Launching HeyTaco
Choose the rollout strategy that best fits your organization’s size, culture, and readiness. Both
approaches are designed to spark a lasting culture of recognition — just at different speeds.
Option 1: Company-Wide Launch
Best for:
- Small to mid-sized organizations (under ~150 people)
- Companies with strong leadership alignment and cultural trust
- Teams eager to spark quick, organization-wide energy and participation
- Startups or fast-growing companies where everyone is already highly connected
Goal: Launch HeyTaco across your entire company from day one to build immediate visibility
and excitement.
Phase 1: Launch to the Whole Company
- Choose your home base channels
- One highly visible company-wide channel (e.g. #shoutouts, #tacos)
- Optional: add HeyTaco to additional department-specific channels
- Kickoff with momentum
- Launch on a Taco Tuesday for fun energy
- Use the launch communication templates below to:
- Announce HeyTaco
- Build excitement pre-launch
- Celebrate the first tacos given
- Model the behavior
- Have executives, managers, and culture champions give the first tacos
- Recognize behaviors that reflect your values
- Make recognition visible
- Highlight standout tacos in all-hands meetings
- Share favorite taco messages publicly
- Use the leaderboard to spark friendly competition
- Focus on habit-building
- Encourage 1+ taco per day, 3–5 per week
- Optional: add simple rewards
- Start small: coffee cards, team lunches, time off
Goal: Make giving tacos fun, easy, and contagious company-wide from day one.
Phase 2: Keep the Momentum Going
- Bake recognition into company rituals
- All-hands taco shoutouts
- Automated milestones (birthdays, workaversaries)
- Monthly celebrations of top givers/receivers
- Measure and share success
- % of people giving tacos weekly
- Tacos given per capita
- Quality of recognition shared
- Qualitative team stories and testimonials
Goal: Sustain and scale your recognition culture as tacos become part of daily life.
Option 2: Phased Rollout
Best for:
- Mid-sized to large organizations (150+ people)
- Teams where buy-in needs to be proven first
- Cultures that prefer piloting and iterating before going org-wide
- Companies where different departments operate quite independently
Goal: Start small, build proof and momentum, then scale across the organization.
Phase 1: Launch Your First Team
- Choose your first team and their “home base” channel (public and visible)
- For example, #shoutouts, #tacos, #gratitude, #appreciations
- Kickoff with momentum
- Launch on a Taco Tuesday, walk-through of how to give tacos
- Use our Launch Communication Templates and User Guides
- Model the behavior
- Encourage managers/leads give tacos early and often
- Make recognition visible
- Highlight top tacos in team meetings or all-hands
- Highlight quality tacos appreciating behavior you’d like to see more of
- Focus on habit-building
- Encourage giving 1+ taco daily (aim for 3–5 per week)
- Optional, if using rewards: keep them simple
- Start with small perks (coffee cards, team lunch, time off).
- Rewards can be added at any point during your HeyTaco journey, and we recommend waiting to add them until after the gratitude habit has been established.
Goal: Make giving tacos fun, easy, and contagious. Build a daily habit.
Phase 2: Expand Organization-Wide
- Use early success stories from Phase 1 to inspire other teams
- Roll out team by team, each with their own visible channel
- Keep leaders and culture champions engaged (managers give tacos, shout out great ones in meetings)
- Continue recognition rituals: expanding taco shoutouts to be organization-wide, celebrating people on the leaderboard
- Add rewards, milestones (birthdays/workaversaries), and Tacos for Charity
Goal: Make recognition a cultural habit for the whole organization.
Phase 3: Keeping the Momentum Going
- Build recognition into your culture rituals
- Include taco shoutouts in all-hands meetings
- Celebrate milestones (birthdays, workaversaries) automatically
- Use the leaderboard to spark healthy competition and fun celebrating top givers and receivers each month
- Measure and share success
- % of people giving tacos weekly
- Tacos given per capita
- Quality of recognition shared
- Qualitative team stories and testimonials
Goal: Sustain the momentum and adjust as things change. As tacos become part of daily life, your recognition culture scales naturally.
Launch Communication Templates
📣 Channel Message: Announcing HeyTaco - our new fun way to share gratitude!
Hey team! 👋
We’re excited to announce HeyTaco – our new way to recognize and celebrate each other.
Here’s how it works:
- Use HeyTaco to give shoutouts and show appreciation. Every time you want to recognize someone, just tag them and add a taco emoji 🌮 in your message.
- For example: "@Alex Thanks for helping out with the presentation! 🌮"
- You can give up to 5 tacos per day, so use them thoughtfully! Tacos expire daily and don’t roll over, which encourages us to celebrate people in the moment when something awesome happens.
Why HeyTaco?
- It’s a fun and easy way to celebrate wins and spread positivity.
- Recognition helps build stronger connections across our team.
- We’ll be highlighting some of the best taco moments along the way!
- Who doesn't like tacos? 🌮
Let’s start recognizing each other and making gratitude a regular part of our workday! 🎉
If you have any questions, just ask. Let’s taco 'bout appreciation! 🌮
📧 Email Template: Announcing HeyTaco
Subject: Announcing HeyTaco - our new fun way to celebrate each other! 🌮
Hi Team,
We’re excited to announce that we’ll be using HeyTaco – a fun and simple way to recognize and celebrate great work within [Slack/Microsoft Teams]!
Here’s how it works:
- When you want to recognize someone, just tag them in [channel/team name] and add a taco emoji. For example: "@Alex, thanks for going above and beyond on that project! 🌮"
- Everyone has 5 tacos to give every day – so use them to make someone’s day! Tacos expire daily and don’t roll over, encouraging us to celebrate people in the moment when something awesome happens.
Why HeyTaco?
- It makes it easy to appreciate great work in the moment.
- It helps build stronger team connections.
- We’ll be celebrating standout moments to keep the positivity flowing!
- AND... Who doesn't like tacos? 🌮
This is all about creating a culture of appreciation and celebrating the amazing things we accomplish together. 🌮
If you have any questions or ideas, reach out anytime.
Let’s taco 'bout appreciation! 🎉
Best, [Your Name] [Your Title]
🎤 All-Company Meeting Announcement: Announcing HeyTaco
"Hi everyone! I’m excited to announce HeyTaco – our new way to recognize and celebrate each other’s great work, and add a little happiness to someone's day.
Here’s how it works: Anytime you want to appreciate someone, just tag them in [Slack/Teams] and add a taco emoji 🌮. For example, if someone helped you with a project or went above and beyond, just say, 'Thanks @Alex for your help with the presentation! 🌮'
Everyone has 5 tacos to give every day, and they expire daily and don’t roll over. This encourages us to celebrate each other in the moment when something awesome happens.
Why HeyTaco?
- It’s a fun and easy way to celebrate wins and spread positivity.
- Recognition helps build stronger connections across our team.
- We’ll be sharing some standout taco moments to celebrate along the way!
- AND... Who doesn't like tacos? 🌮
If you have any questions or need ideas, just reach out. Let’s taco 'bout appreciation and start celebrating each other today! 🌮"
You can also share our demos (HeyTaco for Slack demo and HeyTaco for Microsoft Teams demo) with your team, as well as User Guides. It is a simple way to your team to learn how to use HeyTaco.
Taco tip: The key to people adopting HeyTaco is for you (and the rest of the team driving this initiative) to give your tacos away to different people every day. If you only add HeyTaco without actually giving a taco, people won’t know what to do. You leading by example is key for early success of HeyTaco.