Enable values-driven work, build engagement and foster team appreciation in Slack with Shoutouts. Shoutouts is a real-time recognition tool that helps celebrate, socialize, and reinforce behaviors that build an intentional culture around appreciation.

Use Shoutouts to celebrate great work in Slack, while making recognition available to employees at any time in Culture Amp. In this article, we'll cover:

After the Culture Amp app is installed and added to a public Slack channel, employees can give recognition by:

The Culture Amp app responds with an emoji, as well as a short reply in the thread of their message. Employees can find shoutouts given and received by navigating to the Shoutouts feed in Culture Amp.

Install the Culture Amp app in Slack from the Notifications page under Account Admin in Culture Amp. If you already have the app installed, update the app from that same page.

With the latest version of the Slack app installed, you can now turn Shoutouts on from the Shoutouts page under Account Admin in Culture Amp. Users will not be notified when Shoutouts is turned on.

Once you turn Shoutouts on, you’ll also receive a direct message in Slack with some tips on getting started.

Organizational values allow you to connect your company culture with the behaviors that employees are recognized for every day. When you add your values, employees can tag one or more values to the recognition they give to colleagues in Slack.

Values can be tagged by either:

Anyone can choose to add values to a shoutout in Slack even if they aren’t the author of the shoutout. Values are restricted to any words or phrases that include 50 characters or less.

The Culture Amp app in Slack listens for the words "shoutout'" "shout out" and "shout-out" in public channels where the app is a member. You can tailor Shoutouts by adding other keywords to listen for.

To add a keyword, go to Settings > Shoutouts > Settings, and scroll down to the Keywords section:

Try adding keywords that match the praise words used by your organization (for example, kudos, mad props). Keywords are restricted to any words or phrases that include letters or hyphens and with 50 characters or less.

Add the Culture Amp app to any public channel in Slack. Simply type "@cultureamp" and hit Send.

You can also add the Culture Amp app to a channel by selecting Add an App from the Integrations tab in the channel's details.

Now that Shoutouts is set up in Slack, let your team know they can start to give simple, timely and authentic recognition without navigating away from the tools and spaces they already use. Asking senior leaders and other managers to model a practice of recognition is a great way to introduce Shoutouts to your organization.

Give a shoutout by including the word "shoutout" in the body of your message, like this: “shoutout @teammate and the awesome thing they did.” Shoutouts is not a slash command, so no need to start your message with "/" or even start the message with the word "shoutout".

If you’ve added custom values when setting up Shoutouts, consider including a value in your shoutout. Add a value by:

If you’re active in Slack when you receive a shoutout, you’ll see a message in the Slack channel where the shoutout was sent asking if you’d like to say thanks. This message is visible to only you. Saying thanks adds a short message to the app’s response letting the author know that you appreciate their shoutout!

Shoutouts can be given in as many public Slack channels as you want. While some customers do create a dedicated Shoutouts channel, teams often give recognition in whatever channels are most convenient for them. Simply add @cultureamp to a public channel to give shoutouts.

When employees receive a shoutout, it will appear under Mentions & reactions in Slack. Employees can also access their shoutouts at any time on their Shoutouts feed in Culture Amp, found under the Feedback menu in the navigation.

People managers can access their team’s shoutouts on the Direct reports tab of their Shoutouts feed in Culture Amp. This is where they will see all of the shoutouts given and received by their team – perfect for reviewing before a weekly 1-on-1 or during a performance review cycle. People managers can also access a direct report’s shoutouts from their profile during a performance review.

Employees can easily remove a shoutout triggered in error by selecting Unmark as shoutout from the dropdown in the message's thread. Deleting the message will also remove the shoutout from Culture Amp.

Yes, shoutouts can currently only be given from Slack. Employees will soon be able to give shoutouts from Microsoft Teams too.

No, currently shoutouts can only be given in public Slack channels. We do have plans to support private channel shoutouts in the future.

Yes, shoutouts can be given to as many individuals as you’d like! In order for shoutouts to work, at least one colleague must be tagged in your Slack message. Shoutouts currently do not work for user groups in Slack.

You can create as many values as you would like. However, values are restricted to any words or phrases that include 50 characters or less.

To use custom emojis simply enter the shortcode you use in Slack to the value emoji text field. For example, ‘:smiley:’, ‘:thumbsup:’. Custom emojis will only display in Slack. They won’t display in Culture Amp.