Social Recognition: Humanizing The Performance Review
Author: David Mario Smith Date: June 13, 2014
Topic: Social HCM Research Note Number: 2014-20
Issue: How can enterprises leverage social software to improve performance management?
Summary: The days of the look-back performance review are over. Forward-thinking organizations are mixing social capabilities with the wisdom of crowds to recast the performance review into a more strategic approach that includes employee engagement.
A trend has been emerging in enterprises large and small. Performance reviews are important, but not in the way that they used to be. Many companies have shifted focus to a more proactive employee engagement approach. The performance review is important, but an engaged and motivated workforce is critical to the overall performance of the enterprise.
Social recognition within enterprises has emerged from consumer networks like eBay and Amazon that popularized rating and recognition capabilities. These principles and techniques became a central point in gamification platforms and solutions. Now, with game theory incorporated within HCM and talent management platforms, the concept of social recognition can be formalized and structured as a part of the HR process. In this research note, we discuss the importance of social recognition in evaluating employee performance and increasing engagement.