With a business model that’s tied directly to program usage and a platform infused with AI-powered insights, Workhuman is positioning recognition as a source of truth for company culture, performance, and retention.
They’re not just building a product. They’re building a business case for recognition as a strategic lever.
What is Workhuman?
Workhuman is a global employee experience platform designed to help organizations build more human workplaces. What started as a social recognition solution has grown into a talent experience system that serves 7M+ users across 150+ countries, available in 40+ languages.
The company’s focus is helping employers use recognition as a cultural and performance driver, not just a feel-good program (though that’s nice, too). Their clients range from global enterprises to healthcare systems and manufacturers, all looking to embed recognition into the way they work.
How They Work
Workhuman operates on a true partnership model. Their pricing is tied to usage; no per-employee license. If recognition isn’t happening, Workhuman doesn’t get paid. That approach changes the relationship from software vendor to strategic ally. This aligns nicely with our recommendation on choosing a partner, not just a provider, for your organization’s technology.
Every client gets a dedicated account team (often before the contract is even signed) that helps with branding, rollout, change management, and ongoing program optimization.
The company blends tech + services to drive adoption and impact:
- Customer success team with 8-year average tenure
- 24/7 multilingual support
- AI tools like Recognition Advisor and Inclusion Advisor to guide giving behavior and reduce bias
They’re also building for scale: supporting deskless workforces, providing a robust global rewards marketplace, and actively curating experiences in addition to merchandise for employee redemption.
What They’re Focused On
Workhuman is tackling some of the most pressing challenges in HR today - retention, culture, connection, and performance - by reframing recognition as both a diagnostic tool and a strategic lever.
Recognition, in this context, isn’t just a moment of appreciation. It’s a signal—one that provides real-time insight into how employees are engaging, how culture is showing up in daily work, and where leadership behaviors are being modeled (or not).
Right now, Workhuman is focused on turning those signals into actionable intelligence by blending human data with the power of AI - what they call Human Intelligence™:
- Using recognition patterns to identify emerging leaders and internal innovators, helping organizations surface talent that might otherwise go unnoticed
- Analyzing message quality based on length, tone, specificity to assess not just whether recognition is happening, but how meaningful it is
- Detecting early indicators of burnout based on the language used in recognition moments, allowing HR teams to intervene before it shows up in absenteeism or turnover
- Highlighting gaps in participation to guide education and accountability efforts
- Connecting recognition activity to broader business metrics
By embedding these insights into the platform through tools, Workhuman is helping HR teams not only understand what’s happening, but why, and what to do next.
It’s a shift from measuring recognition quantity to understanding recognition quality and impact - and from a focus on transactions to one on transformation.
What’s Next
The product roadmap is headed deeper into intelligence and personalization:
- Culture Hub: Personalized homepage so employees can see what work is being recognized in their team and across the organization.
- Topics: Departments and teams can identify organizational qualities or initiatives for points of recognition so that employees and leaders can see real-time action toward business success.
- Reward Stories: Share meaningful moments of reward redemption so givers can see the outcome of their recognition efforts.
They’re also working on AI-driven features like:
- Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)
- Skills-based taxonomy layered into recognition data - check out this whitepaper from our friends at Mercer
What Stood Out
Perhaps the clearest signal of alignment: Workhuman’s success is directly tied to client adoption - they only generate revenue when the platform is actively used.
That kind of built-in accountability is rare, and it forces the company to stay invested in outcomes, not just contracts.
They’re also not just a recognition tool. In practice, Workhuman functions more like a cultural intelligence platform, helping HR teams understand where engagement is happening, what it looks like, and how to scale it.
And they’re one of the few vendors turning recognition into something that informs (not just reflects) what matters most to a business.
What This Means for HR
- Recognition as strategy: Not just a gesture of thanks, but a tool to identify what good looks like, spotlight it, and reinforce it.
- Insight over instinct: Recognition data becomes a lens for spotting patterns in performance, engagement, and even bias.
- Behavioral nudges at scale: With embedded AI and personalization, companies can shift culture one recognition moment at a time.
Workhuman is helping shift the conversation from "Are we doing recognition?" to "Is recognition helping us perform better?" And that’s a question every HR team should be asking.
Around the Campfire – Event Extras
The event had a very human feel (fitting, right?). Sessions were packed with insight, but so were the side conversations. This was especially true around what HR teams are really facing right now: burnout, broken connection, and a need for simplicity that still delivers results.
That’s something we’ll be exploring more in our Rewards & Recognition Category Guide, coming later this year.
Until then, if you're looking at recognition platforms, keep an eye not just on features, but on how they define success. If it’s aligned with yours, that’s a good start.
Special thanks to the Workhuman team, especially Jenna West, Erin McClintock, Becca Fredey, Grant Beckett, Sarah Whitman, Jesse Harriott, Alyssa Johnson for spending time with us and to Amanda Nipper and the team from Arkansas Children’s Hospital for sharing your Workhuman story.
