Social media has significantly changed the way that we communicate, not only as individuals but also in business. Organizations use social media for marketing, business development, lead generation, recruitment and also to recognize and reward their employees. This is a trend that employee recognition program providers should pay attention to, and their employee reward system should address.

As organizations seek to strengthen corporate culture and engagement they are seeking new and innovative ways to motivate and recognize their employees from their solution providers. SaaS based employee recognition systems are adding new social media tools that create the opportunity for organizations to socialize their recognition by empowering employees to share their personal success with their peers and social networks. The results have been incredible so far as employees share their success and receive positive reinforcement from their peers. Add to the socialization new gamification techniques such as earning badges for achieving new levels of employee, team and corporate success and you have a powerful new dimension within the recognition, incentive, training and loyalty marketplace.

Social media is dramatically changing how users interact while accelerating the rate at which they provide and receive feedback. In other words, social media offers a more efficient method of acknowledging positive behaviours, team and companywide contributions. Social media gives employees their own voice through social collaboration and continuous feedback. This provides an amplified feeling of job satisfaction and motivation but unbridled corporate socialization can and does have major pitfalls.

Monitoring social content is an interesting challenge; the mere thought that someone can and is in many cases doing this brings on a number of major issues. Should there be freedom of speech in the corporate marketplace? The answer is always a big no. Companies can and do need to cautiously manage social media within their firewalls simply because all these messages are in fact representing your company however the right provider can protect the corporations image by providing a clear set of employee governances and technical support to ensure that all employees have the defined right to communicate with their employees and managers. The right solutions provider can assist you to manage this delicate balance.

To deliver an employee recognition program that considers social media requires the use of innovative technology as well as a rewards management system that is capable of delivering incentives through this very powerful communication vehicle.

Your reward management system should...

1. clearly set a social media code of conduct for all employees and managers to adhere to

2. be able to attract and engage workers across various geographical locations in all languages

3. be able to appeal to workers across generations including well designed recognition

4. provide a personalized experience

5. enable employees to create personal profiles, connect to managers, colleagues and peers

6. share recognition among managers, colleagues and peers

7. allow other managers, colleagues and peers to see the recognition that has been awarded to an employee

8. enable a manager to recognize a team or group for a job well done on a particular project

9. broadcast events and more

10. provide a means to efficiently monitor comments and feedback

Social media instantly delivers a very personal yet public experience - nothing says you have done a great job personal feedback supporting your achievement from your peers.

Working with an employee reward system provider who offers a SaaS based solution and is committed to evolving with emerging trends is your first step towards being able to offer your clients leading edge technology that offers a social component. Social media is a method of communication that occurs on the internet and a key reason that a SaaS based solution will be vital if you want to be able to deliver this type of solution to your clients especially as we start to merge social media with gamification and mobile accessibility. It's going to be an interesting year as these new media's continue to grow in both form and function.

SaaS based employee recognition system providers host their applications so as new trends like employee recognition through social media emerge they can easily add and adapt new features and functionality to keep you current and in the know with your clients.