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Employee rewards and recognition are powerful tools for driving engagement and retention. When employees feel appreciated, they perform at their best and stay committed to the company. A simple act of recognition can ignite higher morale, boost productivity, and inspire lasting loyalty, transforming your workforce from good to great.
Workhuman and Awardco are two of the biggest names in the employee recognition space, each offering solutions to help organizations recognize and reward their teams. Workhuman focuses on creating a human-centered approach, emphasizing social recognition and continuous feedback. Awardco, on the other hand, offers an extensive rewards marketplace that integrates with Amazon Business to provide employees with a broad range of reward options.
While both platforms offer strong features, there is another solution that might just edge out the competition. Enter Achievers — an all-in-one employee recognition and rewards platform designed to deliver impactful recognition experiences and drive engagement across your organization.
In this blog, we’ll explore how employee recognition drives engagement and retention, starting with a comparison of Workhuman and Awardco. We’ll break down their features and performance, then show how Achievers takes recognition to the next level. By the end, you’ll have the insights you need to choose the right platform that will truly transform your. In this blog, we’ll explore how employee recognition drives engagement and retention, starting with a comparison of Workhuman and Awardco. We’ll break down their features and performance, then show how Achievers takes recognition to the next level. By the end, you’ll have the insights you need to choose the right platform that will truly transform your employee recognition strategy.
Why employee rewards and recognition matter
Recognition is a crucial component in building a thriving organizational culture. When employees feel valued and appreciated, they’re more likely to perform at their best, stay committed to their roles, and build stronger connections with their teams. Effective recognition programs can also significantly reduce turnover rates, as employees are more likely to stay with companies where they feel recognized.
Statistics underscore the importance of recognition in the workplace: 90% of employees say recognition motivates them to work harder, and 92% are more likely to repeat actions they’ve been recognized for. When employees feel valued, they’re more likely to go above and beyond, driving both individual and team performance.
Incorporating consistent and meaningful rewards and recognition into your company’s culture doesn’t just boost morale — it fosters a positive environment that drives long-term success.
Workhuman overview
Source: https://www.workhuman.com/
Workhuman is renowned for its focus on recognition and its ability to integrate with various HR tools. The platform emphasizes creating a culture of appreciation in workplaces globally, with features designed to foster strong employee connections and engagement.
Pros
- Broad global reach that supports multinational teams.
- A strong focus on workplace culture, aiming to build environments where employees feel valued.
- Well-established customer base, making it a recognized name in the industry.
Cons
- High reward markup costs hinder the recipient’s experience.
- Complexity in implementation can lead to delayed rollouts or additional resource requirements.
- Limited support inclusivity, particularly with language availability and regional-specific challenges (e.g., support primarily based in Ireland, lacking adequate 24/7 multilingual options for regions like Quebec and Asia)
Awardco overview
Source: https://www.award.co/
Awardco takes a different approach by leveraging its integration with Amazon Business to provide flexible reward options. It markets itself as cost-effective and focuses on providing a vast catalog of rewards.
Pros
- Cost-effective solution, particularly appealing to organizations with budget constraints.
- Simple technology that makes it easy for employees to learn.
- A large rewards network, thanks to its partnership with Amazon Business, providing diverse and familiar options for employees.
Cons
- Inconsistent and limited customer support, with little strategic program guidance and an over-reliance on self-service help files.
- Fewer integration capabilities and no integrations with Workday.
- Reporting challenges, including inaccuracies in taxation compliance reporting, and difficulties in understanding employee redemption trends.
Feature-by-feature comparison
When evaluating employee recognition platforms, it’s essential to consider how they perform across key features that impact usability, effectiveness, and scalability. Awardco and Workhuman each offer strengths tailored to specific organizational needs, while Achievers provides a comprehensive solution that excels across all categories.
Below is a detailed comparison of these platforms:
Ease of use
Awardco’s emphasis on user-friendly design is appealing at first glance; however, its heavy reliance on self-service resources often leaves administrators and users without the support they need during critical moments. This can lead to frustration, especially for organizations that lack the internal expertise to navigate self-service platforms effectively. Workhuman, on the other hand, offers advanced tools designed to cater to enterprise-level organizations. However, these tools come with a steep learning curve, which can delay adoption and require significant training efforts.
Achievers sets itself apart with a truly intuitive platform that combines ease of use with dedicated onboarding and ongoing strategic support. From day one, administrators are equipped with expert guidance, making implementation smooth and efficient. The platform is designed to adapt to the needs of diverse teams, ensuring employees can seamlessly navigate its features without extensive training. Achievers’ proactive customer success team ensures that organizations not only adopt the platform but also achieve long-term engagement success.
Recognition options
Workhuman, while strong in its focus on recognition, often lacks the same breadth of options. Its reliance on a single dimension of recognition may not align with the diverse needs of all employees or the unique goals of organizations seeking comprehensive solutions. Awardco, meanwhile, focuses on transactional rewards through its partnership with Amazon Business. While convenient, this approach often fails to foster the deep emotional connections that drive sustained employee engagement. In contrast, Achievers goes beyond rewards to build lasting cultural impact through its robust recognition strategy.
Achievers excels in offering a comprehensive recognition ecosystem that fosters a culture of appreciation at every level of the organization. It blends real-time social recognition, milestone celebrations, and customizable performance-based personalized rewards into a single cohesive solution. This level of personalization ensures that recognition feels authentic and meaningful to employees, boosting their sense of value and belonging.
Integrations
Workhuman offers integration capabilities but often requires more customization and effort to fully implement. This can lead to delays or added costs for organizations that need quick, streamlined solutions. Awardco’s integrations, while functional, lack vendor certifications and the robustness and scalability that large enterprises require, making them less suitable for complex, multi-regional organizations. By contrast, Achievers stands out as a plug-and-play solution that works seamlessly within existing tech stacks.
Achievers’ integrations are unmatched in both depth and scalability. The platform offers seamless compatibility with leading HR tools like Workday — who we are the only Gold-Tier Innovation partner of — ADP, and SuccessFactors, ensuring that data flows effortlessly between systems. This creates a unified ecosystem where HR teams can manage recognition and rewards without duplication of effort or manual intervention.
Global reach
Workhuman, while strong in global reach, falls short in providing comprehensive language support, leaving certain regions underserved. For example, employees in Quebec or parts of Asia may struggle with limited support hours or language options, which can diminish the overall employee experience. Awardco faces even greater challenges, particularly with delays in delivering rewards outside of the U.S., creating frustration for global teams. Achievers eliminates these barriers, ensuring a consistent and seamless experience for employees worldwide.
Achievers provides true global coverage, setting the standard for international recognition programs. With multilingual support and equitable reward delivery across all regions, the platform ensures that every employee, regardless of location, can feel appreciated and included. Achievers goes the extra mile to ensure rewards are delivered on time and without delays, making it a reliable partner for multinational organizations.
Cost
Awardco markets itself as a cost-effective solution with predictable pricing, but organizations often discover hidden costs tied to customization, reporting limitations, or additional fees for accessing advanced functionality. These unexpected expenses can erode the platform’s initial affordability.
Workhuman’s pricing structure reflects its focus on enterprise customers, often resulting in higher upfront costs that may not be feasible for smaller or mid-sized organizations. The complexity of implementation can further increase total costs over time.
Achievers, by contrast, offers transparent and predictable pricing with no surprises. Organizations receive exceptional value through the platform’s comprehensive features, proven ROI, and unparalleled customer support. Achievers’ focus on delivering measurable outcomes ensures that every dollar invested drives meaningful engagement, making it the most cost-effective option in the long run.
The Achievers advantage
Achievers redefines employee rewards and recognition by offering a solution that is unmatched in scalability, customization, and employee impact, setting a new standard for what organizations should expect from their recognition programs.
Employee Experience Platform™
Achievers provides a unified and comprehensive platform that meets all recognition and rewards needs, offering far more than just basic tools. Its capabilities extend across:
- Real-time social recognition: Employees can celebrate each other’s contributions instantly, building a culture of appreciation.
- Milestone celebrations: Achievers allows organizations to recognize career and personal milestones in a personalized way, deepening emotional connections.
- Peer-to-peer rewards: The platform empowers employees to take part in creating a culture of recognition, enabling them to reward one another for great work.
- Customizable rewards marketplace: Achievers offers a global network of reward options tailored to meet the diverse preferences of employees worldwide, ensuring inclusivity and motivation.
Unlike Workhuman and Awardco, which emphasize either social or transactional recognition, Achievers seamlessly blends these elements into a single, intuitive platform that enhances both engagement and organizational culture.
Achievers Listen™
Achievers sets itself apart with Achievers Listen™, a tool designed to capture real-time feedback and actionable insights on employee engagement. This feature enables organizations to:
- Identify challenges quickly through employee feedback.
- Monitor engagement trends across teams and regions.
- Act on data-driven insights to improve organizational performance.
No competitor, including Workhuman or Awardco, provides the same depth of analytics and employee sentiment analysis. Achievers Listen™ ensures that feedback is not only collected but also translated into measurable improvements, making it a vital tool for companies aiming to create responsive and thriving workplaces.
Proven ROI
Achievers delivers measurable outcomes for organizations by driving engagement, improving culture, and streamlining operations. Success stories from industry leaders highlight Achievers’ transformative impact:
- Vistex: By leveraging Achievers, Vistex has decreased turnover by 22%.
- Wesley: Since implementing Achievers, Wesley’s Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) jumped 18 points, and the overall engagement index was up 19 points.
- Super Retail Group: In the first six months, SRG’s program generated 100,000+ recognition moments and saw a three-point increase in engagement surveys.
- ATB Financial: After implementing Achievers, ATB’s engagement scores rose from 68% to 91%.
These examples showcase how Achievers enables organizations to achieve real-world results that go beyond employee recognition, improving both business outcomes and workplace culture.
Global leadership
Achievers is designed for multinational organizations, offering unmatched global capabilities, including:
- 24/7 multilingual support: Unlike Workhuman and Awardco, which may face limitations in language and regional accessibility, Achievers ensures every employee feels valued, no matter their location.
- Equitable reward fulfillment: The platform guarantees timely and accurate delivery of rewards across all regions, eliminating logistical challenges and providing a consistent experience for employees worldwide.
- Scalability: Whether an organization operates in one country or across continents, Achievers adapts seamlessly to meet the needs of growing teams.
Recognition and accolades
Achievers is not only trusted by organizations globally but also recognized as a leader in the industry. Its achievements include:
- Gold Workday Partner status, affirming its seamless integration with Workday’s suite of HR tools.
- Recognition as a leader in the 2023 Reward and Recognition PEAK Matrix® Assessment by Everest Group, cementing its place at the forefront of innovation and excellence in employee recognition.
- Consistent customer feedback praising its ability to combine cutting-edge technology with unparalleled customer support, a testament to its dedication to helping organizations succeed.
By offering a comprehensive, scalable, and impactful solution, Achievers continues to lead the employee recognition and rewards space, proving that it is not just a platform but a partner in creating meaningful workplace transformations.
Which platform is right for you?
Selecting the right employee rewards and recognition platform is a pivotal decision that impacts organizational culture, employee engagement, and overall business performance. Both Workhuman and Awardco offer distinct advantages, making them valuable options depending on your company’s goals and priorities.
Workhuman shines in its ability to cultivate a workplace grounded in human connection. Its tools are designed to create moments of recognition that resonate deeply with employees, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal appreciation. Organizations that prioritize strengthening team dynamics and fostering personal connections may find Workhuman aligns well with their vision.
Awardco, by contrast, takes a pragmatic approach to employee rewards. With its streamlined platform and broad range of reward choices through its Amazon Business partnership, it caters to organizations seeking efficiency and flexibility in their recognition programs. This makes it a good option for teams looking to provide tangible, easily accessible rewards while maintaining a cost-conscious strategy.
However, for companies looking to go beyond the basics and implement a recognition strategy that drives meaningful cultural transformation, Achievers emerges as the ultimate solution. Achievers doesn’t just offer features — it builds a framework for sustained employee engagement by integrating recognition into the core of an organization’s operations.
Achievers empowers companies to not only recognize performance but also align their recognition strategies with broader business objectives. By fostering alignment between recognition and corporate values, Achievers ensures that every moment of appreciation contributes to a more cohesive and purpose-driven culture. It provides the tools to inspire innovation, boost employee morale, and foster a sense of shared achievement that extends beyond transactional rewards or isolated recognition events.
Ultimately, the best platform is the one that not only meets your current needs but also evolves with your organization. Achievers’ ability to adapt and scale, while embedding recognition into the DNA of the workplace, ensures it’s not just a solution for today but a partner for the future. If your vision extends beyond simple rewards to creating a culture of engagement and belonging, Achievers is the clear choice to help you achieve that goal.
Make the ultimate choice for employee recognition success
The right employee recognition platform can make all the difference in boosting engagement and shaping a thriving workplace culture. While Awardco, Workhuman, and Achievers each offer valuable features, Achievers stands out with its unmatched flexibility and customization. It empowers organizations to create deeply meaningful recognition experiences that inspire and motivate employees.
Ready to take your workplace to the next level? Discover how Achievers can transform your employee engagement strategy by requesting a demo today.
