Who is Alexa? Or should I ask, what is she? Alexa is the digital assistant inside Amazon’s new voice activated smart speaker called the Echo system.

You can ask it to do a lot of different things such as play music, update you on the news, tell you about the weather or shop for something new. It’s designed to provide you the skinny on any topic. All you need to do is ask.

It got me wondering, what would Alexa say about social recognition? What would she (it) tell HR executives about the most effective form of recognition ever?

She would say that it’s an absolute necessity for any organization looking to attract and retain workers — especially young ones. She would go on to explain that today’s top performing employees like to work within cultures that are collaborative and supportive. She would cite studies that underscore how “A players” thrive in environments where employees share information and support one another. She would go on to note that millennials value input from others and want to hear how they are doing now and not later. She would finish by saying that more and more employees value the acknowledgments they get from their peers just as much (if not more so) than they do their superiors.

That’s what Alexa would say about social recognition. And senior management would agree. They would applaud its ability to recognize more people more often for less money.

Want to hear more? Don’t ask Alexa, ask us.