Performance Management — Milestones and Rewards
Give River's performance tools are SMART Goals (with Performance seasons) and the Rewards section, where admins decide how recognition and achievements are rewarded.
The Rewards Section (Admins)
In Admin view, open Rewards. Its tabs are:
| Tab | What it manages |
|---|---|
| Drop Defaults | How many drops members get to give, the cycle, and the drop-to-dollar value. See Admin Drop Settings |
| Milestones | Birthday and work-anniversary rewards. See Automated Milestones |
| Awards | Custom awards you give people by hand. See Custom Awards |
| Custom Rewards | Rewards specific to your organization, redeemable in the Drop Shop |
| Gift Cards | The gift card catalog members can redeem drops for. See Tango Gift Cards |
| Badges | Badges earned automatically when members hit a target. See Custom Badges and Awards |
| Pending Rewards | Reward requests waiting for approval |
| Health Challenges | Wellbeing challenges members claim for drops. See Health Challenges |
| Rewards History | Rewards that have been given and redeemed |
| Reports | Monthly reward spend reports. See Admin Reward Reports |
Members see the badges they've earned on My River, and Ugo pops up to celebrate each new one.
SMART Goals
SMART Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) let every member create personal goals with milestone steps, earn drops as their manager approves each milestone, and celebrate completions on the River Feed.
- Members create and track goals from My River → My Goals. See the SMART Goals article for the full walkthrough.
- Managers review and approve their team's goals and milestone submissions from the My team and Approvals views inside My Goals — see SMART Goals for Managers.
- Admins manage the goal programme from Engage → Goals: the organization-wide goal list, the approval queue, goal templates, and workflow settings — see Managing the Goals Programme.
- Performance seasons — choose Boost Performance & Productivity as a season's goal to put goals on Home, send goal reminders, count milestone drops in the season standings, and run team goals for that season. See How Performance Seasons Work.
- Goal analytics — participation, completion rate, pace, drops paid through goals, and how quickly managers review milestones — live in Insights → Goals.
Note the naming: the Milestones tab under Rewards (birthdays and anniversaries) is a separate feature from the milestone steps inside a SMART goal.
For Users (Non-Admins)
If you are a regular user or manager, you interact with performance management outcomes rather than the configuration:
- Goals you create live in My River → My Goals; milestone approvals pay drops straight into your balance.
- Badges you earn appear automatically on your My River dashboard and in your journal.
- Awards given to you by your admin appear in your Journal (and on the feed, if your admin shared them).
- Gift cards you are eligible to redeem appear in the Drop Shop.
Contact your administrator if you have questions about your team's reward programme.
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