Unlike many vendors in the recognition space, Motivosity believes in an employee driven culture which manifests itself in a product focused on peer to peer recognition and engagement versus the top down nature of most incumbent players in this space.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- Employees can access this system from their phones, desktop, and apps they are in at work such as Teams/Slack
- One platform that combines rewards, recognition, employee engagement, and more
- Built in reporting with insights around potential attrition, most recognized employees, managers that need coaching, etc.
CONS
- Only has dollar (not points) based rewards. Their research shows dollars is more effective, but many companies want points.
- Some users claimed sometimes it can be a bit buggy connecting to Slack to notify people that an appreciation came through.
- It would have broadened the number of gift card options for users to choose from.
- There could have been an easier way to integrate the software with swag stores. For now, you have to transfer funds to a card and then link that card with the swag store, which slows down a bit the process to cash in funds.
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Over 96% of employees use Motivosity’s system in a month. To us, that stat really says it all. Employee recognition solutions drive value when employees are actually engaged, and a 96% rate of engagement can only be achieved with a superior product.
The core workflow is that employees login, tag a colleague to be recognized, say why they are recognizing this person, connect it to a company value, choose how much they want to reward, and post. Other employees can now see this recognition, add to the dollar total, like, and comment. It’s simple, yet effective.
There are many small details their product team has implemented to create a seamless experience. For example, you can post comments to upcoming birthdays/work anniversaries and the comments don’t go live until the date of the celebration. This means once a month you can give kudos to all upcoming birthdays, without having to login each day. See below for more detail on features and functionality within the product.
As mentioned, this company has the philosophy that engagement and recognition should come from the bottom up, not from management down. This means the product is accessible to employees (they have a mobile app, slack/teams integrations, and it’s just simple to use with an interface that looks like a social network vs enterprise software). It also means that employees get money to reward one another, it’s not only coming from managers.
There are several virtuous feedback loops in this product that make it so successful. Each time an employee is recognized, they are encouraged to log in, see who recognized them, and then give their own recognition. This of course inspires newly recognized employees to come back and repeat the cycle.
In addition, their rewards are easy to use. They even launched a debit card recently (called the #Thanksmatters card) that allows employees to spend their rewards as cash wherever Visa is accepted. When you use your rewards, it reinforces the good vibes with your employer, and also leads to more recognizing! In fact, employees who have this debit card recognize colleagues at a 40% higher rate!
While Motivosity is a leader in the employee recognition and rewards space, it is also worth noting their other employee experience modules which have continued to grow as their product evolves. They have 1:1 management, surveys, eNPS, coaching, succession planning, manager scorecards, and all the reporting you’d expect from a modern HR solution.
Lastly, it’s important to note that Motivosity’s solution isn’t a heavy lift for HR teams. The average administrator spends just 43 minutes per month in this system. For a tool that can do so much to help with employee engagement, that is a high ROI investment!
We had used Motivosity to promote events in the community. We also used it to facilitate Employee Giving (i.e. Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico several years ago). During the pandemic, it was leveraged especially to lean into our Employee Resource Groups. We used it to focus on specific dates on the calendar, such as Veteran's Day, Juneteenth, and International Women's Day. We also used this platform to encourage Employees to take the Employee Experience Survey.
Clean Interface. Multi-faceted and easy-to-use
Our organization bought Motivosity as part of our strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility. A discovery from our Employee Experience survey showed that there was an interest in our employees who wanted to give back to the community.
The interface is easy to use. The benefits of the platform include multiple functions such as global connection and employee giving. I used this Motivosity for close to a year.
I don't have anything negative to see about Motivosity.
I would say that Motivosity offers multiple streams to help support Employee Engagement.
Executives should think about the company culture. Does the culture support employees taking on projects and missions for CSR projects? Also, from a Technical standpoint, is it easy to integrate with their current systems?
I would say Motivosity has made our needs, and it has stayed the same.
For-profit corporations and/or organizations with many employees.
Small non-profit companies with small margins.
Nectar
Nectar
Awardco
Awardco
Achievers
Achievers
C.A. Short Company
C.A. Short Company
Connecteam
Connecteam
KPMG, Bosch, Toyota, cotopaxi, WGU
Motivosity’s product is changing every time we see it! However, there are a few features that we feel help set it apart from other vendors:
- eNPS: Motivosity has a built in employee Net Promoter Score survey that goes out on the cadence you choose (we recommend quarterly). Scores above 30% are great, and you can pay employees to incentivize completions (usually $2/employee).
- Surveys: If you’re looking to do pulse surveys or generally understand employee engagement, you can do that through Motivosity.
- Lead: This tool has an entire suite for managers that includes 1:1 management, coaching, succession planning, manager scorecards and more.
- Org chart: You can visualize your organization within this tool. This is especially useful for smaller companies that don’t have an HRIS with similar functionality.
- Employee profiles: Employees each have their own profiles that lists what they do in the company, outside of work, and even a personality score. When you view another colleague’s profile, you immediately get a sense for who they are so that you can best collaborate with them.
- #Thanksmatter card: They recently launched a debit card that allows employees to spend rewards much more freely. As mentioned, employees who use this card recognize others at a 40% higher rate (when you use rewards, you are reminded to recognize!).
- Leaderboard: There is a leaderboard to show who is recognizing (not recognized) the most in the company.
- Analytics: There are many pre-built reports, our favorite is one that shows how different parts of the organization recognize one another.
- Employee awards: You can create awards for just about anything: who did the most sales calls, who can eat the most hot wings, who won the company foosball tournament.
- Customizable rewards: In your rewards shop you can include a wide range of rewards including gift cards, experiences, and company branded swag.
- Slack
- BambooHR
- WorkDay
- Okta
- Namify
- SSO
- Sharepoint
They also have an Open API for vendors to build on top of, and are constantly launching new integrations.
Motivosity's annual plans require a minimum annual spend of $3,000, with per-user rates no longer publicly available. Implementation support, starting at $1,000, includes 60 days of onboarding with a dedicated team, while setup, onboarding, and training are otherwise included at no additional cost. Modular add-ons like Peer-to-Peer Recognition, Spot Bonuses, Employee Spaces, and Surveys can be customized to suit specific company needs.
Movitosity works best for mid-market companies (100-3,000 employees) that are looking to elevate their employee experience to a new level.
Motivosity charges a one-time implementation fee, starting at $1,000. This includes 60 days of proactive onboarding support from a dedicated Implementation Manager, Customer Success Manager, and Technical Integrations Manager. While this is a paid service, the vendor does not charge extra for setup, training, or standard onboarding assistance beyond the initial fee.
If your organization uses an integrated HRIS, syncing employee data is straightforward. Otherwise, teams can upload data manually and maintain employee profiles on an ongoing basis.
The implementation process typically begins with a kickoff meeting. Smaller companies may complete onboarding independently, while larger customers receive hands-on support throughout the launch. Timelines vary based on company size and complexity, ranging from a few days to several weeks.
A few considerations to plan for before going live:
- Decide your monthly rewards budget (often $3–$5 per employee).
- Choose whether to offer custom rewards like swag, local perks, or mission-aligned incentives.
- Plan your internal rollout strategy, whether through a soft launch, all-hands meeting, or team event.
- Premium support is included with every product
- This includes self-help options such as help desk, help site, community site, and training videos that are constantly updated.
- Motivosity also include quarterly QBRs with a dedicated Customer Success representative for large customers.
Motivosity was founded by serial entrepreneur Scott Johnson who had previously built WorkFront, another HR Tech company that was sold to Adobe for $1.5 Billion.
The mission of the business is to make employees happier at work. You can see this in their product which is very much focused on employees vs administrators and managers (although it helps them too by having more engaged workforce!)
They definitely punch above their weight in terms of delivering a strong product that easily competes with the larger incumbents in this space like WorkHuman and OC Tanner. In addition, their broad mission means we are pretty sure we’ll keep seeing new product releases outside of their core recognition module that broaden their scope, and help push innovation in the employee experience category.
Company HQ
Lehi, UT, United States
Number of Employees
Motivosity has over 80 employees
Year Founded
2013
Amount Raised
Bootstrapped
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