Appreciation Society.

I like what you do, you like what I do, makes for a good start to a lasting relationship, working or otherwise. The problem with this, we often don't know what people are capable of doing and we don't go out of our way to find out. From that, the follow on is lack of appreciation and recognition. The last job you accepted, was likely based on your qualifications and you no doubt continue in the job using the skill set noted in your resume. Your colleagues and even the boss, continue relating to you through those skills but if they only knew more about you, you could be so much more, valuable and appreciated by the company.

For many people the thank you's become infrequent as time worked, reverts to normal expectations of a job well done. It's hard to notice something that isn't there and doing a good job becomes business as usual and anticipation of acknowledgement fade as you continue to perform as expected. If only they knew you were a passionate musician, skilled in the art of negotiation, a fine writer or even a speaker of note, management might consider using those skills in a way to benefit the staff and the company. If only you could point out your merits without bragging, without coming off as obnoxious and without being seen as self centred. Appreciation of those "other" skills would go a long way to remunerating the bank of thank you's, that is running low due to lack of acknowledgement.

Recent work on social networking tools designed for companies wanting to find out more about their employees has shown a marked improvement in culture, retention and profits as management find more reasons to appreciate their staff. An example is the Skillcloud platform that allows employees to circulate their extraneous abilities, hobbies, sports, interests and accomplishments, within a social context that people have become used to using. This gives companies the ability to source people skills, often not mentioned in resumes and interviews, while finding more ways to engage with their staff.

No one dies from lack of appreciation but it makes enough of a difference that people find more reasons to come to work and bring that little bit extra of themselves. It makes people feel more authentic and whole, elevates levels of engagement and motivation, while giving the company more reasons to show appreciation. So without having to swagger through the day pointing out your achievements, social platforms bring another approach for companies to work closer with their employees.

People leave their jobs for many reasons and appreciation and recognition are high on the list cited by employees waving goodbye to companies that didn't take the time to find out more about them. This openness needs to be part of a company culture and as such has to come from the top. So if you know nothing about your boss or upper management, they don't know anything about you other than what they see everyday, and appreciation is lacking because of that, maybe it's time to go social platform and open up the thank you bank again.