How Appreciation and Gratitude Can Transform Your Workplace

It’s easy for appreciation and gratitude to fall through the cracks when you’re busy, both at work and at home. Not to mention you’re regularly dealing with the pressures that come with being a leader, like impending deadlines and the need to perform and make sure your team is meeting goals.

The problem is, leaving this component out of your leadership practice is like forgetting baking soda in the cookie recipe. Without it, the rest falls flat. Employees who aren’t appreciated because their leaders forget to show gratitude for their work are more likely to leave, be sick and less engaged.

While it may feel challenging to make time for showing appreciation, it’s not impossible. In fact, one of the most famous examples of showing appreciation as a leader comes from Douglas Conant, former CEO of Campbell’s Soup. He tells Fast Company:

“Most cultures don’t do a good job of celebrating contributions. So I developed the practice of writing notes to our employees. Over 10 years, it amounted to more than 30,000 notes, and we had only 20,000 employees. Wherever I’d go in the world, in employee cubicles you’d find my handwritten notes posted on their bulletin boards.”

All of that gratitude and appreciation paid dividends. Fast Company explains that by 2009—Conant came into the company in 2001—the company was outperforming both the S&P Food Group and the S&P 500, with earnings growing as well. Most notably, employee engagement was skyrocketing with 17 engaged employees for every one who was not. 

If you’re ready to transform your workplace with appreciation and gratitude, consider the many ways to do exactly that, despite a busy schedule, and the benefits that you’ll reap as a result.

Reduce Turnover 

When employees don’t feel appreciated and recognized at work, they leave. Gallup’s State of the American Workplace 2018 report found that employees who don’t feel recognized are two times as likely as those who do feel recognized to say they'll quit in the next year. The problem is that high turnover is costing your company to the tune of $15,000 per person, based on a median salary of $45,000 a year, according to the 2018 Retention Report.

If you struggle with retention in your workplace, this is an important place to look.

Transform Your Workplace With Praise

One way to show employees that you appreciate them is to praise and recognize them on a regular basis. In the State of the American Workplace  2018, Gallup explains why this appreciation tactic is so valuable:

“Workplace recognition motivates employees, gives them a sense of accomplishment and makes them feel appreciated for their work. The act of recognition also sends messages to other employees about what success looks like. In this way, recognition is both a tool for personal reward and an opportunity to reinforce the desired behavior to other employees.”

Remember that praise can come in many forms, including a hand-written note, public statement of appreciation, a monetary bonus or increase in responsibility. 

Improve Employees’ Health

Showing gratitude in the workplace doesn’t just make you feel better. It can also improve your employees’ health. A 2019 Portland State University study with nurses, employees who are traditionally undervalued, found that being thanked more often in the workplace leads to better sleep, fewer headaches, and improved eating. 

By simply thanking your employees more often, and showing gratitude for their work, employees  can enjoy better health both in and out of the office. This is a powerful leadership tool that you can’t overlook.

Transform Your Workplace Starting With Yourself

The best way to bring more gratitude into the workplace is to start with yourself by cultivating a habit of gratitude in your life. When doing so, you also reap a wide range of benefits. In studying more than one thousand people of all ages, Robert Emmons, a leader in the science of gratitude, found that people who practice gratitude daily are more helpful, generous, compassionate and forgiving. 

Those shifts in attitude also undoubtedly play a role in how you interact with employees. The more compassionate and generous you are in you day-to-day interactions in the workplace, the more likely employees are to feel your gratitude.

There are many ways to cultivate a daily meditation practice. Here are a few ideas we’ve seen work well: 

• Start your weekly check-in meetings with everyone sharing at least one thing they’re grateful for that day or that week.

• Celebrate client successes and show appreciation for the team involved in creating that success.

• As you advance your gratitude practice, remember to find one thing to be grateful for when facing challenging situations. Look for gratitude in the challenges themselves to continually shift into this mindset, even when it’s difficult to do so.

We also love this unique idea from a company where we teach. There’s a post station equipped with stationary for employees to write thank you cards that are then mailed internally via an in-house "mail box.” The office manager delivers all the cards collected weekly, making it easy and fun to celebrate co-workers and show appreciation and gratitude.

Drive Greater Engagement Among Employees

Appreciation in the workplace positively affects almost every element of the employee experience, according to 2018 data from Globoforce. Not only are employees more engaged, but company culture, employee relationships and overall workplace happiness improves as well.

Transform Your Workplace with a Recognition Program

The same Globoforce report found that 80 percent of HR professionals report having an employee recognition program in place. If you’re among the 20 percent of companies that don’t, now is the time to get on board. 

When developing this for your organization, keep in mind that not all programs are created equal. The best programs, according to HR professionals, have the following in common:

• Ties to values.

• Ties to performance. 

• Ties rewards to engagement survey. 

• Includes individual and team performance. 

• Tracks metrics to ensure broad recognition among employees.

As a leader, you can bring these ideas, along with the data, to your HR team. Leverage your position to bring more gratitude into the workplace with a structured program that ensures every leader and managers brings more gratitude to their work. 

Transform Your Workplace With Appreciation and Gratitude

The simple act of showing more appreciation and gratitude by praising and recognizing employees can powerfully transform your workplace. Not only can you increase engagement, but you may also see an increase in earnings, productivity and employee health. Don’t lose out on the opportunity to reap these benefits and instead, focus on bringing more appreciation and gratitude into the workplace. 

We’d love to hear from you. Tell us what you do to bring gratitude and appreciation into your workplace in the comments! 

Corporate leaders: Hire us for a corporate workshop! Email us to get started.