How recognition endorsements feed the skills engine
Recognition lets peers endorse colleagues on soft and hard skills. To make those endorsements count as signals into the cross-cutting skills engine, each Soft Skill or Hard Skill in the catalog must be linked to a Skill Tag from the central Skills Catalogue.
How does recognition produce skill signals?
The Recognition module has its own catalog of Soft Skills and Hard Skills. These are the recognition-facing entries that learners see in the app: each one has a name (translated per locale), an image, and a colour. Endorsements live on these entries.
For an endorsement to feed the skills engine, the Soft Skill or Hard Skill must be connected to the central skill catalog through a Skill Tag. Without the tag, an endorsement is still visible in the user's profile, but it does not contribute to the cross-cutting skill validation.
Where is the Skill Tag field?
Inside each Soft Skill or Hard Skill edit modal there is a Skill Tag field. It is shown at the bottom of the modal, below the name, image, and (for soft skills) background colour. The same field appears on both Soft Skills and Hard Skills, and uses the central Skills Catalogue as its source.
The field only appears when the Tags feature is enabled on your tenant. If you do not see it, ask the GFoundry team to enable the feature.
How do I link a Soft Skill to the central catalog?
Go to Modules > Recognition > Soft Skills.
Open the Soft Skill you want to link, or use Add Soft Skill for a new one.
The modal opens with language tabs (for example, PT, EN, ES). Provide a Soft Skill Name for each language you support.
Add or update the Soft Skill Image and the Background Color if needed.
In Skill Tag, search for and select the matching skill from the central catalog. Choose the tag that best represents what the recognition is for.
Select Update to save.
The same flow applies to Hard Skills under Modules > Recognition > Hard Skills. Hard skill entries are created through the Create a new Hard Skill dialog and carry the same Skill Tag field.
What happens after the Skill Tag is linked?
Once a Soft Skill or Hard Skill is linked to a Skill Tag:
Every Soft Skill Endorsement or Hard Skill Endorsement on that entry becomes a signal against the linked Skill Tag for the endorsed user.
The endorsement joins all other evidence the engine has for the same Skill Tag, from Learn, Role-Play, and Evaluation.
The skill profile of the user (returned to dashboards, the chatbot, and downstream reports) reflects the new evidence.
If the Skill Tag is later changed on a Soft Skill or Hard Skill, new endorsements feed the new tag. Existing endorsements continue to count against the tag that was linked at the time they were given.
Where does the Skill Tag come from?
Skill Tags live in Skills Mapping > Skills Catalogue. That catalog is the single registry of skills across the platform: Learn skill tagging, Role-Play templates, Evaluation skillsets, and Recognition all use the same set of tags. If a skill is missing from the catalog, add it there first, then link the Recognition entries.
Naming consistency matters. Two tags with similar wording will be treated as two distinct skills by the engine; the catalog should not have duplicates.
How do I enable endorsements in my tenant?
Go to Modules > Recognition > Recognition Settings.
In the Soft Skill Endorsements section, turn the feature on or off.
In the Hard Skill Endorsements section, do the same.
If you want to cap how many endorsements each user can give, set Max Endorsements user.
Save the settings.
If endorsements are disabled, peers cannot endorse. The Soft Skill and Hard Skill catalogs still exist, and any Skill Tags linked to them still describe the catalog structure, but no new signals are produced through this channel.
How do I review who endorsed whom?
Go to Modules > Recognition > Dashboard.
Review the Soft Skill Endorsements and Hard Skill Endorsements sections.
For per-skill detail, open the Soft Skill or Hard Skill in the catalog. The view shows the linked Skill Tag and the endorsements list.
This is also the audit trail for the signal that feeds the engine. An endorsement that is visible here but with no linked Skill Tag means recognition activity took place, but no skill evidence was produced.
How do Star Badge Reviews relate?
Star Badge Reviews are a separate recognition mechanism. They capture a rating and a comment against a colleague on a specific badge. Star Badges currently do not carry a Skill Tag field, so badge reviews do not produce skill engine signals. To feed the engine through recognition, use endorsements on Soft Skills or Hard Skills that have a Skill Tag set.