Workhuman vs. Awardco: What’s the better employee rewards and recognition software?

Employee rewards and recognition are powerful drivers of engagement, productivity, and retention. When people feel valued, they do their best work — and stay longer. Two major players in the space, Workhuman and Awardco, offer distinct approaches: Workhuman emphasizes social recognition and continuous feedback, while Awardco integrates with Amazon Business to deliver a vast rewards marketplace.

Cue dramatic entrance music: enter Achievers — an all-in-one employee recognition and rewards platform designed to deliver meaningful recognition experiences and drive engagement at scale.

In this blog, we’ll explore how employee recognition fuels engagement and retention, starting with a comparison of Workhuman and Awardco, then show how Achievers takes recognition to the next level. By the end, you’ll have the insights you need to choose a platform that actually transforms your employee recognition strategy — not just adds another tab to your HR tech stack.

Deep dive: Workhuman

Workhuman is known for its focus on recognition and its ability to integrate with various HR tools. The platform emphasizes creating a culture of appreciation in workplaces globally, with features designed to foster strong employee connections and engagement.

Pros

• Broad global reach that supports multinational teams.
• A strong focus on workplace culture, aiming to build environments where employees feel valued.
• Well-established customer base, making it a recognized name in the industry.

Cons

• High reward markup costs hinder the recipient’s experience.
• Complexity in implementation can lead to delayed rollouts or additional resource requirements.
• Limited inclusivity support, especially in regions like Quebec and Asia, where language options and around-the-clock assistance fall short.

Best for

Organizations looking to foster a culture of appreciation through social recognition and have the resources to manage a more complex implementation. Workhuman is best suited for multinational companies prioritizing cultural alignment and workplace connection but may not be ideal for teams seeking budget transparency or seamless global support.

Deep dive: Awardco

Awardco takes a different approach by leveraging its integration with Amazon Business to provide flexible reward options. It markets itself as cost-effective and focuses on providing a vast catalog of rewards.

Pros

• Cost-effective solution, particularly appealing to organizations with budget constraints.
• Simple technology that makes it easy for employees to learn.
• A large rewards network, thanks to its partnership with Amazon Business, providing diverse and familiar options for employees.

Cons

• Inconsistent customer support and minimal strategic guidance, with an overreliance on self-serve help files.
• Fewer integration capabilities and no integrations with Workday.
• Reporting challenges, including inaccuracies in taxation compliance reporting, and difficulties in understanding employee redemption trends.

Best for

Awardco is best suited for companies that value cost savings and simplicity over advanced integrations or strategic partnerships. It works well for teams comfortable with self-service support but may fall short for enterprises needing robust reporting, compliance accuracy, or deeper platform scalability.

Feature-by-feature comparison

When evaluating employee recognition platforms, it’s essential to weigh how each one performs on the things that matter most — usability, scalability, and effectiveness. Awardco and Workhuman each offer strengths tailored to specific organizational needs, while Achievers provides a comprehensive solution that excels across all categories.

Below is a detailed comparison of these platforms:

Ease of use

Awardco’s interface is user-friendly but leans too heavily on self-service, leaving teams without strong internal support at a disadvantage. Workhuman delivers powerful tools but often demands dedicated training, slowing adoption. Achievers stands apart by combining intuitive design with proactive, strategic support. From onboarding to long-term engagement, its customer success team ensures organizations don’t just adopt the platform — they sustain meaningful, ongoing employee engagement with ease.

Recognition options

Workhuman emphasizes social recognition but lacks flexibility to meet diverse organizational needs, while Awardco’s Amazon-focused rewards skew transactional and miss the mark on building emotional connections. Achievers blends the best of both worlds — real-time recognition, milestone celebrations, and performance-based rewards — within a single platform. The result is an experience where employees feel genuinely valued, not just acknowledged, helping organizations foster deeper engagement and stronger cultural alignment.

Integrations

Workhuman offers integrations but often requires costly customization, while Awardco’s solutions lack certifications and scalability for complex enterprises. Achievers provides a true plug-and-play experience, delivering robust, certified integrations with leading HR systems like Workday, ADP, and SuccessFactors. Data flows seamlessly across the ecosystem, reducing duplication and manual effort, and enabling HR teams to streamline recognition and rewards within existing tech stacks. Achievers makes integration simple, scalable, and effective.

Global reach

Workhuman supports global teams but falls short in language coverage, leaving regions underserved. Awardco struggles even more, with slow international reward delivery frustrating employees abroad. Achievers excels with multilingual support, equitable access, and on-time reward fulfillment across regions. Every employee, no matter their location, feels appreciated and included. For multinational organizations, Achievers’ global reliability ensures recognition isn’t delayed or diluted but consistently meaningful worldwide.

Cost

Awardco positions itself as affordable but often hides costs in customization, reporting, and feature access. Workhuman targets enterprises with higher upfront pricing and added complexity that inflates total costs. Achievers delivers transparent, predictable pricing with no surprises. Its robust features, proven ROI, and unmatched support ensure exceptional value. Every dollar invested drives measurable outcomes, making Achievers not only cost-effective but the smarter long-term investment for organizations of all sizes.

The Achievers advantage

Achievers redefines employee rewards and recognition by offering a solution that is unmatched in scalability, customization, and employee impact, setting a new standard for what organizations should expect from their recognition programs.

Achievers provides a unified and comprehensive platform that meets all recognition and rewards needs, offering far more than just basic tools. Its capabilities extend across:

• Real-time social recognition: Employees can celebrate each other’s contributions instantly, building a culture of appreciation.
• Milestone celebrations: Achievers allows organizations to recognize career and personal milestones in a personalized way, deepening emotional connections.
• Peer-to-peer rewards: The platform empowers employees to take part in creating a culture of recognition, enabling them to reward one another for great work.
• Customizable rewards marketplace: Achievers offers a global network of reward options tailored to meet the diverse preferences of employees worldwide, ensuring inclusivity and motivation.

Unlike Workhuman and Awardco, which emphasize either social or transactional recognition, Achievers seamlessly blends these elements into a single, intuitive platform that enhances both engagement and organizational culture.

Proven ROI

Achievers delivers measurable outcomes for organizations by driving engagement, strengthening culture, and streamlining operations. Success stories from industry leaders highlight Achievers’ transformative impact:

• Vistex: By leveraging Achievers, Vistex has decreased turnover by 22%.
• Wesley: Since implementing Achievers, Wesley’s Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) jumped 18 points, and the overall engagement index was up 19 points.
• Super Retail Group: In the first six months, SRG’s program generated 100,000+ recognition moments and saw a three-point increase in engagement surveys.
• ATB Financial: After implementing Achievers, ATB’s engagement scores rose from 68% to 91%.

These examples showcase how Achievers enables organizations to achieve real-world results that go beyond employee recognition, improving both business outcomes and workplace culture.

Global leadership

Built for multinational organizations, Achievers offers unmatched global capabilities, including:

• 24/7 multilingual support: Unlike Workhuman and Awardco, which may face limitations in language and regional accessibility, Achievers ensures every employee feels valued, no matter their location.
• Equitable reward fulfillment: The platform guarantees timely and accurate delivery of rewards across all regions, eliminating logistical challenges and providing a consistent experience for employees worldwide.
• Scalability: Whether an organization operates in one country or across continents, Achievers adapts seamlessly to meet the needs of growing teams.

Recognition and accolades

Achievers is not only trusted by organizations globally but also recognized as a leader in the industry. Its achievements include:

• Achievers has the highest level of Workday Partner status, affirming its seamless integration with Workday’s suite of HR tools.
• Achievers ranked as a leader in Everest Group’s Rewards and Recognition (R&R) Solutions PEAK Matrix® assessment for the third Consecutive Time, cementing its place at the forefront of innovation and excellence in employee recognition.
• Consistent customer feedback (G2 rating of 4.7) praising its ability to combine cutting-edge technology with unparalleled customer support is a testament to its dedication to helping organizations succeed.

By offering a comprehensive, scalable, and impactful solution, Achievers continues to lead the employee recognition and rewards space, proving that it is not just a platform but a partner in creating meaningful workplace transformations.

Which platform is right for you?

Selecting the right employee rewards and recognition platform is a pivotal decision that impacts organizational culture, employee engagement, and overall business performance. Both Workhuman and Awardco offer distinct advantages, making them valuable options depending on your company’s goals and priorities.

Workhuman

Workhuman shines in its ability to cultivate a workplace grounded in human connection. Its tools are designed to create moments of recognition that resonate deeply with employees, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal appreciation. Organizations that prioritize strengthening team dynamics and fostering personal connections may find Workhuman aligns well with their vision.

Awardco

Awardco, by contrast, takes a pragmatic approach to employee rewards. With its streamlined platform and broad range of reward choices through its Amazon Business partnership, it caters to organizations seeking efficiency and flexibility in their recognition programs. This makes it a good option for teams looking to provide tangible, easily accessible rewards while maintaining a cost-conscious strategy.

Achievers: Driving cultural transformation

However, for companies looking to go beyond the basics and implement a recognition strategy that drives meaningful cultural transformation: Achievers emerges as the ultimate choice, with a category of its own. It’s not just feature-rich — it embeds recognition into the fabric of a company’s culture and core operations.

Achievers empowers companies to not only recognize performance but also align their recognition strategies with broader business objectives. By fostering alignment between recognition and corporate values, Achievers ensures that every moment of appreciation contributes to a more cohesive and purpose-driven culture. It provides the tools to inspire innovation, boost employee morale, and foster a sense of shared achievement that extends beyond transactional rewards or isolated recognition events.

Make the ultimate choice for employee recognition success

The right recognition platform drives more than appreciation — it fuels engagement, retention, and performance. While Awardco, Workhuman, and Achievers each offer valuable features, Achievers stands out with its unmatched flexibility and customization. It empowers organizations to create deeply meaningful recognition experiences that inspire and motivate employees.

If your vision extends beyond simple rewards to creating a culture of engagement and belonging, Achievers is the clear choice to help you achieve that goal.

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