RiseSmart: "Coworker feedback: transparent versus confidential"

We have been featured on The RiseSmart Blog

Here are some highlights: "...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..."

"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...

...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."

• Click here to read the full article

Image credit: Risemart.com

"Get To Work: Take this job and love it?" Coworkers.com featured on SF Gate

We've been featured in today's SF Gate,
San Francisco Chronicle, blog:

Tom Abate: "Okay, so you're in the roughly 88 percent of the California workforce that does have a job. At this time of skyrocketing unemployment, what can you do to preserve and protect it?

One possibility is to tap into a new genre of Web sites, like Coworkers.com, that let you get frank and confidential assessments of your work performance from current and former associates.

"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," Coworkers founder Jonathan Clay says in a promo.

It's a new site and a new concept, so if anyone has experience to share, it would be helpful to know if there is a payback for inviting criticism -- and whether it is constructive or destructive..."

Read on at SFGate.com

Data-Driven Feedback: Analytics For The Work You Do

With our unique analytical capabilities, you can get immediate, quantifiable and chart-able feedback on a report, presentation, campaign, or other work event or milestone, gaining an assessment of your effectiveness while building a comprehensive dossier of career accomplishments and marketable skills.

As you accumulate feedback (both private, and shared), you will be able to quickly visualize and identify aspects of your work that need improvement.


Our basic account has 8 distinctive chart types:

• Breakdown By Feedback Type
• Breakdown By Attribution
• Visibility (private vs. public)
• Score Distribution
• Overall Performance Over Time
• Category Performance Over Time (work performance, document, event, etc.)
• Breakdown By Subject Type, Visibility
• Breakdown By Group (grouped by respondents the user categorizes)

Gain greater insight into your career.
Get started with Coworkers.com Analytics today...

Private or Public Feedback?Using both to learn and share.

With Coworkers.com, you can proactively send work evaluation (aka Feedback) requests to colleagues on an ad hoc basis. A key feature of our feedback tool, is that it allows you to manage both Private and Public feedback. Managing everything from critical input on your work, to praise from your peers - in one central place - allows you to gain greater insight into your work.

Here's an explanation of each type, and why/when you might choose one over the other.

Private Feedback

Private feedback is ideal for situations where you are looking to get an extra edge in the workplace by learning where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and monitoring your performance with actionable metrics.

The recipients of your feedback request will know that your request is private, and you can also choose to have it be anonymous as well. These assurances, that the feedback is just between you and the respondent, will generally lead to more honest input.

Users typically send out private feedback request for things like:

• Overall work performance on a periodic basis
• Feedback on a recent meeting or presentation
• Iterative or final input on a proposal or other document

Create a request for Private Feedback

Public Feedback

Public feedback is ideal for those looking to promote themselves by validating their skills and sharing recommendations.

The recipients of your feedback request will know that you wish to share their responses publicly. This will generally lead to testimonials, from your colleagues, that are appropriate for use in promoting yourself.

Users typically send out public feedback request for things like:

• Recommendation for internal promotion, or job search
• Validation of a job well done on an event or milestone
• Praise for a document or other work product

Create a request for Public Feedback

Three Big Assumptions Leaders Should Question

HarvardBusiness.org - "Corporate success rests on good leadership.

Or so we all believed. For at least a generation, we have praised corporate executives as examples of good management. To me, one of the most disturbing aspects of the current recession — aside from financial insecurity — is the failure of leadership, especially corporate leadership. So the question arises, what were senior executives thinking? How did they allow this to happen? And why were they so late to respond?..."

Summary: "Here are three assumptions about how leaders manage that are coming under challenge."

1. It is important for organizations to set firm goals.
2. Quick wins are essential to managers in transition.
3. Senior leaders believe in their CEOs.

Read the full article...

Photo credit: Bludgeoner86

Request Feedback, They'll Be Glad You Asked...

Using Coworkers.com for proactive professional development

Now, more than ever, it's important to be on top of your game. Periodic reviews can help you see the big picture, but often it's the more frequent input that can have the biggest impact.

When it comes to continuous improvement, there's no time like the present. So go for it, ask people what they think!

Our powerful and flexible review tools can help you:

• Request honest opinions from your colleagues about your work performance
• Ask people to assess events or milestones like a meeting, client presentation or trade show
• Receive input on a document or deliverable, such as a presentation or resume

You can choose from our growing library of customizable pre-designed
Review Form Templates, or easily craft your own questionnaires. Get
feedback, so you can find out how you are doing and where you need to
improve. Click here to get started.