Globoforce, a provider of social-recognition solutions, expanded its product line with the addition of WorkHuman Cloud, a suite of applications designed to strengthen the connection between employers and their workforce through stronger social connections.
The Framingham, Mass.-based company said that WorkHuman Cloud is “human-centered,” with a social and crowdsourced approach that’s more reflective of today’s workplace than other HR software. The platform allows HR and managers to create “a stronger, more authentic community in the workplace” by making it easier to mark professional and personal milestones, recognize achievements and offer feedback.
“Companies have enough HR software to manage bureaucratic tasks,” said Globoforce CEO Eric Mosley. “However, there is no other HR software that addresses the void between administrative governance and human connections.”
Workforce Cloud’s focus is on employees, he continued. By enabling the better connection of teams and development of talent, the platform will help create “a positive workplace by celebrating employees for who they are and what they do.”
The suite includes five separate products:
- Social Recognition encourages employees to recognize each other and “feel valued.”
- Conversations helps improve performance and build team skills with continuous developmental feedback, check-ins and shared priorities.
- Service Milestones commemorate “the entire career journey” from an employee’s first workday to anniversaries, promotion, and retirement by gathering stories and memories from colleagues. “It revitalizes old, impersonal years of service programs with a more personal and stories-based approach,” Globoforce said.
- Life Events marks employees’ important personal moments such as births, marriages and graduations. The idea is to strengthen the connection between colleagues by leveraging key moments in their personal lives.
- Community Celebrations “memorializes” group experiences such as team outings, charity events and holiday celebrations.
Given Globoforce’s social recognition-heavy approach to engagement, we can’t say any particular aspect of WorkHuman Cloud jumps out at us. However, the company’s been steadily building its its reputation for putting real thought behind its products and the customers we’ve interviewed over the years are nothing if not enthusiastic about its approach and report respectable results.
LinkedIn, for example, has said its social recognition program “Bravo!”–developed with Globoforce–improved both performance and retention rates. Cisco’s “Connected Recognition” program resulted in a 100 percent increase in employee satisfaction scores and a 5 percent increase in engagement scores during the first year, the companies said.
Globoforce unveiled the product at its annual WorkHuman conference, held this year in Austin, Texas. The company also announced that it’s changed the name of its WorkHuman Research Institute to “the WorkHuman Analytics and Research Institute,” which it said reflects “the full breadth of services offered by the Institute.” These include studying and applying workplace practices using data science, machine learning, social network analysis and predictive analytics.
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