When it comes to employee recognition, very few platforms are on the same level as O.C. Tanner.
However, because of the proven demand for O.C. Tanner, we noticed a fair amount of queries about the software and other competing employee engagement and recognition platforms.
“Nearly 90 percent of employees who received thanks or recognition from their boss report feeling high levels of trust in that individual, whereas the figure was only 48 percent among workers who did not receive any recognition.” — Forbes
When it comes to keeping employees engaged and making them feel recognized, O.C. Tanner has been recognized as one of the best. In 2022, investing in your people is more crucial now than ever before as employee retention has also become increasingly difficult.
Many employers are finding out just how important celebrating victories is when working remotely, in-person, and in a flexible workplace.
That’s exactly why we’ve curated a list of popular O.C. Tanner alternatives.
What is O.C. Tanner?
O.C. Tanner is a strategic employee recognition and rewards solution designed for large-scale companies, enterprises, and global workforces. Their proprietary Culture Cloud suite of service awards, employee recognition, and other culture-building solutions helps encourage and inspire millions of employees around the world.
Having said that, for companies scouring the web for other options, we’ve found 6 significant O.C. Tanner alternatives that offer up some distinct advantages. Check them out!
Want to improve your employee appreciation program this year?
Yes!Comparison Of The 6 Best O.C. Tanner Alternatives
Page Contents (Click To Jump)
1. O.C. Tanner vs. Nectar
What is Nectar?
Nectar is a top-rated employee recognition and rewards platform that allows every team member to show appreciation from the top-down or peer-to-peer. Three-hundred and sixty-degree recognition means everyone gets to experience the core values of their organization.
What is Nectar used for?
Nectar is used to build company culture and promote positivity. Nectar bundles incentives, social recognition, swag management, and employee discounts to create a rock-solid company culture.
Best for: Distributed teams of 51 – 1,000 employees
How is Nectar compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Manager-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mention Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Nominations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recognition Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Catalog | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| eCards | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free Trial | ✔ | |
| Wellness challenges | ✔ | |
| On-demand swag reward option | ✔ | |
| Employee perks/discounts | ✔ | |
| Usage-based billing | ✔ |
Ratings
| | |
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 4.6 / 5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| Software Advice | 4.7 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | 8.0 / 10 |
Is Nectar the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
Nectar is an O.C. Tanner competitor that offers a range of pricing options that fit your organization. Whether you want to start with the FREE tier or go for a bit more flare with the Standard or Plus options, Nectar is designed to build recognition into your culture through an easy-to-use interface.
2. O.C. Tanner vs. Bonusly
What is Bonusly?
Bonusly is the answer to solving high employee turnover. This top employee recognition platform is unique in that it helps everyone — from your coworker who just joined the team to your founders — feel appreciated. The reality is, most of the day-to-day tasks that are completed get checked off by a hardworking team member without real notice of who did it. Bonusly makes rewards easy, which increases engagement and decreases turnover in one fell swoop!
What is Bonusly used for?
Bonusly is used for building a highly-gelled, super in sync company culture of positive reinforcement and real-time feedback. In the modern workplace, research has shown that feedback is increasingly important to millennials and Gen Z, so Bonusly will also help retain talent from the younger generations as well! Between advanced analytics, a centralized dashboard, automated features, a pre-built content library, tons of seamless integrations, mobile-optimized features, and corporate discounts, it’s easy to see why thousands of companies have chosen Bonusly as their go-to employee engagement solution.
Best for: Distributed teams
How is Bonusly compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Manager-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mention Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Nominations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recognition Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Catalog | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| eCards | ✔ | |
| Free Trial | ✔ |
Ratings
| |
|
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 4.7 /5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.8/ 5.0 |
| Software Advice Score | 4.81 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | 9.6/ 10 |
Is Bonusly the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
Bonusly has many of the same features that O.C. Tanner has, but it’s more affordable and even more user-friendly!
3. O.C. Tanner vs. Blueboard
What is Blueboard?
Blueboard is the hand-curated, concierge-led employee recognition platform. In record time, you can pick out retreats and other adventures your employees will happily check off their bucket list! We’re talking serious adventures too — activities like paragliding, surfing, wine tastings, and much, much more!
What is Blueboard used for?
Blueboard is used to help employees connect with friends, family, and each other. Research shows that experiences leave people more satisfied in the long run than material things. That’s why Blueboard curates one-of-a-kind experiences for employee recognition and satisfaction. Plus, most employees are numb to gift cards and generic swag — these premium experiences, on the other hand, are unforgettable.
Best for: At-home or in-office employees
How is Blueboard compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Activity Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Manager-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Performance Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Performance Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recognition Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Catalog | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
Ratings
| |
|
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 5.0 / 5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.9 / 5.0 |
| Software Advice Score | 4.86 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | NA |
Is Blueboard the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
Blueboard is one of the best alternatives to O.C. Tanner because it focuses primarily on experiences. In fact, it’s really the leading employee recognition platform for creating memories!
4. O.C. Tanner vs. Fond
What is Fond?
Fond is an employee recognition solution designed to facilitate reward-giving and discount programs. This SaaS platform is the all-in-one, easy-to-use way for teammates to shout out to each other and show some love for all their hard work and contributions. On top of that, both employees and managers can recognize each other, access corporate discounts, and determine success analytically, so it’s a two-way street to better communication and stronger bonds.
What is Fond used for?
Fond lets team members create custom events for recognition and set organizational values to help align employees with the desired company culture. Also, administrators can track the number of rewards sent as well as the total expense around the incentives on a visually refined dashboard. Corporate incentives range from travel and entertainment to fitness, giving employees a wide range of options to choose from. In addition to its mobile applications for Android and iOS devices, Fond integrates with a variety of third-party applications such as Slack, Okta, Workday, and more.
Best for: Flexible workforces
How is Fond compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Goal Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Manager-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mention Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Nominations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Performance Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recognition Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Catalog | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| eCards | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mobile App | ✔ |
Ratings
| |
|
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 4.5 /5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.6/ 5.0 |
| Software Advice Score | 4.6 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | 9.8/ 10 |
Is Fond the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
As the name suggests, Fond is all about making employees and managers fond of the people they work with. One of the things Fond has going for it is its simplicity. If you’re looking for an employee engagement solution you can get up and running quickly without a lot of training, Fond is a rock-solid O.C. Tanner alternative.
5. O.C. Tanner vs. Assembly
What is Assembly?
Assembly is the positive culture-building employee recognition and engagement solution for peer-to-peer recognition, birthdays, anniversaries, awards, and other special incentives! In fact, Assembly’s data and analytics have even proven that the software has boosted employee productivity by more than double simply by making everyone feel seen, heard, and recognized.
What is Assembly used for?
Assembly is used for team recognition and task tracking. This nifty employee engagement software allows users to see individual reward balances, top recipients, and the main employee values to help increase participation and activity. Additionally, Assembly has several key integrations, including Slack and Microsoft Teams to help your team’s performance and overall satisfaction through ease-of-use. Certain plans even let teams choose gift cards of choice as extra incentives. Assembly is based around a freemium model that offers additional features on a monthly subscription basis.
Best for: Flexible workplaces
How is Assembly compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mention Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| eCards | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pulse Surveys | ✔ | |
| Free Trial | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free Version | ✔ |
Ratings
| |
|
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 4.5 / 5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.8 / 5.0 |
| Software Advice Score | 4.79 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | N/A |
Is Assembly the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
Assembly is super easy to set up and encourages collaboration across departments without managers feeling the need to watch every little thing employees do. People will want to do their best work because of the positive reinforcements! Out with micromanaging — in with results and rewards!
6. O.C. Tanner vs. Vantage Circle
What is Vantage Circle?
Vantage Circle is an all-in-one employee engagement platform that combines four powerful AI and SaaS-based solutions to help companies engage their people in a meaningful way. The four solutions address the major areas of engagement, namely- rewards and recognition, employee perks, employee feedback, and employee wellness.
What is Vantage Circle used for?
Vantage Circle is based on a simple principle. It’s to make the process of engaging your employees more impactful yet easier to do, manage, and run. With features like a global point-based rewarding system, feed engagement score, on-spot recognition, social recognition feed, and more- Vantage Circle is designed to meet the complete engagement needs of diverse companies.
Best for: Both remote and in-office workforces
How is Vantage Circle compared to O.C. Tanner?
Features
| Manager-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mention Management | ✔ | ✔ |
| Nominations | ✔ | ✔ |
| Peer-to-Peer Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Recognition Tracking | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Catalog | ✔ | ✔ |
| Rewards Points | ✔ | ✔ |
| Social Recognition | ✔ | ✔ |
| Pulse Surveys | ✔ | ✔ |
| Free Trial | ✔ | |
| Corporate DIscounts | ✔ | |
| Service Yearbook | ✔ | |
| SOLI-based Framework | ✔ | |
| Cross-Channel Integrations | ✔ | ✔ |
Ratings
| |
|
|---|---|
| G2 Crowd Score | 4.6 / 5.0 |
| Capterra Score | 4.4 / 5.0 |
| Software Advice Score | 4.5 / 5.0 |
| Trust Radius Score | 8.7 / 10 |
Is Vantage Circle the best alternative to O.C. Tanner?
Vantage Circle is a comprehensive engagement solution that does it all in one single platform. Its simplicity, accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and extensive list of features make it an excellent alternative to O.C Tanner.
Learn More About Vantage Circle
People Also Ask These Questions About O.C. Tanner Alternatives
Q: What kind of software is O.C. Tanner?
- A: O.C. Tanner is a large-scale-centric employee recognition platform for massive corporations.
Q: What are some of the best O.C. Tanner competitors?
- A: O.C. Tanner has lots of competitors but is still among the top employee recognition platforms available. However, there are certain alternatives that work better depending on the size of your company and your specific goals.
Q: What are the benefits of implementing an O.C. Tanner alternative?
- A: The benefit of implementing an O.C. Tanner alternative is that some of the alternatives are better for medium and small-sized teams because they may offer more customizable incentives, more intimate communication options, and more integrations.
Q: What is the best O.C. Tanner alternative?
- A: It’s tough to say which O.C. Tanner alternative is the best because it really depends on your specific needs. The most important factors to consider are ease of use, the quality of the incentives, and the scalability of the solution so it can scale with your company as you expand.
Q: How much does O.C. Tanner cost?
- A: O.C. Tanner doesn’t provide pricing publicly. They price their offering based on the needs of the companies they work with.
Q: Which OC. Tanner alternative has an app?
- A: Most of the O.C. Tanner alternatives have apps — especially considering how software solutions have to be mobile-friendly to succeed at making lives better in the modern workplace.
