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

McCormick & Company
 
 
Awardco has not only given us a platform for recognition, but real-time data to drive strategy across our people organization—things we couldn’t even measure before.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing pearl earrings, a floral navy jacket, and a white top against a textured wall.
Sierra Capone
Director, Wellbeing & Employee Experience
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
NIBCO
 
 
When we implemented Awardco, we refreshed everything and synced all service dates to our HRIS. It works flawlessly now—and the person who used to manage that spreadsheet is very happy.
Smiling woman with long dark hair with red highlights, wearing a black top and silver jewelry, posing against a gray background.
Dawn Bloch
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
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
Our organization often requires nuanced flexibility, and Awardco enables that seamlessly with its high level of customization.
Anonymous
Talent Enablement Senior Associate
Dubai Airports
 
 
We were looking for a simple yet effective platform with a user-friendly interface, and Awardco ticked all the boxes. Through Awardco, we’ve been able to integrate multiple recognition touchpoints into one platform.
Maha Salem
Senior Manager, Rewards & Recognition, Dubai Airports
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.
Smiling woman with straight brown hair and glasses wearing a blue top against a blue and purple blurred background.
Hannah Fagan
Human Resource Leader
PMG
 
 
I really appreciate how myKudos [Awardco] offers different ‘classifications’ of shoutouts, so no matter how someone went above and beyond, there’s a way to recognize it. We work with some incredible people, and it’s important to celebrate them however we can.
Smiling young man with light brown hair and beard wearing a white checkered shirt against a dark background with circular wall decor.
Colby Green
Paid Social Senior Associate
Hertz
 
 
Awardco is not only a fantastic recognition solution but a fantastic technology solution that also provides recognition. Awardco has given us a level of confidence we didn't have before.
Annasuela Fritz
HR Projects and Recognition Manager
Crumbl
 
 
We're very deliberate in the culture that we built. It is a constant effort every day. We value integrity, innovation, and we have an awesome culture because of who we hire. We've got a huge team of really talented individuals. They need to know that they're looked up to, that what they do is impactful and it means a lot to those around them.
Smiling man with short brown hair and glasses wearing a black shirt on white background.
Bryce Redd
CTO
The Nest Schools
 
 
The best decision we made was switching from our previous platform to Awardco. The customer service is excellent, the features are amazing, and we LOVE that they take our ideas and make them happen. They are always looking at innovating, which is one of our core values. We are extremely satisfied with Awardco and everyone here at The Nest LOVES the program.
Sara Beer
Director of Core Values
Southern Oregon Head Start
 
 
If we retain a teacher, that’s 20 students we get to serve. Going from 45% turnover to 8% means we’ve kept 85–90 more staff. That’s an incredible impact on both our children and our budget.
Smiling woman with long black hair wearing a black and white striped turtleneck sweater against a plain light background.
Amber Lease
Human Resource Director
Lockton
 
 
From a business perspective, we use Awardco data to publicly highlight our people across internal platforms and LinkedIn. Most importantly, we accept nominations year-round for our big State of the Companies meeting, ensuring no standout moment goes unnoticed.
Smiling blonde woman with long hair wearing a red blazer and a black top with scalloped edges.
Mallory Pence
Marketing Manager
Children's Nebraska
 
 
Being a nurse, I know that oftentimes it's hard to keep coming back day after day. It often goes without recognition or gratitude, but Sunshine has given us the opportunity to empower our team and our leaders with the ability to recognize others. We're proud to have seen such high engagement from our team members submitting recognitions on the platform.
Madeline Quinn
Employee Experience Manager

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.