March 1st is employee appreciation day, and chances are most companies aren’t doing anything for the occasion. A 2012 Bersin by Deloitte study reports that nearly 70% of employees report they are recognized just once per year or not at all.
MeritShare wants to change this by allowing any employee to create an online recognition program for their company at no charge. Today, the company is expanding this offering with the launch of the first US heatmap of employee appreciation and a national recognition index for companies to measure and track their employee engagement.
“Employee and peer recognition is one of the simplest and most powerful tools to make work better. By giving more people the power to recognize, you can build a stronger and more engaged work culture,” says Travis Pearl, MeritShare co-founder. Pearl adds, “Our heat map is a motivating data visualization of the goodwill employees are creating, and our new data analytics and scoring components allow companies to understand their employee engagement based on action and behavior”.
The next generation social commerce company BeachMint is currently over-indexing and leading MeritShare’s engagement metrics. “MeritShare’s peer recognition system is a great way to strengthen teams, reinforce the right behaviors and encourage motivation from every corner” says Jose Martinez, Director, Customer Care at BeachMint based in Santa Monica. Martinez adds, “We used MeritShare’s customization tools to create custom awards that support the unique culture we are building at BeachMint”.
Anyone, at any company or organization, can get started by going to Meritshare and registering using a work email address. Users can send a “Thanks” or “Team Player Award to their colleagues, creating a company-specific work community around recognition with awards, shout-outs, and comments. Users have the option to share the award on social media, and a public award page is created for the recipient. MeritShare manages email engagement campaigns, reminders, and a weekly email digest to keep the recognition community active.
“I felt really happy to receive an award for something that I worked really hard on… it was really nice, super nice,” says Caitlin Pass who received a MeritShare award from a colleague at Zumobi.
MeritShare is online and mobile. No software download or application is required for this browser-based service. A MeritShare recognition community can be set-up in minutes with a company email address at https://www.meritshare.com. The new public appreciation heatmap is online and updated in real-time based on peer recognition given on MeritShare. To view the heatmap visit https://www.meritshare.com/pages/heatmap. The engagement index and scoring service are available for premium MeritShare customers.
“To us, it’s not about being a blue or red state, but making everyone a green state of appreciation. We have made it easy, free, and available to all, removing all barriers to recognition,” adds MeritShare co-founder Pearl.
About MeritShare:
MeritShare is used by teams, organizations and companies including “Best Company To Work for” winners. MeritShare was the first workforce recognition program to create public pages for users that list honors and awards provided from multiple organizations. MeritShare provides free and premium tiers. The premium package includes customization features and analytics that allow companies to track their performance against the network index. Pricing is based on a $2 per user per month fee structure. MeritShare was started in July 2012 by Seattle start-up veterans Travis Pearl and Kevin Nakao. Both previously worked at top website and mobile publisher WhitePages, launching several popular mobile and online services. The company is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
Contact: Kevin Nakao
kevin(at)meritshare(dot)com
650-275-2359