It is hard for me to imagine, but it has been six weeks since I attended the Workhuman conference in Nashville.  I attend a lot of conferences, but this one is a personal favourite.  The content is phenomenal, and I enjoy connecting with the attendees.

In previous years, one of the rubs I had about attending the Workhuman conference was that some great tools were showcased to spark recognition, but they were only available to large employers.  Many of the circumstances where I can influence activities like recognition are at small employers, and so I didn’t have an opportunity to use the solution, that is, until now.

Actually, I was so excited at hearing of the release of Workhuman Cloud that I marched over to Workhuman Central and purchased it for my team.  I decided that the best way to demo it for others was to have some collateral in the form of real recognition moments.

The act of formatting Workhuman Cloud, customizing the recognition reasons, and inviting team members took all of ten minutes. In terms of recognition reasons, I chose teamwork, urgency, quality, results and innovation.  I felt these were relevant because we are a consulting firm.

What was time consuming was the act of creating the recognition moments. This caused me to ask myself questions like:

• What would I recognize?
• Why would I recognize one thing over another?
• What was an appropriate level of recognition (whisper it, scream it)?
• What should I actually say?

Truth is, I am not a natural recognizer, and so I had to train myself to write my recognition moments.  And I am the first to admit I’m still learning.  There are some basic tips for writing a good recognition moment including:

• Be brief. Start with the words “thank you” if you can.
• Be simple. You don’t have to explain all the details in your recognition, but there should be enough that the person believes that you understood and recognized the effort they put in.
• Be specific. Try to keep to one specific idea of recognition. Tie it to the recognition reason (e.g. teamwork).
• Encourage the recipient to do more of whatever you are recognizing.
• You can do it via video or with graphics, and if that is natural to you, go for it.

Is my team loving Workhuman Cloud?  Absolutely!  Just read some of their reviews:

Sherri Rossi:

Although Workhuman Cloud is still new to our team, I find it to be an excellent way to touch base with our colleagues as we are consultants and we are rarely in the same location. When we recognize one another for the work that we do it allows us to show the appreciation we cannot necessarily demonstrate in person. I was also searching for a recognition tool that worked in small business teams (which is most of my client base) and this tool is bang on what I was looking for. I look forward to many recognition moments in the future.

Adrianne Lovelock:

It has been absolutely wonderful to be able to send (and receive!) recognition. Opening your inbox in the morning and finding recognition brings a smile to your face and makes me personally want to reciprocate that good feeling. Having this tool has given our team a fantastic avenue to acknowledge the positive work we all do and become even closer and more supportive than ever.

Did this post pique your interest?  If so, please go to Workhuman.com to learn more about Workhuman solutions.