If you've ever felt like your company's teams work in silos—each doing their own thing, barely talking to each other—you’re not alone. Real cross-team collaboration is tough, especially if everyone’s focused on their own deadlines. If you’re using Bonusly or thinking about it, you might wonder: Can recognition features actually help teams work together instead of just handing out virtual high-fives? Short answer: Yes, but only if you use them intentionally. Here’s how to make Bonusly recognition work for genuine collaboration, not just another feel-good app that gets ignored after a month.
Step 1: Set the Stage—Get Leadership Buy-In (and Be Direct About Why)
No recognition tool works if managers treat it as “yet another HR thing.” Before you even touch the settings, talk to your leadership team:
- Tell them the goal: “We want to break down silos and get teams working together on real problems. Recognition can help, but only if we’re all in.”
- Ask for visible participation: If managers and leads don’t use Bonusly, nobody else will. Simple as that.
- Make it about real work: Recognition isn’t about fluff—it’s about calling out when teams actually help each other hit goals or solve problems.
If your execs just want to “improve engagement metrics,” push back. Recognition is only worth the effort if it’s tied to something real.
Step 2: Tune Bonusly to Highlight Cross-Team Actions
By default, Bonusly lets anyone give points to anyone else for any reason. That’s fine, but if you want to boost cross-team collaboration, you’ll need to tweak how you use it:
Set Up Custom Recognition Tags (Hashtags)
- Create tags that make cross-team help visible: Examples:
#helpedmyteam,#crosscollab,#solvedtogether, or even project-specific ones. - Make them part of your workflow: Ask people to use these tags only when recognizing help from outside their own team.
Don’t Get Cute with Point Values
- If you want cross-team actions to stand out, make them worth more points than routine, intra-team thanks.
- But don’t go overboard—if everything’s “super valuable,” nothing is. Keep most points for regular stuff, give a bump for real cross-team impact.
Turn on Public Recognition
- Recognition only boosts collaboration if everyone can see it. Make sure public feeds (in Bonusly, Slack, Teams, etc.) are active.
- If this makes people uncomfortable, that’s a sign they need to see more examples of what to recognize. Give them scripts.
Pro Tip: Revisit your tags and point values every quarter. If people are gaming the system or just auto-tagging everything, reset expectations.
Step 3: Run (and Promote) Real Cross-Team Challenges
People need a reason to work with other teams. Just hoping they’ll start is wishful thinking. Use Bonusly to support actual collaboration projects:
Pick Real Projects, Not “Fun” Assignments
- Identify projects, launches, or problems that need more than one team to solve.
- Announce that cross-team contributions to these projects will be recognized (and tagged) in Bonusly.
Set a Timeframe
- Run a month-long “Collaboration Sprint,” for example, where recognition is focused on cross-team help.
- Don’t make it a one-off—schedule these sprints a couple times a year.
Make Recognition Part of Project Wrap-Ups
- At the end of a cross-team project, ask everyone to recognize someone from another team who made the biggest difference.
- This can be way more meaningful than the usual “thanks, everyone” emails.
What to Ignore: Don’t bother with forced “cross-team coffee chats” unless they actually lead to work. Recognition should follow real collaboration, not manufactured meetings.
Step 4: Give Examples and Coach People on What to Recognize
Most folks don’t naturally know how to spot “collaborative” behaviors, especially across teams. If you just say “recognize cross-team help,” you’ll get vague or generic thanks.
Share Concrete Examples
- “Thanks to @John from Finance for jumping in to help Engineering with budgeting on the new feature. #crosscollab”
- “@Maria in Support flagged a customer issue that helped Sales close a renewal. That’s what I call teamwork. #solvedtogether”
Encourage Specificity
- Recognition should name the project, the behavior, and the impact. “Helped out” isn’t enough.
Train Managers to Model This
- During team meetings, have managers call out great cross-team recognition moments.
- Ask managers to coach their reports: “That’s a great catch—make sure to recognize that in Bonusly.”
What Doesn’t Work: Blanket reminders (“Don’t forget to recognize colleagues!”) usually fall flat. Focus on stories and specifics.
Step 5: Watch for Pitfalls (and Course Correct Fast)
No tool is perfect. Here’s what to watch for with Bonusly:
Watch for “Recognition Cliques”
- Sometimes, the same people recognize each other over and over. If it’s always within one group, it’s not helping collaboration.
- Address it directly. Ask: “Who from another team made a difference for you this month?” If nobody can answer, there’s a problem.
Don’t Let It Become a Popularity Contest
- If people start recognizing only the most visible or vocal folks, quietly check in: Are quieter teams or behind-the-scenes roles getting left out?
- Use reporting features in Bonusly to spot gaps. If certain teams never get recognized, dig into why.
Don’t Automate Everything
- Avoid auto-recognition for routine tasks (“Thanks for sending the weekly report!”). Save Bonusly for real, meaningful help.
- If you see too much formulaic recognition, reset expectations at your next all-hands.
Keep Rewards Real
- If your rewards catalog is all mugs and mousepads, don’t expect anyone to care. Offer stuff people actually want—extra time off, good coffee, gift cards, etc.
Step 6: Measure What Matters (But Don’t Obsess)
You can track the number of cross-team recognitions, but don’t get lost in the numbers. What you really want:
- More people saying “I know who to ask for help outside my team.”
- Teams solving problems faster because they tap into each other’s expertise.
- Fewer “us vs. them” complaints.
Talk to people. Ask for stories. Use Bonusly stats as a starting point, not the whole picture.
Step 7: Keep It Going—But Keep It Simple
The biggest mistake? Over-engineering your recognition program. People can smell fake “culture-building” a mile away.
- Make recognition a natural part of how work gets done—not a big, separate campaign.
- Check in every quarter: Are people still using it? Is cross-team work actually getting easier?
- Tweak things as you go. If something feels forced, simplify.
Bottom line: Recognition tools like Bonusly can help break down silos, but only if you focus on real collaboration, not just surface-level praise. Start simple, make it about the work, and don’t be afraid to adjust as you learn what actually helps your teams help each other.
Now, go give credit where it’s due—and watch what happens when teams start working together for real.