Within Natural HR, users are able to socially recognise a colleague who has helped them or done well. Socially recognising employee's achievements moves towards encouraging a higher level of engagement within a workforce. 

How will social recognition help my business?

Employees who are positively engaged are proven to be more productive and contribute more effectively to the running of the business as they feel more valued. Studies have shown that psychologically, people crave acceptance as one of their drivers for success and happiness. Therefore, having a platform through which employees can socially interact and receive social recognition within the confines of a HR system provides a strong foot-hold towards achieving optimum employee engagement. 

Setting up Social Recognition

You must first ensure that the Social Stream is Enabled. This is done under:

Administration -> Company -> Settings -> Social -> Social Settings 

Ensure the field 'Social stream status' is set to Enabled.

Want help on setting up the social stream automation? Please click here.

Next, Set up Social Recognition Categories. You can do this through:

Administration -> Company -> Settings ->  Social -> Recognition Categories

Recognition Categories allow HR to keep track of the various types of recognition which are being given.

Click the 'Add' button to add a category.

Selected Icons will be displayed alongside the message on the social stream, in the particular colour which is chosen. 

A couple of fields on this page warrant further explanation:

Colour - This is where you can select the colour of the recognition icon 

Colour style - This is where you can select if the colour should be the icon or the background 

Template - This is where you can customise the message when someone receives recognition. If you click on the "plus" icon to the left of the template box you will find the available placeholders for the template

Link to company values - If company values are set up, there is the option to link social recognition to the company values.  If this is enabled then, when setting up social recognition categories, you can choose to link them to an existing company value.  When you recognise someone using that category, you can then choose the company value to apply for reporting purposes.  Further information on setting up company values can be found here. 

Require Approval? - Social recognition categories can also require approval. If this field is set to 'Yes', the employee's line manager will need to approve the social recognition before it is displayed. 

Permission restrictions will determine if a particular recognition category can only be awarded by HR or Managers. This is perfect for an employee of the month award as you would not want general employees to be giving this type of recognition.

Reporting on Social Recognition

HR users can view all recognition given by going to:

Administration ->  HR ->  Social Recognition

Various filters can be applied to show more specific records of social recognition data.

You can also report on social recognition through the report builder

You can find this by going to

Reporting -> Report Builder -> Add

You will then need to select "Social recognition" from the data source.

Need help building reports ? Click here to find out more 

Adding Social Recognition

To add Social Recognition you will need to go to:

Administration ->  HR -> Social Recognition 

Click the 'Add'  button to add new social recognition into the system. 

Private Social recognition - When adding social recognition to the system, if you select the check-box for 'Private', this will ensure that this type of social recognition does not appear on the Employee Directory or on the Social Stream.

Please Note: Social recognition which has been set to Private will still appear on the employee's card, this will only impact the Employee Directory and Social Steam

Adding social recognition will also generate an email alert to the employee receiving the recognition and their manager.