Use Thanks in Salesforce.com to Recognize your Co-workers

As of Spring '15 release, Thanks is available for free for all Sales Cloud Users. Now, your users have access to Thanks feature, including ability to create, edit, share, and give thanks badges without a Work.com license.

By default, Salesforce provide 12 badges for you to use, but you can create custom badges specific for your company.

Enable Thanks 
To enable Thanks, navigate to: Setup | Customize | Work.com | Settings, look for Thanks Settings section and enable it.

If you enable Restrict Custom Badge Creators, this will restrict not all users able to create / manage badge, only users with Create custom Badge Definitions permission able to manage badges, include create new custom badge and modify out-of-the-box badges.

Give Thanks
To give Thanks to your co-worker, navigate to Feed in Home page or from Chatter page, including Chatter Group. Click Thanks icon, select a badge, type user name you want to thanks and message.

If you do not see Thanks icon in the feed, make sure it has been added in Global Publisher Layout. Navigate to Setup | Create | Global Actions | Publisher Layouts, click Edit link to the layout.

Receive Thanks
User who received Thanks will be notified by email, also the badge will be visible in user feed and recognition page.

1. User feed
Thanks will be visible in both feed of users who give and received thanks, include in Chatter Group if the feed post to the Chatter Group.

2. Email notification
User who received Thanks will get email notification that someone just post a Thanks feed to Chatter.

3. Recognition page
All Thanks received by a user will be visible for that User Recognition page in Chatter profile. This can be used as option for manager to evaluate his sub-ordinates when it come to appraisal.

Create Custom Badge
If your system admin enable "Restrict Custom Badge Creators", only users with "Create custom Badge Definitions" permission able to create custom badge for Thanks. Otherwise, this will be available for all users to create custom badge. Here is the steps:

1. Open Badges tab, if you do not see it, make sure your profile have visibility for Badges tab. Or open https://ap1.salesforce.com/0W1, change ap1 to your company Salesforce instance.
2. Click New button
3. Enter Badge Name, Description and upload image URL
4. If you select Company Badge, the badge will be available to use by all users
5. If Company Badge is not selected, after you save it, you can define users or public groups have access to that badge in Access related list. Badge recipients do not need to have access to the badge to receive the badge, only user who give Badge need to have access to the badge.

Make sure the badge is Active, otherwise the badge will not available to any users who would like to give Thanks.

Reference:

• Use Thanks and Skills for Free
• Getting Started with Work.com Recognition
• Create a Badge