Overview
Employee Spotlights are AI-generated highlight reels that turn recognition into a short, meaningful story about someone’s contributions.
Instead of scrolling through past recognition messages, Spotlight brings them together into a single narrative you can read, share, and celebrate.
Spotlights are designed for appreciation, storytelling, and moments that matter—not reporting or performance measurement.
When Should I Use a Spotlight?
Use Spotlight when you want to:
Celebrate someone’s impact in a more thoughtful way
Summarize recognition over time, not just a single moment
Share appreciation that feels personal and complete
Reuse recognition in celebrations, messages, or conversations
If recognition is the “moment,” Spotlight is the story.
What Is a Spotlight (and What It’s Not)?
What Spotlight is
A narrative summary created from real recognition messages
Based on a selected timeframe (for example, last 6 or 12 months)
Meant to highlight patterns, themes, and impact
Easy to share privately, with a group, or company-wide
What Spotlight is not
A performance review
A budget or ROI report
A ranking or comparison tool
A replacement for analytics dashboards
Spotlight is about celebration, not evaluation.
Key Concepts
Here are a few helpful things to know:
Timeframe-based
Each Spotlight covers a specific start and end date.Minimum data
Spotlights require at least one month and 5 pieces of recognition.Privacy first
Spotlights start private and only become visible when shared.Shareable
Spotlights can be:Shared privately
Shared company-wide (when available)
Added to a recognition post
Featured on profile
Who Uses Spotlights?
Spotlights are useful for many roles:
Employees — Reflect on and share their impact
Managers — Prep for 1:1s or celebrate team members
HR & People teams — Run meaningful milestone moments
You don’t need special skills—Spotlight is meant to be simple and human.
Common Ways to Use Spotlights
Celebrate a milestone
Great for:
Work anniversaries, promotions, role changes, big winsHow it helps:
Turns months of recognition into a thoughtful recap that feels earned.
Prepare for a development discussion
Great for:
Manager-employee conversations, development discussionsHow it helps:
Provides a quick summary of what others appreciate, focused on the positive, using real examples.
Share a story that represents your culture
Great for:
Team meetings, internal comms, company-wide shout-outsHow it helps:
Shows your values in action through a real person’s impact.
How to Create and Use a Spotlight
Open the Spotlight generator:
Spotlights are created from the Team Hub. To get started:Go to Your team in Bonusly
Choose one of the following:
Select Create spotlight from the banner at the top of the page
Or select the Generate spotlight icon next to an employee in the team table
If the employee already has spotlights:
You’ll first see a Generated spotlights list
Select Create spotlight to generate a new one
Choose a timeframe
In Timeframe, select the date range you want the spotlight to cover.
You can choose presets like:
Last 3 months
Last 6 months
Last 12 months
Last year
What to expect
Bonusly may briefly check eligibility while confirming the employee has enough received recognition
If the employee doesn’t meet the minimum requirement, you’ll see a message and won’t be able to generate the spotlight for that timeframe
Generate the spotlight
Select Generate spotlight
If it finishes right away, you’ll be taken directly to the spotlight
If it takes longer, you’ll see a confirmation that generation has started and you can return later once it’s ready
View, share, or reuse the spotlight
Once the spotlight is ready, you can access it from:
The Generated spotlights list
Email/in app notification
From there, you can:
View the spotlight
Add to recognition to include it in a recognition post
Send spotlight to share it directly with the recipient.
Tip: When viewing a spotlight, you can scroll through its sections and add it to a recognition directly from the spotlight experience.
FAQs
Who can create a Spotlight?
This depends on your company’s setup. Managers can generate spotlights for their employees in the team hub page. Admins and managers can create spotlights on celebrations.
Why can’t I generate a Spotlight?
The most common reason is that the selected timeframe doesn’t include enough recognition. At least 5 received messages are required.
Are Spotlights public?
Not by default. Spotlights start private and only become visible if you choose to share them. Once shared they are featured on profiles and can be added to recognition.
Can I edit a Spotlight?
Spotlights are generated from recognition data and can only be manually edited by the user that generated it prior to sharing.
Can I use Spotlight for performance reviews?
Spotlight is best used as a celebration or conversation starter, not a formal evaluation tool.
Can people outside my company see Spotlights?
No. Spotlights are only visible within your company or to selected recipients.
Questions? Send us a note to [email protected]; we'd be happy to help
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