Just managing our custom rewards felt like a full-time job with our previous vendor—it took all day every Friday. With Awardco, I don't have to do any of the manual fulfillment work anymore. I'm saving 6-8 hours a week, just managing orders.

It feels very good to get recognized. You put in so much hard work, and when someone acknowledges it, you feel appreciated and valued. I think that’s the key.

Feeling seen and feeling valued… That's one thing that keeps me going every day. We all try to strive for the best and try to help one another. We have a great management system here and everybody is seen and heard.

We've tied rewards to wellness in the sense that every year, we encourage our associates to go get their annual physical. If they show proof, they get points. It's another way to tie healthy lifestyles to what's important to us in the bank, making an impact with our associates.

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.

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.

Previously, every manager hand-wrote a message to their employees every six months thanking them for their hard work, and it was all tied in with the bonus distribution. It was very high-touch, very labor intensive, and we had the process down to a science. We liked the connections that formed between managers and employees as a result of this program, but after COVID-19 most of our workforce went remote. Our semi-annual tradition wasn't possible any longer, nor was it feasible.

I recently recognized a graduate trainee for leading a reverse mentoring panel during Learning Week. That acknowledgment boosted her confidence and showed that meaningful contributions can come from anyone, regardless of age, experience, or role.