Who can use this feature?
Users
Available on:
All Culture Amp subscriptions.
Recognizing and appreciating colleagues is easy with the Culture Amp app in Microsoft Teams. Shoutouts are a great way to acknowledge the efforts of your team members.
In this article, we’ll walk you through how Shoutouts work, how to get started, and where to view your team's recognition.
Before You Begin
To ensure your Shoutouts are successfully captured, review the following requirements:
Matching Email Addresses (Required): Your Microsoft Teams login email address must exactly match your Culture Amp account email. If they do not match, the app will install and send a welcome message, but your Shoutouts will not be recorded in Culture Amp.
Single Tenant Access: The Culture Amp integration connects to one Microsoft Teams tenant only. Cross-tenant shared channels (spanning two or more separate organizations) are not supported. Shoutouts must be sent within standard channels inside your primary organization's tenant.
How Shoutouts in Microsoft Teams Works
When you add the Culture Amp app to a Team, you can give recognition by simply including the word "shoutout" in your message and tagging one or more colleagues.
Key System Behaviors
Automated Responses: The app will automatically post a short reply directly in your message thread to confirm the Shoutout was noted. For a deeper look at how these behave, refer to the Automated Responses in Shoutouts article.
Tailored Keywords: In addition to the word "shoutout", your company may have set up other custom keywords for the app to listen for, such as "kudos" or "mad props".
No Slash Commands Needed: You do not need to start your message with a slash command (
/) or isolate the trigger words. The app listens for the keywords naturally within your sentence.
Getting Started with Shoutouts
1. Add the Culture Amp App:
Invite the Culture Amp app to a Team in Microsoft Teams. If the app has not been added yet, a channel owner or Teams Admin can install it using the standard setup steps.
2. Give a Shoutout
Include the word "shoutout" (or your company's custom keyword) in the body of your message and tag your colleague:
"Shoutout to @JaneDoe for the awesome work handling the client presentation today!"
3. Add a Value to Your Shoutout
Once the app posts its automated reply in the thread, any team member with access to that channel can select a core company value from the drop-down menu to highlight the specific behavior demonstrated by the colleague.
Viewing Shoutouts
In Microsoft Teams
When you receive a Shoutout, a notification will appear under the Activity tab in your left-hand navigation bar. An @ sign will also appear to the right of the tagged user's name.
Shoutouts look almost identical to both the sender and the recipient. The only variation is the dark or light theme that each individual user has set up in their personal Microsoft Teams settings.
In Culture Amp
Navigate to the Shoutouts feed under the Feedback menu to review all given and received recognition. Your view options depend on your role within the organization:
Your Feed (Home page): Shows your personal, received Shoutouts right on your home page.
Company Tab: Displays real-time usage metrics across the entire organization. This includes total Shoutouts given, top channels, the most shared company values, and a helpful leaderboard. You can filter this tab by all, given, or received Shoutouts.
Direct Reports Tab: Visible to people managers. This view displays all Shoutouts given and received by your team members. It is ideal for reviewing before a weekly one on one meeting or during a performance review cycle. You can also access these Shoutouts directly from a team member's profile page during a performance review.
Tip: Check out our quick tip video on how to give effective recognition
FAQs
Question | Answer |
Should the Culture Amp app be added to a Channel or a Team? | The Culture Amp app must be added to a Team. Once it is added to the Team level, it automatically becomes available for all channels within that specific Team.
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Can I edit a previous MS Teams message to include the word "shoutout"? | No. Editing a past message will not retroactively trigger the integration. The Shoutout feature relies on live triggers at the exact time a message is sent.
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Is the "Say Thanks" feature supported in MS Teams? | No, the "Say Thanks" feature is not available for MS Teams. It is exclusive to our Slack integration.
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Are auto-reactions like emojis supported in Microsoft Teams? | No, automated emoji reactions are not available in Microsoft Teams. This capability is exclusive to Slack, and you can learn more by reviewing our Slack Shoutouts guide.
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Can we turn off the automated app responses triggered by Shoutouts? | Not at this time. Even if you disable App Responses in your app settings, automated replies will still appear. This is due to a technical limitation within Microsoft Teams, and there is currently no workaround available.
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Can I give a Shoutout to more than one person at a time? | Yes, you can tag multiple individuals in a single message. As long as the word "shoutout" is present and at least one colleague is tagged, the Shoutout will record successfully.
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How do I delete or remove a Shoutout? | Any team member with access to the channel can select Unmark as shoutout from the drop-down menu in the message thread. Alternatively, completely deleting the original Teams message will automatically remove the Shoutout from Culture Amp.
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How can I view Shoutouts for my indirect reports? | Shoutouts for indirect reports are visible in the Company tab. You can use the People filter to quickly search for specific indirect reports.
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💬 Need help? Open a support conversation to speak with our Product Support team.