Klout is the Future of Performance Management

Hate them or love them Klout is here to stay. While we may all question Klout’s scoring algorithms, we can probably all agree on the value of the outcome; identifying people with the ability to persuade via social media.

So why not develop and reward employees based on a corporate driven type Klout score! Recent studies show most employers are oblivious to an employees impact within their company and outside the company as it relates to intangibles outside their normal job description. Many employees are devout advocates for their companies on many fronts: identifying great hires, mentoring employees, referring customers and much more. So why not reward these individuals?

Klout currently measures an individuals influence in the social network by their True Reach + Amplification + Network Impact. A corporate Klout model will likely continue to use these three areas but through the following possible corporate lenses:

1. Impact in their job

How well are they getting things done, independently and by influencing how things get done within and outside the company.

2. Impact on Sales

Are they referring customers, building positive goodwill, marketing products and services, attracting possible partners and suppliers.

3. Impact on internal social network (employees)

Are they helping to mentor employees, training others, retaining and convincing others to stay with the company, what are other employees saying about them.

4. Impact on Hiring

Are they referring good leads to recruiting, are they talking up the company positively outside the company, are they involved positively in professional forums, associations.

Great companies thrive by providing clear guidance and desired outcomes, so it's no less important when it comes to providing information to employees on how they can help the company beyond their day-to-day job. Companies who do so and properly reward their employees will thrive. Incompetent companies who want the results but do not do the proper care and feeding will fail as they already do. There are no magic bullets but measuring employee value more quantifiably and rewarding those employees for their true worth will go a long way in ensuring a company's future success.

Corporate Klout may not appear tomorrow but it's not far off. So love or hate Klout and their counterparts they have given us an opportunity to look beyond traditional employee value. The future looks bright for those that go beyond their day-to-day job. What do you think about Kloutifying performance management?

For more on this author visit:

Linked in - http://ca.linkedin.com/in/francoisguay

Blog - http://attackdefenddisrupt.wordpress.com/

Twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/GuayFrancois

Comment by Jerry Albright on November 9, 2011 at 11:02am: Sorry Francois - I could barely make it past the opening sentence here:

"While we may all question Klout’s scoring algorithms, we can probably all agree on the value of the outcome; identifying people with the ability to persuade via social media."

The person who came up with the idea for Klout is a genious. The people who then think it actually measures anything more than how much time someone wastes on Twitter and Facebook should be publicly ridiculed.

Klout score DOES NOT translate into any form of "measurable" influence in any way for the VAST MAJORITY of careers. In fact - if an engineer, doctor, accountant, phlebotomist, fireman, nurse, software developer or any other professional OUTSIDE the Social Media Mutual Admiration Society has a score over 30 - I'd recommend firing them. There is NO WAY they're working 8 hours a day.....

Comment by Francois Guay on November 9, 2011 at 11:09am: @Jerry,

Your right that Klout does a poor job today and is not a reflection of anyone's worth but is but a perception. But as it relates to future use a kloutish type tool will become critical to more than we believe possible today. Yes the people at Klout were very smart and I do see many future applications. As all things in their infancy there is much work to be done but I believe these types of tools will prove their worth.

By the way what's your score Jerry? LOL

Comment by Sandra McCartt on November 9, 2011 at 11:35am: Take the "k" off of klout and you have it identified. In my opinion this silly thing, like many other social media goofy stuff, has managed to reduce otherwise somewhat functional adults back to narcissistic levels of grade school where we passed notes that said , "do you like Judy, check yes or no.

In a corporate setting it would achieve the same thing as keeping a list of who spent the most time gossiping at the coffee pot if they had all the good gossip.

The only site I know of that one has to email to get their account removed.

People are having fun giving people klout scores for things they hate.

Comment by Francois Guay on November 9, 2011 at 11:42am: I actually think Klout is awesome, not by it's accuracy but in making people think that there is more to an employees value than a managers opinion. What one's social circle thinks about them is valuable. Do spot awards, peer recognition awards meaning nothing. I think Klout is on to something but they and others have more homework to do.

Comment by Jerry Albright on November 9, 2011 at 11:47am: Respectfully Francois - your comment makes me laugh. Suggesting that a number which is directly tied to the amount of time someone spends on social media sites is MORE valuable than their manager's view of the work performance?

One interesting point here is that many of the higher scores are most likely tied to people who are not currently employed - thereby giving them the entire day and night to tweet their asses off.

Comment by Francois Guay on November 9, 2011 at 12:10pm: Thanks for the laugh on Twitter @Jerry. If you really read the entire post, you will note that I am talking about a future vision and that I do believe that what other people think and say about you will have an impact. It's undeniable that the Internet has done that already, positively and negatively and that future apps will do the same. If it's Klout or something else remains to be seen....Klout was specifically used in this article because it's seen as the leader by some, not because I think Klout is the killer app but because of how it makes us re-think value.

Comment by Jerry Albright on November 9, 2011 at 12:20pm: Klout in no way, shape, form or fashion has me re-thinking value. Value is most directly seen by looking at ones contribution to their employer (since we're recruiters - and that's what we talk about)

A high Klout score is most likely MORE REFLECTIVE of someone's lack of attention to their real job.

Comment by lisa rokusek on November 9, 2011 at 12:29pm: I posted a comment and then deleted it accidentally. I hate it when I do that.

The internet and the web have brought about many things, especially disintermediation in a lot of industries. Revolutionary but with that change comes risk. How we measure value is being examined and when we add a "social" component we also add the human tendency to clique up - much like a grown up business version of high school. Dangerous.

Popularity does not necessarily equal value. It can matter, but personally I value competence over social score. I value doing over talking about doing. I prefer vetted facts over opinion. Read some Ibsen (Enemy of the People)and you will remember that the majority is not always right.

That is what hangs in the balance here, and it is really very nerve wracking. Klout and SocialCheck.me are in interesting but they are also very concerning to me.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on November 9, 2011 at 12:30pm: Given this comment that social approval proves worth then management would have to fire those who were not social at work just good at their job. Peer awards are a lot like miss congeniality awards in a beauty pageant. How many stories have we all heard about how everybody hated to see ole John go because everybody loved him but he got nothing done.
A lazy lout with lots of Klout.

Comment by Nate Fischer on November 9, 2011 at 2:24pm: I got news for you sir, your Klout score doesn't matter. The next Java Developer candidate you talk to couldn't give to shakes of a lambs tail what your score is, he wants a job, and the last time I checked Klout wasn't offering jobs as part of their "perks.

ANYONE who thinks Klout is anything more than a devious attempt to get people to compete with each other to get a higher score all while submitting a ton of marketing cookies to big corporate america and receiving "perks" if you are "special" enough is a fool. A bloody fool.

I actually cancelled and opted out of all of their disgusting attempts at marketing today. They are like the next Deals of the Day website, just twisted to grab more of your attention.