Social recognition provides a more effective way to perform performance reviews compared to traditional annual reviews. It captures employee achievements as they happen throughout the year from multiple perspectives, including feedback from coworkers. This expands input beyond a single manager and creates a more complete picture of an employee's true performance and reputation. Social recognition also inspires feedback when it is given rather than feeling like an obligation from an annual review process.

1. Social Recognition
The epitome of effective performance reviews
• Capture achievements throughout the year. With social recognition, individual and team
achievements and successes are captured at the moment they happen throughout the year.
Employees better understand what performance is desired on an on-going basis while
managers can see first-hand an employee's true performance, behaviors and influence.
• Widen the input circle beyond a single point of failure. By leveraging feedback from across
the organization, managers can expand the singular viewpoint of traditional performance
reviews to include positive feedback from co-workers and peers alike.
• Use inspiration, not obligation. Social recognition is the epitome of effective reviews:
they're truly inspired, not forced by antiquated performance review processes. When peers
give reviews of each other via recognition, it's due to the strong performance they witness.
It's a purer performance evaluation and not diluted by a check-box mindset.
• Expand accountability for reputations and careers. By incorporating feedback from peers
across the company, you lessen errors for how an employee's performance and career is
judged and nurtured. By rounding it out with recognition, you are creating a more complete
assessment around employees' reputation and work performance.
• Empower employees to create a performance mosaic. With relationships and workflows
extending beyond immediate teams and divisions, management and HR can create a
performance mosaic to appraise true company performance. This social graph of the true
performance of individuals and teams develops as employees and peers recognize one
another. HBR