Coworker feedback: transparent versus confidential
When you read about social media and human resources, inevitably you will come across the phrase “the reputation economy.” This isn’t a new concept, exactly: in small towns of decades ago, the reputation economy could make or break the local insurance salesman or grocer. But as commerce went global, we stopped personally knowing the people who sell us things. Social media is valuable, in part, because it can give us an idea of who we’re dealing with when we don’t know them at all.
If we’re going to talk about work habits and style, who better to describe you than your current and former coworkers?
In the past, when I’ve searched for websites that claim to have a business model involving “coworker feedback,” I have mostly discovered schemes to anonymously inform cubicle-mates that they have bad breath or other irksome personal habit. (I won’t bother to link; you know the type of site I mean.)
And if I were forced to guess at who was the current leader in serious peer reviews and recommendations, I would have definitely named LinkedIn. It’s the most widely-used professional networking service around, and has a very well respected recommendation system. One important factor, for me, is that the peer reviews are not anonymous. Everyone is accountable for what they say, and their own employment history is transparent. As the LinkedIn blog says:
Most people who have applied to higher level educational institutions are familiar with the traditional methods of gathering recommendations. Finding an advisor, mentor, or teacher willing to fill out a series of questions and write a sealed letter of recommendation. LinkedIn Recommendations bring liquidity and transparency to the reputation economy. As a result, the way people evaluate and respond to recommendations is changing as well.
All true, valuable, and well-said. But I just read an interesting tidbit from the San Francisco Chronicle that got me thinking about peer feedback. The topic was coworker reviews, communication, and evaluation, which had obviously been on my mind. But they brought the discussion back around to confidentiality. Transparency is great… for recommendations, which are meant to seen by strangers, and need to be trustworthy and verifiable. But for improving your current work habits, without switching jobs or involving a recruiter, isn’t confidential feedback more valuable and timely?
That is where Coworkers.com comes in. They launched about a year and a half ago, and the purpose of the site is to let you accumulate frank and private evaluations from past and current colleagues. You are evaluated in terms of your core values, your interpersonal skills, your general competence, and your productivity, and given analytical tools to help you interpret and improve your skills.
One huge benefit: “You no longer have to wait for your boss to tell you how you’re doing, or what you need to do to address any issues. With Coworkers.com you can find out quickly and painlessly, straight from the people who know you best – the colleagues that you interact with every day,” says Coworkers founder Jonathan Clay. Improving before the boss asks you to is always a big plus in our book.
In the past few weeks, Coworkers.com has launched a complete career management site to complement their feedback system:
[It] gives professionals at any level, those in transition, consultants, and small businesses, the tools to instantly create a personal dashboard to manage their work, analyze their performance, gain feedback on overall performance and get reaction to specific deliverables, events, and job milestones. Companies can use the site to monitor and analyze employee performance, and recruiters can gain access to detailed candidate profiles. Businesses with virtual teams or multiple offices will find a complete suite of tools to communicate, share feedback, and monitor workgroup performance without costly enterprise software.
With this broader focus, the site is mixing private and public feedback. The site also has a paid section that is targeted at Human Resources, and aims to assist in researching candidates and managing employees.
Just to round things out, I looked around for competitors to Coworkers.com. I came across a site called RateMyCoworkers.com, but it’s clearly much smaller, has fewer features, and is more of a comment board than a private system. The Chronicle also cites Rypple.com and WorkScore.com as websites where one’s personal reputation comes into play. But I just haven’t seen anything with the scope and ambition of Coworkers, particularly with this recent drive to be used by entire teams and supplant enterprise software with a website. Very interesting, indeed.
Article by, Sarah and courtesy of RiseSmart.com – RiseSmart: Search Smarter. Rise Faster.
