What Are Incentives
Explains what incentives are in PraisePal, the different types available, how they differ from peer recognition, and when to use them.
Incentives
Incentives are a type of program in PraisePal. They let admins award points directly to a group of people — outside the normal peer-to-peer recognition flow. They're useful for moments that don't fit into everyday recognition: onboarding rewards, project completion bonuses, company milestones, or seasonal appreciation.
What incentives are
An incentive is an admin-created action that grants a set number of points to a defined audience. Unlike peer recognition, where individuals send points to each other from their monthly allowance, an incentive delivers points from the admin directly — no allowance needed on the recipient's side.
There are several types of incentive, each suited to different situations:
Today, one-off incentives are available. Claim-based and nomination-based types are coming soon.
Why incentives exist
Peer recognition works well for ongoing, bottom-up appreciation. But some moments call for something more deliberate — a top-down gesture from leadership or People Ops that acknowledges a specific group all at once.
Without incentives, admins would need to manually adjust individual point balances or ask managers to send recognitions one by one. Incentives solve that by wrapping the whole action into a single, trackable event: define the audience, set the reward, and execute when ready.
They also give admins better visibility. A completed incentive records exactly who received points, how many, and when — which is easier to audit than scattered individual adjustments.
How a one-off incentive works
The lifecycle of a one-off incentive looks like this:
Create — Give it a name. The incentive starts in draft status.
Configure — Set the audience (everyone, specific people, or segments like teams or permission groups), choose points per recipient, write a message, and optionally attach an image.
Preview — Before executing, you'll see the eligible recipient count and total point cost.
Execute — Confirm the action. Points are granted to every eligible recipient, a notification is sent, and the incentive locks permanently.
Execution is irreversible. Once you confirm, the incentive cannot be edited or undone. Points are granted immediately.
If you toggle Publish to feed, a post appears on the company feed after execution so the whole workspace sees the announcement alongside the message and image.