Employee Recognition for Education & EdTech Teams | Karma
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Recognition that motivates every person in your school — staff and students

Karma works for education teams in two directions at once — peer recognition for teachers, administrators, and EdTech staff to feel seen and valued, and classroom engagement for students to stay motivated in remote and hybrid learning. All inside Slack and MS Teams.

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  • 1853

    New students joining Karma classrooms every month

  • 30%

    Increase in student focus when behaviour-specific praise is used consistently in class

  • 2736

    Schools and institutions using Karma for classroom engagement

  • 321k+

    Students engaged via Karma in MS Teams and Slack classrooms

Education teams work harder than most — and get recognised less than almost anyone

Teachers, EdTech staff, and education administrators carry enormous loads. The gap between the effort they put in and the recognition they receive is one of the most persistent — and most fixable — problems in the sector.

What changes with Karma

  • Recognition frequency changes team dynamics — teams that give kudos regularly communicate better, collaborate more, and build stronger connections across departments
  • Morale improves most for the people who work hardest and get seen least — content creators, curriculum designers, and support staff who rarely receive top-down praise
  • Adoption is fast because it lives inside tools the team already uses — no separate platform to onboard, no new habit to form for a team already stretched thin
  • Tangible rewards tied to peer recognition give appreciation real-world value — points that convert to gift cards or experiences mean recognition has weight beyond words

The challenge

  • Teacher appreciation week happens once a year — meaningful recognition needs to happen every week to actually change how people feel about their work
  • EdTech teams span content, engineering, and product — recognition rarely crosses those department lines, so contributions stay invisible
  • Remote and hybrid schools lost the staffroom culture that used to sustain morale naturally — without replacing it with anything digital
  • Student engagement in remote classrooms dropped sharply without the physical cues — attendance, participation, and effort all suffered

How Alef Education built a recognition culture across 450+ people in Abu Dhabi

An Abu Dhabi-based EdTech company serving 1.5 million students across 14,000 schools worldwide — and using Karma to keep their own team recognised, connected, and motivated.

    • E-Learning / EdTech
    • 450–500 people
    • United Arab Emirates

    14154

    Karma points issued in one year

    570

    Rewards purchased all time

    1225

    Achievements received

    It's more collegial among people because they have more instances of sharing Karma than before. The unexpected was the bond that teams created among each other.

    Stefan Sohnchen

    Agile Coach, Alef Education

    Read the full story

Recognition for staff. Engagement for students. One platform.

Every feature works across both contexts — peer kudos for the staffroom, instant feedback for the classroom. Try the live classroom demo below, then see how the same mechanics translate to staff recognition.

  • Peer-to-peer recognition

    Behaviour-specific praise that works in both directions — teachers recognising students for attendance and participation, staff recognising colleagues for going above and beyond. The same kudos mechanic, two contexts.

    See how it works

  • Instant feedback

    Immediate recognition helps academic performance and promotes motivation, self-regulation, and self-efficiency — allowing students to close the gap between current and desired performance in real time. For staff, the same principle applies — a timely kudos matters more than a quarterly review.

  • Rewards catalog

    Schools configure student rewards (call from the Head Teacher, Amazon vouchers, certificates). EdTech teams configure staff rewards (gift cards, charity donations, extra days off). Both draw from the same points mechanics — students and staff earn, then choose what matters to them.

    See rewards

  • Values alignment

    Every kudos is tied to a school or company value — making it easier to recognise values-centric behaviours and embed them into daily classroom and team life. Over time, the recognition data shows which values are actually being lived versus which remain aspirational.

  • Milestone automation

    Workiversaries, birthdays, and teacher appreciation week celebrations automated — so staff recognition happens on the right day without anyone having to remember. Achievement badges unlock automatically based on real activity for both staff and students.

    See milestones

  • Dashboard & analytics

    The leaderboard visible to all students creates positive peer accountability — encouraging participation without singling anyone out negatively. For staff, the same dashboard surfaces morale trends, values adoption, and recognition equity across departments.

    See analytics

What drives academic engagement?

Select the best practices below.

Stars

5 out of 5

Increased motivation & values adoption

Students are working harder to get Karma points. The dashboard is visible to all students, which encourages everyone to get on the board — but more importantly, to work towards the school values. Which means our students are learning.

School teacher, Karma Education user

Stars

5 out of 5

Improved student engagement

Our students are loving it, and compete for points by turning up for lessons and doing their work! We have found Karma invaluable to our success for keeping students engaged with teaching and learning.

School teacher, Karma Education user

Stars

5 out of 5

A new way to give praise

We give Karma for attending lessons on time, returning assignments and active engagement. We needed a way to give students praise the same way they would receive it in the physical classroom.

School teacher, Karma Education user

More reviews at our wall of love

Frequently asked questions

How do schools and EdTech companies recognise staff and boost morale?

The most effective approach is peer-to-peer recognition built into the tools staff already use — Slack, MS Teams, or Telegram. Karma lets teachers, administrators, and EdTech staff give kudos in their team channel tied to school values. Points accumulate toward rewards, milestones fire automatically, and culture analytics show where morale needs attention.

What are good teacher appreciation week ideas for administrators?

The most impactful ideas are public, peer-driven, and specific to each teacher's contribution. Run a recognition campaign in the school's Slack or MS Teams workspace — encourage staff to give kudos to colleagues who've made a difference, set up a group reward toward a shared celebration, and post a leaderboard of top contributors. Karma can automate a milestone message for Teacher Appreciation Week and award bonus karma points, turning a single week into a visible team-wide moment.

Can Karma be used for student recognition in classrooms?

Yes — Karma works for classroom engagement via MS Teams and Slack. Teachers award karma points to students for attendance, assignment completion, and active participation. Students see a shared leaderboard, earn rewards configured by the school, and experience the same positive recognition mechanics that research shows improve engagement and reduce disruptive behaviour. Over 2,700 educational institutions use Karma for this purpose.

How does Karma improve student engagement in remote learning?

Karma provides immediate feedback — the single most effective driver of academic performance in remote settings. Teachers give behaviour-specific praise directly in MS Teams or Slack, students accumulate points tied to school values, and a leaderboard visible to the whole class creates positive peer accountability. Schools report significant decreases in disruptive behaviour and increased participation rates across remote and hybrid classrooms.

How do EdTech companies improve employee engagement?

EdTech companies face a specific challenge: their mission is improving education, but internal team culture can suffer from the same problems as any fast-growing tech company. Karma bridges this by making recognition feel like a natural extension of the values EdTech teams already hold. Alef Education, a 450–500 person EdTech company in the UAE, issued over 14,000 karma points in a single year after rolling out Karma across their Product, Tech, and Content teams.

Ready to get started?

If you're ready to get started with Karma, sign up now and explore the benefits of the recognition for your team. You can also reach out for a free demo.

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Karma bot privacy policy

Effective date: 18 August 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Sliday LTD ("Sliday", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects personal data. It covers both the Karma application (for Microsoft Teams, Slack, Telegram, and the web) and the https://karmabot.chat website.

Who we are and how to contact us

The data controller is Sliday LTD, a private limited company registered in Cyprus under company number HE450506, with its principal place of business at Pavlou Valdaseridi 2A, 1st floor, Larnaka, Cyprus, 6018.

For any privacy-related enquiry, or to exercise your data protection rights, contact us at hi@karmabot.chat.

Privacy matters are overseen by our Legal Advisor / Operational Security Manager, Stas Kulesh. A dedicated Data Protection Officer has not been appointed, as Sliday LTD is not required to appoint one under Article 37 of the GDPR; privacy responsibilities are held by the Legal Advisor.

Personal data we handle and where it comes from

From the Karma application

When your organisation installs and uses Karma, we process the following personal data, obtained from Microsoft Teams / Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) and from your use of the application:

  • Display name — from Microsoft Teams / Microsoft Graph
  • Email address — from Microsoft Teams / Microsoft Graph
  • User Principal Name (UPN) — from Microsoft Graph (/me)
  • Microsoft Entra (Azure AD) object ID and tenant ID — from Microsoft authentication
  • Profile photo — from Microsoft Graph (/me/photo)
  • Team and channel names — from Microsoft Teams
  • Karma activity (karma given and received, associated messages) — from your use of the app

Where Karma is used with Slack or Telegram, the equivalent identity and workspace data is obtained from that platform instead.

From this website

  • Contact details you give us — such as your email address and name when you subscribe to updates, request a demo, or contact support
  • Usage and device data — IP address, browser type and version, pages visited, date, time and duration of visit, referring page, and similar diagnostic data
  • Cookies and similar technologies — see "Cookies and website analytics" below

Why we process personal data

We process personal data to:

  • Identify you and link you to your organisation's Karma workspace
  • Operate the core recognition ("karma") features, leaderboards, and adaptive cards
  • Display your name and profile photo within the app
  • Deliver notifications and service communications
  • Administer subscriptions and billing
  • Provide customer support and respond to your enquiries
  • Monitor, secure, maintain, and improve the service, and detect and address technical issues
  • Send newsletters, marketing, or promotional material where you have chosen to receive it — you can opt out at any time via the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting us

Lawful basis for processing

We process personal data on the following lawful bases under the GDPR:

  • Performance of a contract — to provide the Karma service to your organisation
  • Legitimate interests — to operate, secure, and improve the service, where not overridden by your rights
  • Consent — for marketing communications and for non-essential cookies and analytics, where consent is required
  • Legal obligation — where we are required by law to retain or disclose data, including for tax and accounting purposes

Where your organisation is the controller and we act as processor, processing is carried out on your organisation's documented instructions.

Who we share personal data with

We share personal data only with the sub-processors listed below, each of which is necessary to deliver the service and is engaged under an appropriate data processing agreement. This is the complete list of sub-processors with access to personal data. We do not sell personal data.

Service sub-processors

  • DigitalOcean — application hosting and managed database
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) — profile photo storage (S3)
  • Cloudflare — edge delivery and web application firewall
  • Microsoft — authentication, the Teams platform, and Microsoft Graph
  • Stripe — subscription billing and payment processing
  • Sentry — error monitoring
  • MailerLite — notification and marketing email delivery

We do not store or collect your payment card details. That information is provided directly to Stripe, our payment processor, whose use of your personal information is governed by its own privacy policy (https://stripe.com/privacy). Stripe adheres to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council.

Website analytics and marketing providers

The https://karmabot.chat website additionally uses:

We may also disclose personal data where required to do so by law or in response to a valid request by a public authority, or where necessary to protect our legal rights, prevent or investigate wrongdoing, or protect the safety of users or the public.

Cookies and website analytics

Cookies are small pieces of data stored on your device. We use cookies and similar technologies (including beacons, tags, and scripts) to operate the website, remember your preferences, keep the service secure, and understand how the site is used.

The cookies we use fall into these categories:

  • Essential cookies — required to operate the website and keep it secure
  • Preference cookies — to remember your settings and choices
  • Analytics and marketing cookies — set by the providers listed above to measure traffic and advertising performance

You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to notify you when a cookie is set. If you refuse cookies, some parts of the website may not function correctly.

We do not currently respond to browser "Do Not Track" (DNT) signals.

How long we keep personal data

We retain personal data for the duration of your organisation's active subscription and for six (6) months after subscription cancellation, after which it is deleted. This applies to customer account and identity data, profile photos, and karma transaction records.

  • Database backups operate on a rolling 7-day point-in-time recovery window, so any backup containing erased data is automatically superseded within 7 days.
  • Upon a verified data deletion request, we action it as promptly as reasonably possible and in any event within one month, as required by the GDPR.
  • Billing and accounting records may be retained for longer where required by law.
  • Operational data — error telemetry, security logs, and backups — is disposed of automatically as it ages out of the relevant service's retention window.

Full details are set out in our Data Retention and Disposal Policy.

Your data protection rights

Subject to applicable law, you have the right to:

  • Be informed about how your personal data is used
  • Access the personal data we hold about you
  • Rectification — to have inaccurate or incomplete data corrected
  • Erasure — to have your personal data deleted
  • Restriction — to request that we restrict processing of your personal data
  • Data portability — to receive your data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format
  • Object to our processing of your personal data
  • Rights relating to automated decision-making and profiling — Karma does not carry out automated decision-making producing legal or similarly significant effects
  • Withdraw consent at any time, where we rely on your consent

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hi@karmabot.chat. We may ask you to verify your identity before responding.

Making a Subject Access Request (SAR)

To submit a Subject Access Request, contact us at hi@karmabot.chat. We respond to all SARs within one month, as required by the GDPR, unless the request is complex or numerous, in which case we may extend the response time by a further two months and will tell you if we do. We maintain a data mapping process that lets us locate and retrieve all personal data held about a specific data subject across our systems — principally the production database and the profile photo object storage — so that a SAR can be fulfilled thoroughly.

International transfers and safeguards

Karma production data is hosted in the United States (DigitalOcean SFO region). As Sliday LTD is established in the EU (Cyprus), this involves a transfer of personal data to a third country.

Such transfers — and transfers to other sub-processors located outside the EU/EEA, including Microsoft, AWS, Cloudflare, Stripe, Sentry, and the analytics providers listed above — are protected by appropriate safeguards, principally the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) incorporated into each sub-processor's Data Processing Agreement, supplemented by those providers' certification frameworks, including the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider participates.

Sliday LTD takes all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Your right to complain to a supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.

Our lead supervisory authority is the Office of the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Cyprus:

You may also lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your own country of residence.

Security of data

The security of your data is important to us. We apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk, including encryption in transit, access controls, vulnerability scanning, and error monitoring. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

Children's privacy

Our service is not directed at anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child has provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will take steps to remove it.

Our service may contain links to sites we do not operate. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for, the content or privacy practices of any third-party site. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of every site you visit.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated policy on this page and update the effective date at the top. Where changes are significant, we will notify you by email and/or a prominent notice on our service before the change takes effect. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us:

  • By email: hi@karmabot.chat
  • By post: Sliday LTD, Pavlou Valdaseridi 2A, 1st floor, Larnaka, Cyprus, 6018