Create your 2027 engagement playbook (plus live giveaway!)

 

Special Occasions

Celebrate lifeoutside of work

Celebrate employees’ real-life milestones—because when you recognize the whole person, not just the job description, magic happens.

Return on recognition

Why celebrate life’s big moments?

Recognizing your employees’ personal milestones shows that you see them, value them, and care about more than just deadlines or ROI. When people feel truly appreciated, they stick around, work harder, and show up happier.

Belonging
Woman blowing out candles on birthday cake during office meeting
90
%
of employees say being recognized for life milestones boosts their sense of belonging at work.
90
%
of employees say being recognized for life milestones boosts their sense of belonging at work.

Effective recognition builds culture and drives performance—and even drives better management approval scores.

Satisfaction
Baby items including knitted bunny, shoes, sweater, and brush
22
%
lift in employee satisfaction scores for companies that celebrate life’s big moments.
22
%
lift in employee satisfaction scores for companies that celebrate life’s big moments.

Big or small, boost employee satisfaction and reduce attrition by celebrating all of life's big moments.

Engagement
Two professionals working together in a high-tech industrial laboratory setting
3
X
higher engagement among employees who feel personally valued, not just professionally.
3
X
higher engagement among employees who feel personally valued, not just professionally.

Triple your employee engagement by making your workforce feel seen, heard, and appreciated through personalized recognition.

end-to-end flexibility

Recognize the people

behind the job titles

Celebrate any employee's real-life wins and major moments in a meaningful, genuine, and rewarding way.

Admin Flexibility

Budget-friendly. Admin-approved.

Celebrating life’s milestones shouldn’t mean sacrificing budget clarity. Set limits by department, occasion, or region, and track redemptions in real time. Awardco delivers transparent reporting without the manual processes or stress.

‍

testimonials

What our customers say

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.
Smiling woman with long wavy blonde hair and gold earrings in a warmly lit indoor setting.
Sica Simon
HR Analyst
Lockton
 
 
Almost a third of our associates are remote. So while we don't get to see them every day, Awardco has provided a platform where they are very visible.
Smiling woman with wavy dark hair wearing a green textured blouse against a black background.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner
Awardco helps create a sense of community and appreciation that we need with so many remote employees.
Ryan H.
HR Generalist
Amur Equipment Finance
 
 
I didn't expect as much engagement around each other's recognitions, our company's spread all over the country, and Awardco has really helped people feel connected.
Smiling woman with long brown hair and black framed glasses wearing a blue top against a blue textured background.
Hannah Fagan
Human Resource Leader
Janitronics
 
 
The biggest thing is that it is all in one platform. That makes it very easy for everybody to get on to take [the survey] without having to follow a link, go somewhere else, or try to make sure that access works.
Smiling man with short light brown hair wearing a dark blazer over a burgundy button-up shirt against a gray background.
Frank Eschberger
Human Resource Business Partner
My experience partnering with Awardco from an admin perspective has been outstanding. The platform is user-friendly and intuitive, leaving me empowered as an admin to own managing the platform and overall recognition programming.
Anonymous
Talent Enablement Senior Associate
McCormick & Company
 
 
We know that there is a direct tie between how recognized and appreciated someone feels and how engaged they are and productive in their work.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a floral-patterned navy jacket and white top against a textured beige background.
Sierra Capone
Director, Wellbeing & Employee Experience
Lockton
 
 
We used to give everyone a trophy at our annual event. Now, we reward true top performers. Awardco enables smarter, more meaningful recognition and spend.
Smiling woman with long wavy blonde hair wearing a black top and a pendant necklace against a black background.
Melissa York
SVP, Head of People & Culture
Crumbl
 
 
It’s much more personalized for the person celebrating their anniversary. From an operations standpoint, it’s helped us recognize employees on the actual day it matters most, instead of long after the moment has passed.
Smiling man with short dark spiked hair and beard wearing a black shirt against white background.
Josh Olofson
Vice President of Employee Experience
Kodiak
 
 
This integration to our Slack channel… makes it very easy and seamless. There’s this running log of all of these shout outs, which I think is really powerful.
Smiling man wearing a blue Patagonia fleece jacket standing outdoors with snow-covered pine trees in the background.
Zach Makoutz
Sr. Manager, Category Sales Product
Pennrose
 
 
Working with Awardco’s Center of Excellence was an incredibly valuable part of shaping our recognition strategy. Katie brought a depth of real-world, enterprise experience that helped us think more holistically about what we were building and how it would scale over time. She guided us through key considerations, from award values and program structure to governance and budget, in a way that felt both practical and aligned with our organizational goals. What stood out most was her ability to help us strike the right balance between meaningful guidelines and employee autonomy. We wanted to create a program that maintained consistency and oversight, while still empowering employees to recognize one another in ways that feel genuine and personal. Katie provided thoughtful, practical recommendations that made that balance feel achievable. As a result, we're starting with a high level of confidence in the recognition strategy we’re building at Pennrose.
Smiling woman with shoulder-length blonde hair wearing a black collared shirt outdoors.
Janel Field, EdD
Director of Organizational Effectiveness
Dubai Airports
 
 
The High Flyer program has transformed recognition from a reactive gesture into a proactive part of my leadership approach. Recognition is now structured, inclusive, and aligned with our organizational values.
Mariam Al Shemsi
Head - Learning Design & Program Development, Dubai Airports
Lockton
 
 
As a system administrator managing the back-end, being able to hand out physical AwardCodes takes out the administrative work. We no longer have to track names, who's getting what points from what event.
Smiling woman with wavy dark hair wearing a green blouse with textured dots against a black background.
Tisa Penny
Engagement & Events Lead, 2025 Recognition Rockstar Winner
The ease-of-use for employee and the admin is exactly what we need, and we have never had a complaint around service response time, which is rare these days.
Anonymous
HR Manager
Crumbl
 
 
The beauty of Awardco is that it empowers everybody to make sure good work doesn’t go unnoticed. When people see recognitions coming through, it’s meaningful for the person receiving it, but it also shows everyone else how important recognition is. That’s what Awardco allows us to do—make appreciation visible across the company.
Smiling man with short spiked hair and a black shirt on a white background.
Josh Olofson
Vice President of Employee Experience

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can special-occasion rewards be limited to an event-specific catalog?
 

Where supported, organizations can limit an award to a selected catalog or reward category. Examples may include a baby-gifts catalog for a new child, a graduation collection, a marriage or new-home collection, company merchandise, or another event-specific selection.

A focused catalog can make the experience more relevant and help the organization align the reward with the purpose of the occasion. Organizations should confirm the available catalog controls, country coverage, supplier inventory, currency, fulfillment, and employee visibility before promising a specific item or delivery outcome.

Can organizations set different reward values, budgets, or approval rules?
 

Organizations can configure special-occasion programs around their preferred reward values, budgets, eligible populations, and administrative rules where supported.

For example, a company may use different values for a wedding, new home, graduation, or new child; provide supervisors with a separate budget; or require HR or another administrator to review a recognition before it is delivered.

Organizations should define ownership, budget limits, approval requirements, corrections, unused balances, employee departures, and any tax or payroll review before enabling monetary awards. The available controls vary by program and agreement.

Who can send or initiate a special-occasion recognition?
 

Depending on the program, a special-occasion recognition may be initiated by an administrator, manager, supervisor, peer, or another authorized sender. Organizations can use automated awards for recurring events and human-led recognition for moments that require context or discretion.

Programs may also give managers or supervisors a defined budget for life-event recognition. An organization can decide whether the sender can issue the recognition directly or whether it must go through an approval workflow first.

The available sender roles, permissions, budgets, and approval steps depend on the selected program and administrator configuration.

Can special-occasion recognition be automated?
 

Where the required employee data and workflow are available, organizations can automate recognition tied to a date or an approved employee event. Automation can help deliver a reward, notification, or memory-book invitation on or around a meaningful date without requiring HR or managers to remember each event manually.

Organizations may also combine automated programs with manager, administrator, or peer-initiated recognition when an event is not available in the employee data source or when a more personal process is appropriate.

Automation depends on the source data, event type, trigger, timing, employee eligibility, and configuration. Organizations should validate how events are added, corrected, canceled, or removed before launch.

What special occasions can Awardco help organizations recognize?
 

Organizations can configure programs for meaningful employee moments such as weddings, new babies, adoptions, graduations, new homes, birthdays, retirements, service anniversaries, and other approved occasions.

Organizations may also choose whether to support sensitive events, such as bereavement, based on their policies, culture, employee preferences, and local requirements. Not every event must be enabled, and organizations should use respectful, inclusive language that fits their workforce.

The available event types and experiences depend on the enabled Awardco product and the organization’s configuration. A public page should avoid implying that every event, country, or employee population is supported identically.

Make every occasion awesome

It's no secret that when employees feel appreciated, they perform better in all aspects of their work. Spread appreciation more effectively by celebrating personal milestones with Awardco.