> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://faqs.xoxoday.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Can Employees Add a Custom Message When Giving a Recognition? > Empuls lets award senders write free-text award reasons, either alongside or instead of predefined values, for more personal and meaningful recognitions. Empuls supports free-text award reasons in recognition programs, letting senders craft personalized citations—configured as mandatory or optional—alongside or in place of predefined dropdown values. ## Personalized award reasons beyond predefined values Recognition loses impact when it feels generic. A dropdown selection like "Teamwork" or "Innovation" may check a compliance box, but it rarely captures the specific moment that made a contribution stand out. Empuls addresses this by giving program administrators the choice to enable free-text award reasons — either as the sole input method or paired with a structured category selection. When free text is enabled, the award sender writes a citation in their own words. This might be a sentence describing how a colleague stepped in during a product launch crisis, or a paragraph acknowledging the consistent mentorship someone provided to a new hire. The recipient sees this message as part of their recognition notification — in Slack, Microsoft Teams, or email — making the moment feel personal rather than templated. ## Mandatory or optional: administrator control Empuls gives administrators full control over whether free-text reasons are required or optional. Making the citation mandatory ensures every award arrives with a substantive reason — particularly useful for formal programs tied to performance cycles in systems like Workday or SAP SuccessFactors. Making it optional keeps the process lightweight for everyday peer-to-peer shoutouts where speed and frequency matter more than depth. A single Empuls instance can serve both use cases simultaneously. A structured quarterly values award can require a citation field, while a lightweight weekly spotlight keeps the message box optional — all configured from the same admin panel without separate program instances. ## AI-assisted citation drafting Writing a meaningful recognition message can feel daunting, especially when recognizing someone outside your immediate team. Empuls includes AI-powered message suggestions that help award senders draft citations aligned with organizational values and the appropriate professional tone. The sender can accept, edit, or replace the suggestion entirely. For example, a manager in a Darwinbox-connected environment awarding a colleague for cross-functional collaboration would see suggested phrasing that references their stated company values — reducing friction and increasing citation quality across the board. ## Why this matters for recognition program integrity Recognition data with rich free-text reasons creates a qualitative record of contributions that structured fields alone cannot capture. This matters for HR teams conducting mid-year reviews, building evidence for promotions, or auditing program participation. For compliance-conscious organizations — Empuls is ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type II attested — documentation of award rationale may also form part of people-management governance requirements. Empuls treats the award reason not as a formality, but as a core part of the recognition experience. **Learn more:** [Empuls Help Centre — Recognition program](https://help-empuls.xoxoday.com/employees/recognitions/recognition-approvals) Understand the award categories Empuls supports and how administrators configure them for a structured recognition program. Learn how Empuls delivers recognition notifications and award flows directly inside Slack and Microsoft Teams.