At Meks, we are a company that builds awesome WordPress products. We are also a team that values each employee. Recognition and appreciation are crucial for a positive and engaged team culture. We realised the importance of enhancing employee recognition, and given that most of our communication happens on Slack, we discovered a Slack bot called Sweet Kudos.
Sweet Kudos has an adorable logo and works wonders to boost team recognition.
Challenges Before Sweet Kudos
Before Sweet Kudos, our team faced challenges with employee recognition and morale:
- There were a lot of inconsistent ways of acknowledging achievements
- There was a lack of transparency around who was being recognised and why
- Missed opportunities to celebrate small wins and milestones. Sorry, everyone!
- Employees feeling undervalued and disconnected from the company’s mission
- We had a rewards program from the Stone Age – kudos to Excel, but it’s 2024, and Elon is sending rockets into space.
Our team was doing incredible work, but we weren’t doing enough to make them feel appreciated – said Danijel Gajan, our Co-founder.
As a remote team using Slack, we sought an easy solution to integrate into our daily routine.
Implementing Sweet Kudos
After evaluating several apps, we tried Sweet Kudos. This recognition bot for Slack made it easy to celebrate achievements and foster a culture of appreciation.
Our team embraced Sweet Kudos and its key features:
- Peer-to-Peer Recognition: Employees could recognise colleagues with customisable messages and custom emojis.
- Leaderboards and Achievements: Transparent leaderboards motivated the team.
- Rewards System: Employees can redeem their earned kudos for tangible rewards, and team leaders can create all kinds of rewards—all inside Slack.
- Analytics and Reporting: Our leadership gained valuable insights into recognition trends.
- Birthday bot and work anniversary bot – free of charge and combined with a Kudos giving mindset
Features that we love
Giving Kudos and Customizability
The ability to personalise Sweet Kudos is a nice feature. Our team loves the emojis’ fun, visual aspect and the leaderboards’ friendly competition. Knowing they have a set number of kudos to give each day motivates people to look for recognition opportunities.
Here is how to use this little cute Slack bot:
As our team grows, we plan to continue leveraging Sweet Kudos’ flexibility to strengthen our appreciation culture. We’re excited to see how the kudos economy grows and changes over time. Sweet Kudos has become an integral part of our team’s identity, and we’re proud to have a tool that evolves with us.
Slack Birthday Bot
We also appreciated the birthday bot feature, making adding each team member’s birthday easy. When the date arrives, the Sweet Kudos bot manages the celebrations, allowing team members to give Kudos as part of the festivities. The best part? The birthday bot is included at no extra cost — no additional pricing for this cool feature.
The Impact of Sweet Kudos Bot for Slack
Within a few months of implementing Sweet Kudos, we began to see a remarkable transformation in our team culture:
- Employee recognition increased by over 330%, with team members acknowledging each other’s contributions—and yes, we still use the good old pat on the back when we are in the office.
- Morale improved as employees felt more valued and connected to the company’s mission.
- Productivity increased as the team cooperated to earn kudos and climb the leaderboard.
- Retention improved as employees felt a stronger sense of belonging and appreciation.
- Things and tasks are somewhat gamified. Team members strive to recognise each other and claim rewards team leaders create.
- Sweet Kudost is an excellent alternative to Slack bots like HeyTaco, Matter, Karma Bot or Donut.
Sweet Kudos has been a game-changer for us – said Dusan. “It’s not a tool – it’s a catalyst for building a workplace where people thrive. We’re proud to see its positive impact on our team.”
We’ve also saved time planning team-building activities and parties using Sweet Kudos. Now, we can create team-building activities as rewards and team members can participate by redeeming their kudos—so the team culture decides what is best for the team.
We have cultivated an inspiring workplace culture by embracing employee recognition and appreciation.
Sweet Kudos has a fair pricing model: You only pay for users added to a Slack channel that includes the Sweet Kudos bot.
This Slack Bot is free for up to 10 users added to the channel where Sweet Kudos is active. You can use a Free plan to try it and see how your team spirit will grow.