Employee Recognition in Slack
++ or -- onto anyone, or anything, to log recognition in real time. The /medal leaderboard appears right inside Slack with an ASCII bar chart, so the standings read at a glance.- Trigger
- @name ++
- Lands in
- The channel, plus the leaderboard
- Setup
- 1 min
- Needs
- Via invited to the channel
- 1Mention Viably and tag the recipient
Anywhere in a channel Via is in, type
@via @samuel++ great PR review!. Via records the delta and posts a small celebration in the thread. - 2Scores update instantly
Each event is saved per workspace and per recipient. Negative medal is allowed too, so the record stays honest rather than flattering.
- 3View the leaderboard from Slack or the dashboard
/medalrenders the full leaderboard with rank, total medal, an ASCII bar chart, and a last-seen timestamp. The Medal page in the Viably dashboard offers a richer view and lets admins curate entries.
Attribute mode
Enable Attribute mode from the Medal admin page to attach a curated tag such as #kindness or #shipping to each medal event. The leaderboard then highlights each member’s strongest attributes, so recognition reads as specific rather than generic.
Admins define the available attributes per workspace under Powers → Medal → Attributes. Slack users pick one from a Block Kit dropdown whenever they award medal.
Keep it competitive with seasons
Leave the board running all-time, or split it into seasons, recurring races that crown a champion and reset to zero, so the leaderboard never goes stale and newcomers always have a shot. Resetting never deletes history, because every champion lands in the Hall of Fame.
A fresh board every month. The top earner at month end is crowned, then everyone starts from zero. The crossing line is the first of next month.
A slower cadence for teams that want a longer arc, with a champion crowned every three months. The crossing line is the start of next quarter.
No clock at all. The season ends the instant somebody reaches the target you set, and Via warns the channel once the leader is within five of it.
The Medal page in the dashboard shows a live progress bar to the crossing line, covering how far the leader is toward the target or how many days remain in the period, so the whole team can see who is climbing and how close the season is to closing. When it does close, Via posts a champion announcement to your chosen channel.
Admins pick it under Powers → Medal → Seasons and Reset, set the announcement channel, and can End season now at any time.
- Self-medal is always blocked, so every point on the board came from somebody else.
- Only-humans mode, which is opt-in, restricts medal to tagged Slack users, and ad-hoc things like
@Coffee++are ignored. - The em dash
—works identically to--, so iOS quote replacement cannot silently break decrements. - Medal history is per workspace. Admins can curate or zero out entries from the dashboard when a stale account or a joke needs cleaning up.
Write their handle followed by two plus signs in any channel Viably is in, so @via @sam++ gives Sam a point. Adding a reason after it records what the recognition was for, which is what makes the leaderboard worth reading later.
Recognition that happens in public and in the moment is the kind people remember, and a leaderboard makes it visible to the whole team rather than trapped in a manager's notes. Seasons add an end date, so there is a champion to crown instead of a number that only ever climbs.
No. Self-medal is blocked outright, so every point on the board came from somebody else. You can also switch on only-humans mode if you would rather people not medal projects and objects.
Viably announces the champion and the standings reset for the next race, while the history is kept. Seasons can run monthly, quarterly, first to a target score, or be reset by hand whenever suits your team.
Start recognising people in the channel you already use. The medal leaderboard is on the free plan, with nothing to configure before the first plus.
Add Viably to Slack