Laudits.com

Laudits.com is a webapp for meaningful professional thank-yous. The idea is this: You sometimes see colleagues doing great work, but no one outside the office knows it. You want to show your appreciation, and Laudits.com allows a meaningful thank-you. Recipients put a link to their Laudits on their blog or LinkedIn profiles to let the world know. Giving thank-yous is as important as getting them; we need more mutual support among co-workers. Professionals should not be working just for a boss's praise; they should be working to build a reputation among their colleagues and in the job market, It is very hard for employers to find people with a work-ethic. They can test for knowledge and interview for people-skills, but they have no way of knowing who Gets Things Done. We want to make it easier for good people to get poached by opening up their colleagues' knowledge. Recommendations have their place; they are valuable when they are well-written, but they depend on writing skills, which are all too rare. They tend to be composed of generalities like "Fred is a hard-working software engineer." In contrast, specific, short, thank-yous are easier to write, and they give real information: "You kept the database running when our web-traffic spiked. Thanks!" This is a bit harder to BS, since the relevant skills can be verified. We keep it real by backing the thank-yous with LinkedIn profiles of giver and recipient. Laudits is addressing a basic human and professional need to say thank you, helping good workers (even the "strong silent type" who doesn't do self-promotion) break their reputation out of the office walls, and helping employers find workers who are not only smart and skilled, but also have the elbow grease to get things done.