Skills for People
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Employee Relations

Always-On Recognition Network

Build a peer-to-peer recognition system for a deskless, multi-site, or shift-based workforce that runs continuously rather than on a scheduled or mandated cadence, paired with location-level visibility reporting.

Inspired by Alison Lambert·Director of Engagement & Insights·Eurest (Compass Group)

What this skill does

Most companies build recognition around a calendar — an Employee of the Month plaque, a quarterly ceremony, an annual recognition week — which works for a desk-based, single-site team but misses most people in a deskless, multi-site, or shift-based workforce, and can feel forced when it's mandated top-down. This skill builds a structurally different mechanism: unscheduled, unrestricted peer-to-peer recognition (anyone can recognize anyone, anytime) paired with location-level reporting that makes recognition activity visible to leadership by site or region. That comparative visibility — not a mandate — is what keeps recognition flowing, since a manager whose site goes quiet can see it stacked against active sites without HR having to chase compliance.

What's included

Customization intake
A short set of questions about your process and data access.
Step-by-step implementation process
The exact steps to build this from your own data.
Definition of done
How to know the output is producing a usable, defensible signal.
Common pitfalls
Where teams usually get this wrong, and how to avoid it.

The process

Step 1 Define who can give and receive recognition, keeping it genuinely open rather than manager-only.
Step 2 Pick the delivery channel from what the workforce actually has in hand (SMS, an existing app, or physical cards — not email).
Step 3 Strip out every scheduling constraint: no quota, no nomination window, no approval queue.
Step 4 Build a location-level reporting view and get it in front of the right audience on a real cadence.
The download also includes the full definition of done and common pitfalls.

Where this came from

Inspired by Alison Lambert, Director of Engagement & Insights at Eurest (Compass Group)
Heard on In The Know
This skill was built by the Skills for People team based on Alison Lambert's public remarks — not written or reviewed by them.