Getting started with rewards in HeyTaco
Rewards are a great way to add extra meaning to the tacos your team earns. This guide walks through everything you need to know to set up a successful rewards program — use it as your reference point, then jump to the dedicated guide for whichever reward type you're setting up.
When should I introduce rewards?
We recommend waiting until your team has been using HeyTaco for a little while before adding rewards. When people are already giving tacos regularly and the habit is established, rewards feel like a celebration of that culture rather than an incentive to participate. Introducing rewards too early can make recognition feel transactional.
Once tacos are flowing consistently, you're ready.
Step 1: Understand what your team values
Before creating rewards, think about what would be meaningful to your team. Common categories include work-related perks (desk accessories, headphones), wellness (fitness subscriptions, spa treatments), personal experiences (gift cards, travel), and collaborative rewards (team outings, charity donations). See Reward ideas for Your Taco Shop for a full list of ideas crowdsourced from HeyTaco teams.
Step 2: Choose your reward types
HeyTaco supports three types of rewards, and most teams end up using a mix of all three. Here's how to decide which fits what you're setting up:
- Custom rewards — Anything you create and fulfill yourself: a piece of swag, lunch with leadership, an extra day off, tickets to a local event. Use these when the reward is unique to your company or requires manual follow-through. See Custom Rewards for how they work and how to set one up, including organizing them with categories and adding dynamic quantities (like sizes) for things like swag.
- Collaborative rewards — Team goals where everyone pools tacos together toward a shared experience, like a charity donation or a team outing. Use these when you want the payoff to be shared rather than individual. See Collaborative Rewards for pricing guidance and setup steps.
- Gift cards — Automatically fulfilled by HeyTaco and sent directly to the recipient's email, with no manual work on your end. Use these when you want a low-effort, ready-to-go reward option. See Gift Cards for funding setup, catalog details, and FAQs.
Step 3: Price your rewards
A good starting point is 4 tacos per $1 of value. This keeps rewards accessible without depleting too quickly. See How should I price and budget for rewards? for more guidance, including how to adjust pricing as your taco economy grows.
Step 4: Set up your Taco Shop
How to find the Taco Shop:
- In Slack: Open the HeyTaco app from your left sidebar → click the Home tab → you'll see a link to the Taco Shop (which will open in a new browser).
- In Microsoft Teams: Open HeyTaco from the left sidebar → click the Taco Shop tab at the top.
Once you've navigated to the Taco Shop, click "Add Reward" to create your first reward. Only admins can create rewards — if you don't see the button, you don't have admin permissions. Head to whichever guide matches the type you're creating — Custom Rewards, Collaborative Rewards, or Gift Cards — for the full setup steps.
Step 5: Announce it to your team
Let your team know rewards are now available in the Taco Shop. Share what's there and how redemption works. Consider starting with just a few rewards and rotating them over time to keep the shop fresh and engaging.
A note for teams that have been using HeyTaco for over a year
If your team has accumulated a large number of redeemable tacos before rewards were introduced, you may want to reset redeemable taco balances before launching. This creates a fair starting point and avoids immediate depletion of your rewards. A reset does not affect given/received taco counts or leaderboard standings — only the redeemable balance. Admins can do this from Admin → Settings.