Remote teams miss out on those quick “nice job!” moments you get in an office. If you’re using Bonusly, you’re probably looking for a way to make recognition less of a chore and more of a habit—without adding a bunch of meetings or busywork. This guide is for team leads, HR folks, or anyone who wants to set up automatic, meaningful recognition in Bonusly that actually works for remote teams (not just looks good in a demo).
Let’s cut through the fluff and set up workflows that do what they promise: make people feel seen, without you needing to play cheerleader all day.
Step 1: Get Clear on What Automated Recognition Actually Means
Before you start wiring up integrations or copying someone else’s “template,” pause and ask what you’re automating—and why.
A good automated recognition workflow in Bonusly should:
- Save time on routine, predictable recognition (think: work anniversaries, birthdays, hitting monthly targets).
- Nudge people to give genuine, specific praise—not spammy “good job!”s.
- Make sure nobody falls through the cracks, especially in a remote setup.
What it’s not:
It’s not a replacement for direct, human recognition. Automation should fill gaps, not make everything robotic.
Pro tip:
Don’t automate everything. If everyone gets a generic “Congrats on 1 year!” post, it loses meaning fast.
Step 2: Audit What Recognition Already Happens (and What’s Missing)
Before building anything, look at your current recognition habits. This isn’t busywork—it’ll stop you from just automating noise.
- Review Bonusly data: Who’s getting recognized? For what? Is it always the same “top performers”? Are any teams left out?
- Talk to your team: Ask what makes recognition feel real to them. (A two-question survey works.)
- Spot the gaps: Are birthdays missed? Are remote folks ignored while office folks get all the love? Does recognition only happen at the end of big projects?
Why this matters:
Automating a bad process just gives you more of the bad. Know what’s working (and what’s not) before you double down.
Step 3: Map Out What You Want to Automate (and What You Don’t)
You can automate a lot with Bonusly, but more isn’t always better. Here’s what’s worth automating for most remote teams:
Good candidates for automation: - Work anniversaries and birthdays - Project or goal completions that can be tracked in other tools (like Jira, Asana, or Salesforce) - Monthly reminders to managers to recognize their reports - “Welcome” moments for new hires - Nudges for people who haven’t given (or received) recognition in a while
Things to skip (or do manually): - Recognition for creative or one-off achievements - Anything that requires context or a human touch - Just flooding the feed with generic praise
Pro tip:
Start with one or two automations. You can always add more later, but it’s hard to dial back spam once it’s out there.
Step 4: Prep Your Data (The Unsexy, But Necessary Part)
Automated workflows are only as good as your data. If your people directory is messy, your automations will be too.
- Check your HRIS integration: Is Bonusly pulling birthdays, start dates, and reporting lines from your HR system? If not, fix that first.
- Clean up user info: Make sure everyone’s info is up-to-date. Double-check for duplicates, missing birthdays, or old accounts.
- Set up groups or teams: If you want to automate recognition by department or project, make sure those groups exist in Bonusly.
Reality check:
Bad data = awkward moments. (Like congratulating someone for a work anniversary… after they’ve left.)
Step 5: Set Up Built-In Automations in Bonusly
Bonusly has a few automations out of the box. Use these first—they’re simple and don’t require outside tools.
Work Anniversaries & Birthdays
- Go to Admin > Automation in Bonusly.
- Toggle on Anniversary Recognition and Birthday Recognition.
- Customize the messages if you want. The default is fine, but a little personality helps.
- Decide who the recognition comes from (manager, system, or a teammate).
Be careful:
Personalize, but don’t overdo it. If everyone gets the same joke, it stops being funny after the third time.
Recognition Reminders
- Enable Recognition Reminders for managers or all users.
- Pick how often reminders go out (weekly, monthly, custom).
- Keep reminders short and actionable (“Recognize someone you haven’t yet this month”).
Step 6: Use Integrations and Webhooks for Deeper Automation
If you want to go beyond birthdays, you’ll need integrations. Bonusly plays nicely with tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and more.
Slack/Microsoft Teams
- Connect Bonusly to your chat tool via Integrations in the admin panel.
- Set up automated posting of recognitions to a specific channel.
- Optionally, use workflows (Slack Workflow Builder or Power Automate) to trigger recognition when, say, a project is completed or a ticket is closed.
Pro tip:
Don’t auto-post every single recognition to your main channel. It quickly becomes noise.
Zapier or Make (for Custom Triggers)
- Use Zapier to connect Bonusly to tools like Asana, Jira, Trello, or Google Sheets.
- Example: When a task is marked “Done” in Asana, trigger a Bonusly recognition to the assignee.
- Build in filters—don’t recognize every tiny task, only major milestones.
How to set it up: 1. In Zapier, create a new Zap. 2. Choose your trigger app (e.g., Asana: Task Completed). 3. Add a filter step to limit which tasks trigger recognition (e.g., only if “Milestone” tag is present). 4. Action: Send recognition in Bonusly, using a dynamic message. 5. Test it—don’t skip this.
Webhooks/API (Advanced)
- If you’ve got a developer handy, you can use Bonusly’s API to trigger recognitions from your own systems.
- Useful for more complex workflows (e.g., auto-recognize sales reps from closed deals, or engineers who close high-priority bugs).
- Documentation is decent, but don’t expect hand-holding.
Honest take:
Integrations can be powerful, but they break easily when tools or data change. Keep it simple unless you have someone technical to maintain them.
Step 7: Test Before Rolling Out
Nothing tanks trust in automation faster than a bot that screws up.
- Run every automation in a test environment, or at least with a small pilot group.
- Double-check message wording, timing, and who the recognition appears to come from.
- Watch out for timezone weirdness—especially with remote teams across continents.
Pro tip:
Ask a few trusted team members to “break” your workflow. They’ll find things you missed.
Step 8: Announce, Launch, and Collect Feedback
Don’t just flip the switch and hope for the best.
- Tell your team what’s automated (and what’s not)—be clear that real, human recognition is still expected.
- Give people a way to give feedback if something feels off or annoying.
- Keep an eye on recognition stats over the first month. Are people feeling more appreciated, or is it just more noise?
What to ignore:
Don’t obsess over “engagement scores” in the first week. Focus on whether recognition feels more natural and less like a checkbox.
Step 9: Review, Adjust, and Don’t Set-and-Forget
Automated workflows need tuning.
- Review what’s working (and what’s not) every quarter.
- Kill automations that add noise or feel fake.
- Ask for honest feedback—privately if needed.
Reality check:
Recognition is a moving target, especially with remote teams. What works now might get stale fast.
Keep It Simple (and Human)
Automating recognition in Bonusly shouldn’t turn your team into robots congratulating other robots. Start with the basics, see what actually helps, and tweak as you go. The best workflows are the ones nobody notices—they just make people feel good, quietly and reliably.
Don’t overthink it: automate the boring stuff, leave the meaningful praise to humans, and always be ready to tweak or turn off what isn’t working. That’s how you make recognition work for remote teams—without all the hype.