Key takeaways
- Teams want to be warm and high-performing. Caring (55%) and Results (50%) were the two most-chosen culture types, and the most common pairing.
- Most teams are already there. 71% say their culture matches the one they're trying to build.
- Rituals pay off. Teams with an active ritual rate HeyTaco 3.98 out of 5 on overall value, vs 3.50 for teams without one.
- Talking about it works. Overall value climbs from 3.47 to 4.37 as communication effort goes from low to high.
- Employees drive it, not admins. 46% of admins say employees themselves matter most for participation. Only 1% point to administrators.
Caring and results, side by side
We asked admins to pick the top two of eight culture types that best describe the culture they're building. Two answers ran away with it.
The most common combinations
Why it matters for you
Most teams want to be warm and high-performing. Recognition is one of the few habits that serves both at once. It's how people hear that the work landed.
Most teams are closer than they think
We read every open response and grouped the themes. Four showed up again and again.
"They regularly comment that the best part of working here is their co-workers."
"Friendly and supportive, but everyone is working at 100%."
"Our culture is encouraging and playful. One of our core values is literally humor."
"We live by our values. They shape how we communicate and hold each other accountable."
The feed and rewards do the heavy lifting
We asked how teams encourage people to use HeyTaco. The top three are all things you can set up yourself: a public recognition feed, rewards, and building HeyTaco into onboarding.
Make the feed a moment
A feed only works if people see it. Pull the leaderboard up for two minutes in your team meeting, or post the monthly top givers into your busiest channel.
Rewards don't have to cost money
Lunch with the CEO, an extra hour off, a donation to a charity they choose. The best rewards are the ones your team can't buy.
And it pays off 🌮
Teams with an active ritual score HeyTaco higher on every measure we asked about.
vs 3.50 without a ritual
vs 4.39 without a ritual
vs 8.18 without a ritual
The more you talk about it, the more it's worth
Value, loyalty, and recommendations all climb with communication effort. You don't need a campaign. A few words in places people already look is enough.
Overall value, by how much you communicate
Let leaders go first
When a senior leader gives a taco out loud, in a meeting or in a channel, it tells everyone this is a real part of how you work, not an HR side project.
Tie tacos to what you value
Point out the tacos that show your team at its best. People learn what counts around here far faster from one real example than from a values poster.
Refresh it a few times a year
22% of teams run recognition campaigns: a themed month, a push around a big launch. A new angle gives people a reason to look again.
Four rituals you can steal today
169 admins described a ritual they run. We grouped them into four families. Counts are how many teams described something like it.
"The person who gave the most tacos that month wears a taco crown. Taco Queen/King."
"We kick off our weekly staff meeting with verbal 'gratitacos'."
"Every new starter gets tacos from their manager and team. It's part of our onboarding."
"An automation pops into Teams and prompts folks to share tacos. Very effective."
Want more ideas?
Dozens more rituals from teams like yours live in the Rituals Library.
Browse the Rituals LibraryYour coworkers are the engine
We asked who matters most for participation. Admins put themselves last, and by a wide margin.
Recognition spreads person to person. Your job is to clear the runway, not to hand out every taco yourself.
Pick one. Not five. 🌮
The teams getting the most out of HeyTaco aren't doing more. They're doing one small thing on repeat.
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Start one ritual
A monthly top-giver reveal, a shoutout slot in your team meeting, welcome tacos for new starters. Teams with a ritual rate HeyTaco meaningfully more valuable.
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Keep talking about it
Value scores climb steadily from low to high communication effort, 3.47 to 4.37. Launch day isn't the last time people should hear about it. One idea: add "taco shoutouts" as an agenda item in your all-company meeting.
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Give managers a nudge
Only 13% of teams use manager reminders. A one-line prompt in an existing manager update costs nothing and reaches everyone.
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Back your peers, don't replace them
Employees themselves are the top driver at 46%. Spotlight great tacos, name a few champions, and let the habit spread sideways.
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Put it in onboarding
28% of teams include HeyTaco in onboarding materials. New hires who get tacos in week one learn what your team celebrates before anyone explains it.
The HeyTaco Welcome Kit
An editable deck to introduce HeyTaco during onboarding.
Get the Welcome KitHow we ran it
- Who: 279 HeyTaco administrators across 232 organizations.
- When: June through August 2026.
- Culture types: admins ranked their top two of eight culture types, so those percentages sum to roughly 200%.
- Open responses: 204 admins described their culture in their own words and 169 described a ritual. We grouped these by theme by hand. Counts are approximate and one response can touch more than one theme.
- Ritual comparison: teams with an active ritual (n=176) vs teams without (n=103). Overall value and likelihood to continue were scored 1–5. Likelihood to recommend was scored 0–10.
- Communication effort: low (n=128), moderate (n=91), high (n=60), based on how actively admins said they communicate about HeyTaco.
- A note on causality: this is a survey of self-reported practices and ratings. It shows what the highest-rated teams have in common, not proof that one causes the other.
Curious about the behavioral side? Our peer-reviewed study, Designing Peer Recognition for Engagement, looks at eight years of real usage data from 5,000+ teams.
How to cite this research
Published by HeyTaco. Researchers, journalists, and bloggers are welcome to cite with attribution.
HeyTaco. (2026). HeyTaco Administrator Survey 2026: What 279 admins told us about building culture. https://heytaco.com/research/administrator-survey-2026
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