Admin Essentials

Are you a new platform admin?  We’ve curated a list of all the right tools to successfully manage your organization’s Awardco platform. In this article, we’ll go over Awardco’s value and why reimaging recognition will change the culture of your workplace.. Below you’ll see quick summaries of the most important Awardco topics and accompanying links to articles that take a deeper dive on each subject. Because no two platforms are the same, there will be some variation in the guides you see here and the exact platform configuration you've decided on with your Implementation Consultant.

1. Why Awardco?
2. The Basics
3. Day-to-Day Administration
4. How the Money Works
5. Telling the Right Stories with Data
6. Staying Updated
7. Other Resources

Why Awardco?

Recognition is stuck in the 80’s with plaques that are gathering dust on desks and closets full of last year’s employee summit windbreakers. It’s time to reimagine recognition into something new—something that celebrates every employee, recognizes exceptional effort, and rewards incredible achievement. 

This is an easy way to remember how to reimagine recognition in your own organization: 

• Celebrate everyone. We’re all human, and all deserve to be celebrated just for that.
• Recognize achievement. Some go above the call of duty, and that deserves a shout out.
• Reward exemplary effort. When something is truly amazing, it should be rewarded. 

Reimagining recognition is about using your company values to foster purpose-driven achievement and effort in your employees. When that effort and those values are demonstrated by an employee, they need to be recognized for that and then rewarded. This leads to a cycle of showing, seeing, and feeling values in organizations, and the recognition pyramid we mentioned above is at the heart of it all as we celebrate, recognize, and reward the people around us. Every individual in your organization deserves to be celebrated simply because of who they are. And there are multiple ways to do that. Everyone has a birthday. Everyone has a work anniversary. Every company celebrates at least one holiday. And you know what else? Every organization has an employee appreciation day, whether they knew that already or not. 

The point here is that everybody deserves to be celebrated at work, and as we all strive to celebrate people just for being who they are, we’ll build that sense of community and belonging that every good organization needs. And just a small side note here, celebrating doesn’t have to be hard. You can automate it on Awardco's platform to make it almost a non-issue and take the busywork out of trying to remember every birthday or anniversary. 

Recognizing your high performers through recognition programs can help drive the behavior your organization's values promote. You can build all kinds of programs that can help with this, including sales incentives, wellness programs, work from home programs, referral programs, value spotlights, spot recognitions, and much more. Recognition should be as inclusive as possible. In other words, let everyone (peers AND leaders) participate in recognition programs to make sure you really get that special something out of your recognition efforts, and it will build that sense of self-esteem in your employees.

Now, we’ll show you the basics on how to recognize, your Awardco points of contact if you have questions, and explain basic platform terms. 

The Basics

How to Recognize

The Recognition Programs feature allows organizations to build recognition methods tailored to their unique needs. The recognition programs you see in your platform were configured in the implementation process and are accessible by going to the homepage and clicking "Recognize." In these programs you will follow the interface all the way through the process of selecting a recipient, selecting a program, and filling the recognition form to provide recognition details.

Your platform also has a feature called Bulk Recognize located in the user tab of the admin portal. This feature can be used to schedule awards for a later date or to load any number of awards for immediate or delayed distribution. Bulk Rec, as we like to call it, is a powerful yet complex tool. To ensure you fully understand this feature we like to schedule walkthroughs for Admins who are not familiar with the tool. To learn more about Bulk Rec, contact your Client Success Manager. 

While it is possible to adjust an employee's point balance in the user tab of the admin portal, this is discouraged. Doing so circumvents recognition reporting and will only display in the transactions report. Best practice is to award points through the Bulk Rec feature or an established recognition program. If you need to distribute an award that does not fit into an established program, work with your Client Success Manager to develop a program for this award type. 

Who Can Answer My Questions About Awardco? 

The roles of Client Success Manager, Account Executive, and Award Support Rep have been established to assist you in the administration of your platform. Their role in supporting your platform is as follows:

• Awardco Support
  • Awardco Support will be your first point of contact. They are available to assist you in tracking down fulfillment information and providing account access. If you or an employee has questions about order status, order returns, resetting a password, or anything like that—contact the Awardco support team. It's easiest to get a hold of them by clicking the blue "Chat" button in the bottom right of this (or any) screen. 
• Client Success Manager
  • Client Success Managers (CSM) are subject matter experts at Awardco and they act as our consultants. Questions about best practices or how to customize your platform for a specific business outcome can be directed towards our CSM's. CSMs are quick to respond and will work with you to quickly solve your platform questions.
• Account Executive
  • Your account executive is your Awardco products and pricing expert. Any questions you have about program expansion, licensing, or contracting can be directed to your Account Executive.
• Implementation Consultant
  • Implementation Consultants (ICons) are your guides through the implementation process. They are highly knowledgable and will ensure you're set up with your desired configurations. 

Awardco Jargon 

Here are some of the words you'll hear while you work with Awardco, matched with the context and definition you'll need to understand what's being said. 

• Bulk Recognize 
  • Bulk Recognize doesn't necessarily mean awarding a bunch of employees at once, it can also refer to the feature in the user tab of the admin portal.  
• User File
  • User file is the term we use to reference the employee roster file sent to us by secure drop off, SFTP, or API from your organization's HRIS/HRMS. This is the file that tells us who should have an account in your Awardco platform, and provides the identifying information for their account. Everything we do at Awardco relies on the integrity of this data. Consistency is key! Any changes made to the user file you send will be reflected in the platform.
• Metadata
  • Metadata is a set of data that describes and gives information about other data. Here's a quick example: let's say you want to be able to see where your employees are located when you pull reports from your Awardco platform. You will need a 'Location' metadata point in your user file for the platform to be able to link employee work location data with data generated by the platform. Work with your Client Success Manager or Implementation Consultant to configure metadata. 
• Recognition Programs
  • While there are many different ways recognitions are sent in your Awardco platform, the term Recognition Programs refers specifically to the programs contained in the "Recognize" tab. Programs that require a user to select a recipient and then a program fall under the Recognition Programs category. This could be a manager spot recognition program, a non-monetary high five program, a quarterly safety award, or anything else you can imagine. The term Recognition Programs does not refer to service, birthday, or onboarding automations. 
    See also: Using Multiple Recognition Programs
• Service Awards
  • In short, service awards are tenure or anniversary awards. Awards that are sent to employees to celebrate the time they've spent with your organization qualify as service awards. 
• Deliverables
  • This is a term that captures a wide range of items that are sent to your employees, primarily for service awards. Acrylic plaques, paper certificates, swag bags, commemorative packets, or celebratory tokens all live here under this umbrella. Deliverables are any item sent by Awardco to your employee to highlight and celebrate their anniversary with your organization. 
• Admin
  • The term "Admin" refers to a role in the platform which is the top level of platform access. Individuals designated as an Admin are usually relatively few and are most often a member of your HR team or executive leadership. 
• Company Store
  • Although your employees can redeem countless items from your customized redemption network, the term company store applies exclusively to items with your organization's branding on them. This includes, water bottles, t-shirts, hats, hoodies, and the like. 

Day-to-Day Administration

Your automated service awards are running themselves and orders are flying in. What's next? Here are some of the actions you can expect to help out with on any given day. 

Updating Employee Information—Including Password

As an Admin for your organization's Awardco platform, you have the ability to edit employee account information through the Admin portal. This information includes the following fields: profile picture, employee ID, first name, last name, role, username, email, password, language, hire date, birth date, and country. To edit or update any of these fields, navigate to the admin side of the platform and click the users tab. Search for the employee whose information you would like to edit and click on their name. Make your changes and click save. You can also refer to the article How to Change Employee Email, Password, and Username to view a step-by-step layout of this process with screenshots. 

Checking on Automated Awards

Sure, the Service Award automations are cruising, but how can you see that magic in action? Where do you go when you need to check on the status of an individual award? To see pending and completed awards, you need to go to the user tab in the admin portal and click on the bulk recognize function. In bulk recognize you will be able to see three tabs: pending, completed, and errors. The pending tab displays all upcoming awards that have been scheduled up until that point. Be aware that the award automations only schedule 30 days out. The completed tab shows all recognitions that have been processed by award automations or the bulk recognize feature. The errors tab shows any awards that have not processed due to error. The most common errors are "User is Archived" and "Insufficient Funds."

Unknown Errors

If you happen upon unknown error codes in the day-to-day administration of your platform, like the one below, don't hesitate to reach out to your Implementation Consultant or Client Success Manager. They have the visibility to look into the error code meaning and assist you.

How the Money Works

Adding a monetary incentive to your programs drives additional employee engagement and appreciation. Here's how you move money from the company account to your employees' pockets:

Funding Your Account

Please refer to the Funding Your Account article. This article will walk you through the specifics onsetup, invoicing timelines and methods, and the basic terms and conditions associated with billings from Awardco. Each available funding method is explained there. If you're unsure of which billing method you were set up on, contact your Client Success Manager. 

Adding Points

In the Admin portal you will see a dollar bill icon with a plus sign, just to the left of your name in the top right corner of the screen. Click this icon to be taken to the funding page. On this page you can see the full history of point addition to your platform. Here you will also see a button labeled "Add Points." Click this and fill out the form in the window that pops up. Enter the funds you would like to add and be sure to include a note. This will be an incredible help in the future if you ever need to look back at the points added and need to remember why they were added. 

Managing Budgets

Once funds have been added to the account, you're ready to distribute to budgets. To keep your organization running smoothly, you will need to understand how to create, refill, and archive budgets. Our article Managing Budgets provides a step-by-step walkthrough that will clearly explain the budget management process.

Understanding how the money works in the platform can be tricky for first time users. If you are left with questions after reviewing these guides, schedule a walkthrough with your Client Success Manager for an in-depth, platform specific review.  

Telling the Right Stories with Data

Your systems are running and the recognitions are churning out. How do you see employee engagement, what you're spending, and most importantly, what actions are being celebrated in your organization? Here are six reports that house the most important information. 

Awarded vs. Redeemed

The Awarded vs. Redeemed report shows you a summary of the monetary value each employee has received from recognitions and how much of that amount they have spent on point redemptions. This report is helpful in calculating the current point balance in each employees' account. If you utilize metadata in your employee file, you will be able to use the data summarized here to identify usage trends across the organization. 

See also: Report: Awarded vs. Redeemed

Last Login

The last login report keeps a log of the last time each employee logged into the Awardco platform. This report is one of the main reports you will use to assess employee engagement. Calculate annual, quarterly, and monthly login rates, or use the report to identify larger trends. Does login activity spike after an email about celebrating success is sent to the organization? Use this report to track all of that information. 

See also: Report: Last Login

Recognition Details

Recognition details is where you will see each individual recognition sent by your organization laid out line by line. If you're looking for a specific recognition that was sent two years ago or if you want to examine how the platform is being utilized by different departments, you will be able to find all of that in this report. Just remember, configuring your metadata with your Awardco Client Success Manager will enable you to get the most out of this powerful report. 

See also: Report: Recognition Details

Recognition Status

If the recognition programs in your platform utilize the approval feature, the recognition status report is your place to see where any given recognition stands in the approvals process. 

In certain recognition program types, you may have additional questions listed in the form for recognition submission. (For example, you may ask for a reason for recognition, how the recognition impacted the submitter's team, and if you would like the recipient to be considered for an employee of the month award.) In cases where you have configured multiple questions for a recognition, the "Reason for Recognition" will be listed with the recognition in the feed and responses to any additional questions will be listed in this report. 

This report also logs deleted recognitions. 

Redemption Details

For accounting teams sifting through company spend in the Awardco platform, the redemption details report just might overtake their trusty TI-86 calculator in the rankings of their favorite workplace proximity associates. In this report you will see every redemption of points in the platform placed next to any metadata linked to the redeeming employee. If you're curious about how much was redeemed in the platform last quarter, if your employees prefer redeeming points for gift cards or Amazon products, or if you really want to dive into redemption trends based on your metadata fields, the Redemption Details report is your one-stop shop.

See also: Report: Redemption Details 

Transactions

The transactions report is your platform ledger. Every time money moves in the platform, be it from funding a budget, sending an award, or refunding points, the transactions report is taking notes. Whenever you have a question about an award being sent or points being spent that can't be answered by the recognition and redemption details reports, the transaction report is the next place to check. 

See also: Report: Transactions

Visit our Reports Section in the Admin Guides to view additional information on the topic.

Staying Updated

The Awardco platform is always growing and evolving. Keeping up to date with Awardco is one of the most important things you can do as a system administrator. There are a few way to do this, as listed below. 

The Awardco Minute & Monthly

Periodically the Awardco team will send a newsletter directly to your inbox with a quick summary of what has happened at Awardco over the last few weeks. You are automatically signed up for the Awardco Minute as soon as you become an Admin. Check out admin tips, exceptional blog posts, new feature releases, policy changes, and more highlighted in this quick snapshot. Be sure to read through these emails as soon as they come in. If you're interested in implementing something you read about, contact your Client Success Manager to begin the process. 

New Articles on the Awardco Support Landing Page

At the bottom of the main page at support.awardco.com, there is a section that highlights newly released articles and features. Check this section to see new content as it is published. 

Social Media

Ready to interact with the Awardco team? Awardco brings updates to you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Follow along for easy updates on the happenings at Awardco. 

Ask Your Client Success Manager

Your Client Success Manager is your Awardco product expert you can utilize as a resource for staying up to date on recent releases. Set up a call or shoot them an email to discuss your evolving organizational needs and what Awardco can do to accommodate your goals. 

Other Resources

While not everything fits neatly into the sections above, we think these last few topics are just as important. Here are a few articles we think are well worth your time as you continue developing your understanding of how your platform with Awardco operates. 

Tax Incentivized Tenure Programs

Popular Articles for Non-Admin Users

Review Industry Best Practices in the Awardco Blog

Employee Support FAQ

Welcome to Awardco! 

If you have any questions, please contact our Awardco Support Team.