Workhuman Specializes in Social Recognition

Emotional validation is real. Since the beginning of time, humans have been hard-wired with the need to be validated, supported and celebrated.

A natural extension of those needs happens in the workplace, and that’s where Workhuman, a Software as a Service (SaaS) company founded by Eric Mosley comes into play.

Founded as Globoforce in 1999 in Ireland and rebranded as Workhuman in 2019, the company provides cloud-based, human capital management software solutions that emphasize social recognition. The solutions are designed for peer-to-peer recognition and allow for positive rewarding of employees.

Mosley pioneered recognition as a capability offered by technology and continues to “push the envelope with new ideas, new data and innovating” its product’s offerings, said Workhuman president Tom Libretto.

Jenna West, Workhuman senior manager, global external communication, said she has had a firsthand look at how the software works, going into a company feed that allows for amplification of employees’ gratitude and support for their colleagues.

“I just celebrated my three-year anniversary at Workhuman,” West said. “Everybody from within the organization was able to write something to me. So I spent Friday night reading all these stories, which made me feel good. It also showed me the impact that I make, not just with folks on my team but in other parts of the company. (The software) allows you to see the breadth of your work and how many people you’re impacting. It gave me insight that I might not see otherwise. And it lets other people read your stories. I know I read other people’s moments of recognition also.”

Mosley, Workhuman’s CEO, expanded the company to Massachusetts after attracting the interest of companies in the U.S. He and Derek Irvine also authored the 2020 book “Making Work Human: How Human-Centered Companies are Changing the Future of Work and the World.”

In his foreword to Mosley and Irvine’s book, Shawn Achor, The New York Times bestselling author of “The Happiness Advantage,” recalls speaking in front of 400 HR leaders on the subject of happiness at the first Workhuman Live conference in 2015 in Orlando.

Now the eighth annual Workhuman Live will be coming to San Diego later this month, and expects to draw 3,000 people to hear thought-provoking speakers, engage in dialogue and share strategies for workplace happiness.

The event will be held from April 17-20 at the San Diego Convention Center and is geared toward HR leaders, but other business leaders and industry thought leaders also attend, Libretto said.

“It’s a cross-HR industry conference and a way to learn more about here-and-now topics that are relevant to HR leaders with problems du jour in the employee base,” Libretto said. “People come away inspired and educated hearing from their colleagues across (many) industries.”

Workhuman Live is the outlier of HR conferences and the kind of positive environment where transformative ideas can have far-reaching influence, where the hope is that people leave inspired to bring more humanity to their workplaces – and the world, according to Joe Ciccarello of SourceCode Communications.

The conference aims to guide business leaders, executives, HR professionals and like-minded people with the strategies that will help meet the changing needs of and expectations of the workforce, and offers connections, ideas and solutions for the biggest issues facing today’s workplaces.

The San Diego event will include HR leaders from some of the world’s top companies, including Merck, Pfizer, Akamai and Prudential Financial. Companies that attended the conference in past years include Alaska Airlines, Intuit, LinkedIn, REI Co-op and United Services Automobile Association.

West said this year’s keynote speakers include “some great names that people will want to hear from,” including Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation and author of “Creativity, Inc.;” Luvvie Ajayi Jones, a NY Times bestselling author, speaker and podcast host; and Esther Perel, a bestselling author, renowned psychotherapist and podcast host. Mosley, Libretto and Irvine are also speaking at the event.

Workhuman and the research group Gallup recently partnered and together discovered a strong correlation between employee wellbeing and strategic employee recognition – and the resulting impact on overall company growth and success.

In a large-scale study of more than 12,000 employees across 12 countries, Workhuman and Gallup found that recognition is one of the most effective and affordable ways to improve wellbeing, sparking cultural transformation and helping workplaces achieve exceptional performance.

Takeaways from the report show that leaders who strategically incorporate recognition into their culture can drastically improve employees’ perceptions that they’re valued, cared for and respected as people. The report also said that peer-to-peer recognition can help mitigate the $322 billion annual cost of global turnover and lost productivity.

Workhuman

FOUNDED: 1999
FOUNDER AND CEO: Eric Mosley
HEADQUARTERS: Framingham, Massachusetts and Dublin, Ireland
BUSINESS: Technology company providing social peer-to-peer employee recognition
EMPLOYEES: 1,200
WEBSITE: workhuman.com
CONTACT: Visit workhuman.com
NOTABLE: Routinely helps companies contribute to causes or charities they’re aligned with.