Awards & Core Values

Create spot, approval, jury, and incentive awards; link them to company core values; attach certificates; distribute in bulk; and revoke when needed.

Awards in Empuls are the primary mechanism for formal recognition. Each award combines a badge, an optional certificate, and an optional monetary value (reward points or physical merchandise). Manage them in your tenant at https://<your-empuls-url>/home/awards. As a Super Admin, you design the award structure once, and employees or managers give awards from that framework. This page walks you through creating award types, setting up core values, and managing the full award lifecycle.

Award types

Empuls supports four award configurations. Choose the one that matches how you want the recognition to flow through your organization.

Spot awards

Spot awards are for in-the-moment recognition. There is no approval step — the award giver selects a recipient, writes a citation, and the award is issued immediately.

Use spot awards when you want managers or peers to recognise contributions as they happen, without waiting for a review cycle. You can configure the point value as fixed (the same every time) or as a range (the giver chooses any amount within a minimum and maximum you define).

When to use: Everyday recognition, quick wins, values-based shout-outs.

Approval-based awards

Approval-based awards require one or more approvers to review and confirm a nomination before it is issued. This is appropriate for high-value awards tied to long-term goals or significant achievements.

You configure up to two levels of approvers. The first-level approver reviews the nomination and either approves it (sending it to the second level), declines it, or sends it back for the nominator to improve the citation. The final approver selects the budget and confirms.

You can also set approvals to auto-approve for a specific approver, which automatically issues the award as long as sufficient budget is available.

When to use: Manager-nominated awards, performance-based recognition, department-level programs.

Jury awards

Jury awards use a panel of evaluators instead of a single approver. This is available for the Enterprise tier — contact your account manager to enable it.

The flow has four stages:

1. Nominator submits a nomination with a justification and answers to any mandatory questions.
2. First-level reviewer screens nominations to remove duplicates or invalid entries.
3. Jury panel rates each approved nomination on a 10-point scale (or binary approve/decline). Each jury member reads the citation independently before rating.
4. Moderator reviews the jury ratings and approves the top nominations as winners.

When to use: Employee of the Year, Sales Champion, People’s Choice — any award where you want a transparent, multi-person evaluation.

Incentives

Incentive awards are goal-based. Rather than recognising a past behaviour, you publish a target, and eligible employees claim the reward after they complete the goal. Admins or approvers verify the evidence before issuing points.

Claim frequency can be set to daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, or once in a lifetime. Employees can self-nominate if you enable that option during setup.

When to use: Sales targets, learning certifications, compliance training completion, wellness challenge participation.

Create an award

Only Super Admins can create awards. The setup wizard guides you through all required steps.

1. Navigate to awards

   Go to the Admin Dashboard by clicking Reports and Admin in the left sidebar. Then navigate to Programs > Awards & Core Values and click Create Award.

2. Select the award type

   Choose one of the four types: Spot Award, Award that needs approval, Award that requires a Jury Panel’s review, or Incentive. The award type cannot be changed after creation.

3. Add award details

   Enter an Award Name and Description. Upload an image or select a badge from the template library (PNG or SVG, up to 5 MB). Choose the Recipient Type: individual, team, or flexible (the giver decides at the time of giving).

   For team awards, choose whether points are split equally among recipients or whether each member receives the full configured amount independently.

4. Configure the reward

   Choose how to reward recipients:

   • Reward points (fixed): The same number of points every time.
   • Reward points (range): The giver chooses a value between your defined minimum and maximum (spot awards only).
   • Products from the store: Select or create a merchandise or gift-card collection. Recipients receive physical products or branded gift cards instead of points.
   • Attach a certificate: Check this option to include a downloadable, branded certificate. See Configuring certificates below.

   You can combine points with a certificate.

5. Set eligibility rules

   Define who can nominate (Nominator eligibility), who can receive the award (Nominee eligibility), and — for approval-based awards — who can approve (Approver eligibility).

   Use filters such as department, location, designation, grade, business unit, or cost centre. Use AND when a person must match all conditions, and OR when matching any one condition is enough.

   For jury awards, click the pen icon to assign the First-Level Approver, the Jury panel members, and the Moderator.

6. Configure advanced settings

   The advanced section gives you fine-grained control:

   • Nomination questions: Add up to 20 multiple-choice or text questions for nominators to answer. Mark questions as mandatory and require file attachments as supporting evidence.
   • Citation input: If a mandatory public question is added, you can skip the separate citation field.
   • Nomination validity: Set a period (in days) after which pending nominations are automatically declined.
   • Self-nomination: Allow nominators to nominate themselves.
   • Notify stakeholders: Specify additional recipients (manager, HRBP, department head) who receive a notification when the award is issued.
   • Award visibility: Choose public (posted on the group feed) or private (only sender and recipient see it). You can optionally allow the giver to override visibility at the time of giving.
   • Information disclosed: Control whether the award giver’s name, citation, and award name/icon appear on the feed post.
   • Team size: Set a maximum team size (up to 50) for team awards.
7. Set up a reward budget

   After creating the award, assign a budget so givers have points to draw from. You have three options:

   • Link to an existing budget: Reuse a budget you’ve already created for another award.
   • Create an exclusive budget: A dedicated budget that can only be used for this award. Set a validity period if you want unspent points to expire.
   • Personal budget: Assign points directly to individual users, who then use them for any award.

   Assign points to specific users by name or by filter, preview the summary, and click Assign Reward Budget.

8. Confirm and create

   Click Confirm and Create to publish the award. The award immediately becomes visible to eligible nominators.

When an award is given, the recipient’s teammates receive email and push notifications, crowdsourcing congratulatory messages for the awardee.

Configuring certificates

Certificates are downloadable, branded PDFs that accompany an award. You can use a pre-designed template or create a custom one.

1. Design your template image

   Create a background image in A4 landscape format (1240×1754 px). Leave empty space where Empuls will overlay the dynamic content (name, award, citation, date).

2. Upload the certificate image

   In the award setup, check Attach Certificate and click + Add Certificate. Upload your image, then use the crop tool to adjust the position.

3. Customise the layout

   Select the text layout zone and choose the font colour.

4. Configure the certificate content

   Choose which information to include: award name, a pre-text, a body text, the nominator’s citation (up to 250 characters), the signatory (select a role or use the nominator’s name), and the date (use nomination date or approval date).

   You can also display the nominee’s metadata such as department, business unit, cost centre, or location.

If the primary signatory doesn’t exist for a given recipient, Empuls falls back to the default signatory you configure here.

Manage core values

Core value cards represent the principles and behaviours your organisation wants to reinforce. Employees can tag a core value when giving any recognition.

1. Navigate to core values

   Go to Programs > Awards & Core Values and click the Core Values tab.

2. Create a core value

   Click Add Core Value. Enter a Name (e.g., “Innovation”), Description (e.g., “For employees who propose or implement ideas with real impact”), and a Hashtag (e.g., #Innovation). Upload an icon image, crop it, and click Add.

3. Manage existing values

   Hover over any value card and click the three-dot menu to Edit, Disable, or Delete it. Disabling hides the value from the recognition flow without deleting any historical data.

Keep your core value list to 5–8 values. Fewer values drive stronger adoption. Use distinctive icons and hashtags so employees recognise them at a glance.

Bulk award distribution

You can give a spot award to a large group of employees at once using a CSV upload.

1. Open bulk awards

   Navigate to Programs > Awards & Core Values, hover over the award, click the three-dot icon, and select Send Award in Bulk.

2. Download and fill the template

   Download the sample CSV template. For range-based awards, include a separate column for the point value per recipient. Fill in employee details and point amounts.

3. Upload and select budget

   Upload the completed file, review the preview, select the budget from which points will be deducted, and confirm.

Edit or manage an award

To edit an award, navigate to Programs > Awards & Core Values, hover over the award, and click the edit icon. Make your changes and click Confirm and Update.

The award type cannot be changed after creation. If you need a different award type, disable the existing award and create a new one.

To disable, copy, or delete an award, hover over it and click the three-dot menu. When you disable an award, employees can no longer nominate for it, but all existing nominations remain active and can still be approved or declined.

Revoke an award

If reward points were issued in error, Super Admins can revoke them — as long as the recipient has not redeemed any of the associated points.

Direct revocation (Super Admin)

1. Navigate to Revoke Awards

   Go to Admin Dashboard > Programs > Revoke Awards.

2. Select a date range

   Use the date picker to filter awards given within a specific period.

3. Revoke the award

   Click the award you want to revoke, then click Revoke. Confirm the action. If the original nominator’s account is disabled, you can redirect the returned points to another user.

Raise a request (Nominator)

1. Go to Recognition History

   Navigate to Recognitions > Recognition History and find the nomination you want to revoke.

2. Submit revocation request

   Click the three-dot menu on the nomination and select Revoke Award. Enter a reason and click Submit. A Super Admin reviews the request.

When an award is revoked, the following happens automatically:

• Points are returned to the nominator’s budget.
• The feed post is removed.
• The award status is updated in reports.
• Both the nominator and the recipient receive a notification.

What's the difference between disabling and deleting an award?

Disabling stops new nominations but keeps all historical data intact, including pending approvals. Deleting removes the award from the interface, but past nominations and their approval status remain in reports and stay active until an approver takes action.

Can I create custom badge images?

Yes. Upload PNG or SVG files up to 5 MB, or choose from Empuls’s built-in template library.

Can I assign a range of points instead of a fixed value?

Yes, but only for spot awards. Set a minimum and maximum, and the nominator selects any value in that range when giving the award.

Can I use an award for teams as well as individuals?

Yes. Set the recipient type to Team or Flexible. For team awards, you configure whether points are split equally or whether each member receives the full value.

How do core values link to awards?

When giving any recognition, the nominator can tag one or more core values. This creates a connection between the specific award and the behaviours it reinforces, which you can track in recognition reports.

Related pages

Nominations

How to nominate colleagues and how approvers review nominations.

Milestones & service awards

Automate recognition for birthdays, anniversaries, and tenure milestones.

Gifts

Send occasion-based gifts manually, on a schedule, or automatically.

Leaderboard

Drive engagement with gamified scoring and milestone-based rewards.