How to Create an Engaged Workplace with Workmates and Kudos

Cultivating an Environment of Recognition

We all crave positive feedback in the workplace. Whether it’s managers or peers recognizing the extra effort we put in, a simple “job well done!” gives us a boost of confidence and reassurance that we love and need.

But sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the hustle and bustle of the everyday work grind and possible to unconsciously miss opportunities to recognize our peers on going above and beyond. These hardworking, overlooked individuals tend to become less engaged over time, inevitably affecting their performance or satisfaction.

SHRM’s 2016 report on employee job satisfaction makes a strong case for a direct correlation between engagement and employees who are satisfied at work. In fact, from 2005 to 2015, overall job satisfaction in the US has risen from 77% to 88%. But this begs the question: What can companies do to continue this upward trend?

In Tribal Leadership, authors Dave Logan, John King & Dr. Halee Fischer-Wright outline five stages of company culture and explain that only 2% of companies are cultivating what they call “innocent wonderment,” describing an atmosphere where everyone thrives and people are literally high-fiving as they pass each other in the halls. Dacher Keltner, a UC Berkeley professor of social psychology, explains: “Touch predicts performance through fostering cooperation between teammates.”

So how can your company foster the type of “touch” to propel your organization’s culture into the upper 2% of professional cultures? Look for a way to promote recognition between people and teams. Give some Kudos.

Kudos, more than a simple “thank you,” allows employees to digitally touch and recognize each other through posts and highlight one another for peer-to-peer recognition, receive points and get the recognition they deserve. Team members can also like, react to, and comment on workmates’ kudos intuitively just like they would in popular social media apps.

With Kudos helping teams create that staff-appreciation buzz, employees rewarding one another becomes contagious. Points received by your workmates are kept in their digital wallet and can be redeemed for gift cards to places such as Amazon, Starbucks, Apple iTunes, Fandango, and Google Play thanks to a recent integration with Tango Card’s API. With a leaderboard in place, teammates can discover who has the most recognition during the current month as well as who is leading all time in Kudos, showcasing where they themselves rank. (A little light competition is good for the soul, yes?)

12 ways to recognize someone with Kudos:

• Congratulations
• Creativity
• Effectiveness
• Hard Work
• Innovation
• Leadership
• Listening
• Office & Culture
• Performance
• Teamwork
• Thanks
• Vision

And you can create your own custom Kudos to showcase your company’s culture and branding.

So imagine for a moment your manager gave you a kudos for Creativity on a recent project and it was “liked” by the CEO of the company.  Pretty cool, right!? This feature breaks barriers in the company hierarchy and highlights the importance of recognition through engagement.

Rewarding someone with Kudos on a mobile device or in our web application is easy and simple. And by enabling workmates to engage in this type of workplace recognition, employees and colleagues feel more appreciated and accomplished. With just a few swift clicks, Workmates helps boost office morale and overall job satisfaction across your entire team.

A simple gesture of praise goes a long way.

Download Workmates now to create a Workmates Culture, one kudos at a time.

HR Cloud is a leading developer of HR software & HRMS solutions for business with a focus on effective employee engagement. Founded in 2012, our HRIS empowers teams to easily onboard new hires, manage employee data, create a company social network and support employee development.

HR Cloud was created from the leaders at NEOGOV (founded in 1999 by CEO and Founder Damir Davidovic) the market and technology leader in on-demand human resources software for the public sector, with more than 1,500 government agencies and educational institutions using NEOGOV technology.