If you’re in HR, people ops, or just the unlucky soul told to “find out if our team is engaged,” you’ve probably stared at Bonusly reports and wondered what’s actually worth your time. This guide is for anyone who wants real, actionable answers from Bonusly’s dashboards—without drowning in numbers or chasing vanity metrics.
Let’s cut through the noise and get to what matters.
1. Understand What Bonusly Actually Measures (and What It Doesn’t)
First, a reality check: Bonusly is good at measuring peer-to-peer recognition. That’s not the same as “employee engagement” in the broad sense. Here’s what you are getting:
- Recognition frequency: How often people give and receive recognition.
- Who’s recognized: Patterns and gaps in who gets noticed.
- Participation: Who’s using Bonusly, and who’s not.
- Themes: What values or behaviors are being called out.
But here’s what you aren’t getting (at least, not directly):
- Job satisfaction
- Burnout risk
- Quiet quitting
- Why someone’s disengaged
So use Bonusly reports to spot recognition patterns. Don’t pretend they’re the full story on engagement.
2. Get Your Data House in Order
Before jumping into analysis, make sure your Bonusly data isn’t garbage-in, garbage-out. Here’s what to check:
- User list: Is everyone in Bonusly actually still at the company?
- Departments/teams: Are users tagged correctly? Otherwise, team-level reports are useless.
- Values/tags: If you use custom values or hashtags, make sure folks know what they mean—and use them consistently.
Pro tip: Download a full user list and cross-check with your HR system once a quarter. It’s boring, but it’ll save you from misleading results later.
3. Start with the Basics: Participation Metrics
Most Bonusly dashboards put “Participation Rate” front and center. This just means: what % of your team is giving recognition in a given period.
- Look for:
- Overall participation rate (aim for 75%+ as a decent benchmark).
- Breakdown by department, location, or manager.
-
People who never give or receive recognition.
-
What it shows:
- High participation = people are using the tool.
-
Low participation = possible issues: lack of awareness, tool fatigue, or a cultural mismatch.
-
What to ignore:
- Don’t obsess over 100% participation. Some roles/teams just won’t engage as much (think: IT night shift). Aim for healthy, not perfect.
4. Dig Into Recognition Patterns (Who, What, and How)
This is where you start finding stories in the data:
- Who gives the most recognition?
- Are managers leading by example, or is it just a handful of super-users?
-
Is recognition top-down, bottom-up, or peer-to-peer?
-
Who gets recognized the most (and least)?
- Are there teams or individuals who never get a shout-out?
-
Is it always the same people getting noticed, or is it spread around?
-
What gets recognized?
- Check the most-used values or hashtags.
- Are people actually calling out your core values, or just “thanks for the help”?
How to use this: - If recognition is lopsided, dig into why. Maybe some teams don’t know how to use Bonusly, or maybe there’s a culture issue. - If nobody’s using your company values in recognition, they may not mean much to your team. Time to revisit or retrain.
5. Use Time Trends to Spot Shifts Early
Don’t just look at one month—Bonusly lets you track trends over time. Here’s what to look for:
- Sudden drops in participation: Did engagement tank after layoffs, reorgs, or policy changes?
- Seasonal dips: Expect summer and holiday slow-downs. Ignore them.
- Growth in certain teams: Did a new manager join? Did a team start a recognition push?
What works: - Use 3-6 month rolling averages for a clearer picture. - Annotate big company events (mergers, launches) in your own notes. Bonusly doesn’t track context, so you’ll need to.
6. Check for Recognition Inequality
Here’s the ugly truth: some folks get ignored. Bonusly’s reporting can help you spot it:
- Look for:
- Employees who receive zero recognition over a month or quarter.
- Teams that are black holes (nobody gives/gets anything).
-
Gender or location patterns (if you track this, and it’s ethical/legal to do so).
-
What to do:
- Don’t call people out publicly. Instead, use this as a nudge for managers: “Hey, noticed some folks haven’t been recognized lately—anything going on?”
- If a whole team is disengaged, talk to their leader. Maybe the tool isn’t resonating, or there’s deeper trouble.
Ignore: Average points per user. It’s easy to game, and doesn’t tell you much about real impact.
7. Don’t Get Distracted by Vanity Metrics
Not every number matters:
- Total points given: This just reflects your monthly allowance. Not meaningful unless your program is wildly under- or over-used.
- Top gif/meme usage: Fun, but not actionable.
- Most recognized “value” if everyone just clicks the first one: Garbage in.
Focus on patterns, gaps, and trends—not the leaderboard.
8. Turn Insights Into Action
Data’s useless if you don’t do anything with it. Here’s how to make Bonusly reporting actually drive engagement:
- Share wins, not just stats: “Hey, our engineering team is giving 30% more recognition this quarter—what changed?”
- Spot and support the quiet corners: If a team’s engagement is low, offer targeted training or ask what’s not clicking.
- Revisit your values: If nobody recognizes “customer obsession,” maybe the value isn’t clear—or isn’t real.
- Reward healthy behavior: Publicly shout out teams or leaders who use Bonusly well, but don’t turn it into a competition.
Pro tip: Don’t weaponize the data. Use it to ask questions, not hand out grades.
9. Use Exports for Deeper Analysis (If You Care Enough)
Bonusly’s built-in dashboards are fine for surface-level insights, but if you want to slice and dice more:
- Export data to CSV: You can pull raw data and analyze in Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools.
- Look for:
- Cross-team flows (e.g., does sales recognize support, or just themselves?)
- Lagging indicators (do new hires get recognized in their first 90 days?)
- Custom filters (see if remote vs. in-office teams engage differently)
If you’re not a spreadsheet nerd, don’t bother. But if you are, there’s more insight hiding in the raw data than the default charts.
10. Keep It Simple and Iterate
Don’t overthink it. Bonusly is a pulse check, not a polygraph. Use the tool to:
- Spot obvious gaps
- Celebrate what’s working
- Ask better questions
You don’t need a six-month project plan or a 50-slide deck. Start with one or two metrics, share what you see, and adjust as you go. Engagement isn’t a one-and-done deal—and neither is your analysis.
Bottom line: Bonusly reports can give you a window into employee recognition patterns, but don’t treat them as gospel on engagement. Clean up your data, focus on trends over time, ignore the fluff, and use what you find to make real conversations happen. Keep it simple, stay skeptical, and remember: the best engagement metric is what your team tells you, not just what a dashboard spits out.