Informal peer recognition

informal peer recognition toolMy friend Cori at Baudville sent me this cool tool for peer to peer recognition the other day. I’m itching to try it out. When I head to our off site location later this week I’ll be delivering it and offering some encouragement/guidance to our on site HR person to get it rolling.

Peer recognition in a nutshell

The basic idea is that much of the stuff that gets done isn’t obvious to managers, so having peers recognize each other covers those “unseen yet praise-worthy” actions.

There’s also the fun element which shouldn’t be underestimated. I love telling others how awesome they are for doing something extra special. The only way to make that even more fun is to do it when others can see and hear about their accomplishment. That not only earns them some extra kudos, but it also increases the likelihood that they will make that type of action a habit.

Do you have some sort of peer recognition program at your company? It can be as informal as a bulletin board for notes or as formal as a reward program where you get recognized in some sort of ceremony. Love to hear how others do this!

9 thoughts on “Informal peer recognition

  1. Cori

    Wow, Ben! Thanks for the Shout Out! I’m excited for you to start this at your off site location. We have been doing Shout Outs for almost 2 years, and the program is still going strong. People collect their notes and display them at their desk. The recognition is awesome!

  2. Doug Shaw

    Hi Ben, well done to Cori for sending the idea to you and I appreciate you sharing it. I am in the early stages of an engagement and communication project with a client. I will order one of these and see if I can encourage the client to have a shout out wall.

    Cheers – Doug

  3. Lorrae Carr

    We have an Enterprise Social Network called YACKSTAR which has a Recognition function. People can post informal recognition for their peers & managers. Everyone across Australia is connected to this platform and therefore the recognition is seen by all. WE have Formal recognition programs that happen outside of this as well but will eventually all tie back into YACKSTAR.

  4. Melissa Echevarria

    The Shout Outs look pretty cool! We launched a new peer-to-peer recognition program last year “Beer Me Bro”. We had some custom bar chips (yeah, we did) made. When someone knocks another team mates socks off, they can grab a chip and give it to the team member. We have Beer Me Bro happy hours at a local venues where folks can turn in their chips for drinks or appetizers. For our non-drinkers, we also have an onsite salad bar they can use the chips for.

  5. Rob at gowerk

    Nice post Ben. I think this is definitely an awesome tool for smaller companies, creates real-time metrics as shout outs come in. We designed a feature of this into our performance evaluation product called gowerk:perform. We call it notes and it not only accommodates shout outs, but it identifies issues as well – not just with coworkers, but with vendors, clients, initiatives, etc.

    I think the facebook: like button, has come a long way beyond facebook and into everyday facets of life and business.

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  7. Eagle Recognition

    Ben, this is a great idea. Companies can even dive further and publicly reward those who have accumulated several ‘shout out’s by their peers.

    Will be sure to add this piece as a suggestion to our clients!

  8. Solomon Odeli

    Thanks ben for this Idea, is really been awesome. I think the idea has been around for a while now, just that people and company do not realize the positive impact that it can make to employee motivation. It is a very strong tool to spore less productive employees into a more productive capacity especially if they are employees that emulate challenges.

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