BambooHR / Case study 01
Recognition & Rewards
Powerful features for admins. Effortless engagement for everyone else.
The challenge
Recognition & Rewards had to serve two very different jobs. Admins needed control over eligibility, points, rewards, and automation. Employees needed a fast, natural way to recognize someone. The challenge was to minimize complexity on the admin side and remove friction from the employee side.
Context
Why it mattered.
Recognition was one of our most-requested features and a natural extension of BambooHR’s “better together” story. As the first HRIS to offer it natively, our goal went beyond competitive parity: create an exceptional experience for admins and employees.
My role
Where I led.
I led product design across both sides of the experience: the Admin information architecture and point-allocation model, plus the employee composer and AI-suggestion patterns. I partnered with product, engineering, research, and customers from discovery through launch and post-launch iteration.
PART ONE · THE ADMIN EXPERIENCE
Making a complex system understandable.
The Admin experience could not avoid complexity, but it could make that complexity navigable. I organized the system around clear decisions, progressive disclosure, and visible affordances so admins could understand what would happen before committing a change.
The approach
Turn evidence into direction.
- 01
Create a map before exposing controls
I organized the Admin hub into Recognition Settings, Rewards Settings, and Additional Features. Short descriptions and a single Edit or Set Up action made the system scannable while clarifying that recognition could operate without rewards.
- 02
Reveal complexity when it becomes relevant
Focused pages separate post behavior from eligibility, while sensible defaults include active employees and ask Admins to manage only exceptions. Point-allocation forms adapt after an Admin chooses a group, managers, or individuals.
- 03
Make consequences visible
Allocation summaries expose the affected population, recurring point total, and estimated cash value. Timing notes explain when changes take effect, helping Admins understand what will happen before they commit.
PART TWO · THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
Removing the blank-page problem.
Employees needed a lightweight social action, not another HR task. The core composer kept recipients, message, values, points, and privacy together. AI suggestions went further by identifying a relevant moment and giving the employee an editable starting point.
The employee experience
A timely suggestion made recognition easier to start.
Suggestions surfaced a person, reason, editable message, company value, and point amount. Employees could edit, send, or dismiss the suggestion, preserving authorship instead of automating appreciation invisibly.
56% increase in engagement after AI-suggested recognition was introduced
Early outcome
What happened next.
The 56% engagement increase was the clearest early signal: reducing the effort required to begin a recognition helped more employees participate. Post-launch customer conversations also led us to ship more granular point allocations and automated birthday and anniversary recognition.