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

Lockton
 
 
Associates love it. We've had over 95% user adoption in the first six months. It's been a huge success.
Smiling woman with long dark curly hair wearing a lavender blouse and white earrings against a black background.
Selia Wood
AVP, Talent & Engagement
4Refuel
 
 
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
Hertz
 
 
Everybody wants to come to work every day and feel as though they're making a meaningful contribution to the business. So, when you finally get to hear that what you've been working so hard on has made an impact, it's incredibly rewarding.
Chris Berg
Executive Vice President, Fleet Management
PMG
 
 
I try to express appreciation vocally and in Slack, but the visibility that comes from an official kudos [Awardco] post really takes it to the next level. It ensures that great work doesn't go unnoticed, and I’m making it a point to use the shoutout feature even more across my teams.
Smiling man with short brown hair and beard wearing a checkered dress shirt, standing against a dark wall with circular decorations.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
Kodiak
 
 
Awardco makes it really easy to select colleagues that you want to recognize, whether it's one, whether it's multiple. Recognition helps build trust with teammates and leaders.
Smiling man with short hair and beard wearing a dark collared shirt in an outdoor setting.
Brett Miller
VP of Creative
Greenfield Global
 
 
We can now give a shoutout to someone even if they’re in a different location—something we couldn’t do before. It just makes it easy when it’s all in one place.
Smiling woman with glasses and short brown hair wearing a red vest over a black top standing against a brick wall.
Lorie Miller
Business Systems Analyst
NIBCO
 
 
People like to be recognized for what they’ve contributed. They’re proud of their work—and they should be.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing pearl earrings and a dark V-neck top against a gray background.
Ashley Martin
President & CEO
MagnaFlow
 
 
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
Dubai Airports
 
 
Recognition using the High Flyer platform has given us greater flexibility and alignment with our objectives. It allows us to acknowledge teams and individuals in ways that connect directly to our successes and values.
Smiling man in a blue suit jacket, white shirt, and brown tie against a white background.
Kan Ni
Vice President, Airport Operations Control Center, Dubai Airports
Citizens Business Bank
 
 
And we've also tied that to wellness in the sense that, you know, every year, we encourage our associates to go get their annual physical. So part of that though is if you turn that form in, then you get Awardco points. So it's another way to tie healthy lifestyle to what's important to us in the bank to making an impact with our associates.
Smiling woman with long dark hair wearing a bright pink sleeveless top against a light gray background.
Jenny Ketchepaw
VP, Talent Engagement
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.
Smiling woman with glasses and light curly hair wearing a black top and red shirt seated indoors.
Kerie Rogers
HR Operations Leader
Ultradent Products
 
 
We're present in pretty much every continent in the world, and there's no limitation to our recognition system. We see recognitions from Brazil to the US, from Japan to China, from South Africa to France, and everyone is engaged.
Favio Paiva
Workday Specialist
Lockton
 
 
A quiet employee might never self-promote, but Awardco gives us the visibility to see their impact. We’ve literally had leaders say, ‘I had no idea!’ when reviewing this data.
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
ARUP Laboratories
 
 
Soon after our implementation we created a financial recognition program through Awardco for managers and supervisors to recognize their employees for extra efforts. Now our managers and supervisors have their own budgeted amount to use at their discretion to award their employees at any time, and they don't have to wait for approval to do so.
Smiling woman with short light brown hair, glasses, teal blouse, black cardigan, and pearl necklace.
Cheryl Vincent
Talent Development Manager
PMG
 
 
Tying recognition to our values and integrating with Slack created real cultural stickiness.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a black blazer and gold necklace against a white background.
Monica Gunderson
Talent Management Lead

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.