Gratitude And Thankfulness Practices For Employees
The season of thankfulness is upon us!
A daily dose of gratitude in the workplace can have a positive impact on not just the organization but also on your employees. It is a philosophy of life that helps teams remain grounded and often becomes a guiding beacon when energies are sapped.
With Friendsgiving Dinners popping up on the weekends and Giving Tuesday campaigns running all over social media, the theme of gratitude and thankfulness seems to envelop every aspect of life in November and December.
Hence it is the perfect time to bring thankfulness to the workplace!
Why Do We Need Gratitude Today?
Gratitude implies celebrating small wins in a sea of defeat. It helps us stay grounded and ensures that we see the light at the end of the tunnel, despite the wearisome distance. It fuels your energy and pushes you to make the most of what you have. Especially in a time when capitalism rules every segment of your life and mind!
It's safe to say that the last couple of years has been devastating for everyone’s mental health including employees and employers alike. The pandemic, financial distress, political uproar and multiple switches in work models have impacted financial statements around the globe.
As one merely mentions mental health it becomes equally important to remember its significance on the performance of an employee. You cannot go farther than a few feet if each component is functioning in a compromised state.
Does Gratitude Work Well For The Workplace?
Gratitude may not be the panacea for all the concerns your employees may have, but it certainly helps in reducing cortisol levels. Lower stress hormones have countless benefits such as better metabolism, improved sleep-wake cycles, and optimized energy levels that can be used to work smarter at the workplace.
Showing what your team means to you by embracing DEI frameworks, to accommodate everyone is one way of initiating a practice of thankfulness. It is a seedling that will lead your employees to find the motivation to work harder and expend their energies productively instead of just looking busy, and doing nothing!
It is essential for the leadership to express their gratitude to the team as it highlights the underlying ways the organization benefits the employee beyond their salaried income and predetermined fringe benefits.
Adding an emotional dimension to the workspace may seem like a double-headed sword but one must make note that Gen Z and millennials make up the majority of the workforce today. And this segment of the postmodern population strives for something extra in all walks of life. It's worth the trial and error!
How To Include Thankfulness Practices For Employees
Setting a routine of thankfulness for your employees does not necessarily mean that you need to sign 30,000 handwritten notes like the CEO of Campbell’s Soup. But smaller, more meaningful gestures can make a world of difference. Here’s a quick overview of 5 steps and practices that can be enacted with minimal effort.
Company-Wide Thank You Emails
Incorporating gratitude in your company culture depends on the efforts of the leadership due to its tendency to spill over.
Thanking all the employees for their effort during a crisis or appreciating the team during a moment of success may hardly take a few minutes of your time. But it can mean the world to the employee who had been bending over backward to keep themself together during the tough time.
A Dedicated Channel To Say Thank You For Anything One Does
As social media continues to dictate lifestyles and culture, you can embrace the tech-savvy trend of shoutouts to appreciate an individual for their efforts. You can set up an internal channel/thread on your professional platforms to say thank you. Or you can go a step ahead by announcing the efforts on social media.
An employee of the month/week or star of the season can be a few ways of bringing back healthy competition and increasing productivity in the workspace. But one must remember the demographics of their team before implementing a new framework.
Not every employee likes the limelight, and neither can you keep track of all the achievements within the team. Hence it is necessary to develop an infrastructure that is easy to sustain.
Thank You Thursdays
Nothing screams ‘Thank You’ like free treats.
Whether it is swag bags, donuts, tickets to a game, or complimentary goods, you can set up any ritual that fits the memo and budget that you have in mind. The goal here is to show the team that they mean more than the sum total of their efforts in the organization.
Personalized Messages To Be More Meaningful
The human touch plays a critical role here, as it is the foundation of all motivational efforts in the modern day. Sending generic messages may work well in teams expanding the count of 20. But if you’re operating with a smaller, more manageable number of people then a personalized thank-you can work wonders.
Whether it's a few words or a basket of wonders, your gesture can hit the right chords with the employee and strike the tune that leads your company to unattainable success.
Start The Conversation
If all else fails, one can at least try to start the conversation on thankfulness. A workshop on how gratitude changes lives or a simple team-wide discussion during a meeting will evoke a connection that reminds the team that everyone is a cog in the same machine.
Once thankfulness enters the discourse you can try several other ways to help your team:
Offer opportunities for personal development
Offer time off in the name of self-care and screen detox
Conduct one-on-one discussions
Final Takeaways
The end of November and early December seems like the ideal time to start a practice of thankfulness. While you may not pardon a turkey, you can surely share the candy canes and gingerbread to say thank you in a more festive way.
Remember, recognizing the efforts of others stems from empathy. Try to create a happier workplace for your team and you already leap ahead!
