It is very refreshing to see a company that walks the talk. Globoforce’s WorkHuman event in Orlando May 9-11 showcased an organization that truly believes in its core values. Although many companies in the HCM space use their own product, I learned at WorkHuman that they (Globoforce) is the largest per-capita user of their own platform. An interesting side effect of this usage came out during my conversations with their product engineers and product development executives, who understood what new features were needed because they were the ones using their product every single day. 
At a product briefing for analysts, Grant Beckett, Vice President of Products, and Neal Bruce, VP of Product Marketing, often gave examples of how their product direction was shaped by their own experiences using it. Naturally, there was customer feedback thrown in, but it was refreshing to hear how they had decided on some key features by noticing gaps in what they were trying to do in their own day-to-day work and then setting about to address those gaps.
Also exciting was to see how their feedback platform (I’m being careful not to use the term “recognition” here, because as Grant explained, “Recognition isn’t in the domain of HR, it’s in the domain of business”) can be used in ways that meet the needs of growing concerns within HR, such as measuring EVP.
As my colleague Daria Friedman wrote about EVP recently, it is very difficult to measure because “it requires a comprehensive and objective assessment of every facet of the organization from both the organizations’ and employees’ perspectives.” A lot of the questions that arise from Brandon Hall Group’s presentations on EVP are usually about its hard-to-define nature and how to measure whether efforts to improve EVP are having any effect.
What Globoforce’s tool gives you is a means to see the impact of EVP (or company values for that matter) by tracking how feedback and recognition is given around certain core cultural competencies. Another surprising use of their technology is in tracking who the influencers are in your company (i.e. informal leadership) by seeing who gives and receives feedback and recognition to whom, and how often. These areas, informal leadership and EVP, have traditionally been “black boxes” in organizations so it’s pretty fascinating to see how different HCM tools are being used to gain insight into these areas.
Tracking Your Organization’s Influencers with Globoforce
Of course, the event itself, WorkHuman, was more than just product demos. Returning to the idea of an organization practicing what it preaches, the layout, schedule, and speakers at WorkHuman truly reflected a people-centric mindset. Keynotes from Amy Cuddy, Michael J. Fox, and Eric Mosley (CEO of Globoforce) were refreshingly direct and on-point with their positive and poignant messages. If we are truly only in year two of the Human Century (a favored phrase of Eric Mosley’s) then it’s hard not to feel good about the state of the industry moving forward.
–Cliff Stevenson, Principal Analyst, Workforce Management, Brandon Hall Group
@CliffordDarrell
