the reward is issued. Where supported, organizations can use integrations, data feeds, or configured workflows to reduce manual administration and automate eligibility or reward issuance.

Employees may access programs through the channels enabled for their organization, which can include web or mobile experiences and other configured access methods. Organizations should design the process so frontline and deskless employees can participate without relying on a desktop workflow they cannot reasonably access.

What behaviors or activities can micro-incentives reward?
 

Organizations can use micro-incentives for many types of defined behaviors and activities, including:

  • Training, learning, or certification milestones
  • Safety observations, improvement ideas, or participation in safety initiatives
  • Survey or employee-feedback completion
  • Wellness challenges and activity goals
  • Onboarding or open-enrollment tasks
  • Attendance, timeliness, or process-completion goals
  • Customer, quality, or operational behaviors
  • Short-term team challenges and participation campaigns

The program should reward a behavior the organization can describe clearly and administer consistently. For safety, quality, compliance, or regulated activities, organizations should involve the appropriate HR, legal, safety, compliance, and operational stakeholders when designing the rules.

How are micro-incentives different from spot recognition or larger incentive programs?
 

Micro-incentives, spot recognition, and larger incentive programs can all use rewards, but they serve different purposes.

  • Spot recognition is typically a manager- or peer-initiated way to recognize an individual for something they did.
  • A micro-incentive is usually a smaller, repeatable reward tied to a defined action, challenge, or behavior.
  • A larger incentive program may run over a longer period, involve more complex eligibility or performance rules, and include larger rewards, rankings, or a broader business objective.

These approaches can coexist in one employee experience. The right structure depends on whether the organization wants to reinforce a moment, drive participation in a defined activity, or manage a formal performance-based program.

What are micro-incentives?
 

Micro-incentives are small rewards offered for completing a specific action, reaching a short-term milestone, participating in an initiative, or demonstrating a desired behavior.

Examples may include completing a training, submitting a safety observation, participating in a survey, completing an onboarding task, meeting a wellness goal, contributing an improvement idea, or taking part in a short-term challenge.

The value is usually in the frequency, clarity, and immediacy of the reinforcement—not in making every reward large. Organizations should define the behavior, eligibility, evidence, reward value, timing, and success measure before launching a program.

Small things that actually add up

Incentivize the little things that make a big difference.