Well they were not that huge, but most of organizations had "board of honor" with photos and names of best workers displayed for everyone to see.
It was mocked ("look at those idiots that work for free, lol") even before USSR died.
And monuments are only for the very, very few.
Yuri Gagarin
Also I was born in 1984 in the USA so I don't have a lot of experience with billboards in Soviet Russia...
The USSR is the only example I can think of where they ever tried for a long time to elevate workers in this way instead if paying them better, like the parent commenter asked for.