Layered Employee Appreciation: Beyond Holiday Parties And Free Pizza

Top view people grab slices of pizza from box at the outdoors picnic.

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It’s that time of year again. The time where many leaders scramble to figure out how to show appreciation to their team and do some form of a year-end holiday celebration. There are some leaders who dread this time and may even believe it’s unnecessary. While there are others who put in their greatest effort and somehow the employees don’t seem to appreciate their efforts.

A recent study found that 87% of employers believe that their organization currently demonstrates care, while only 65% of employees agree. So how do you make sure your appreciation efforts don’t get relegated to a pizza party meme that reflects a disconnect between your efforts and how employees really feel? Consider the following tips:

Understand the difference between appreciation and recognition. Recognition is calling out a person’s achievements and impact in the workplace. Appreciation is expressing your gratitude for who someone is or how they’ve helped you or others. Both are important in the workplace. However, recognition tends to be prioritized, while appreciation is often left to be handled via an annual holiday party.

Ensure the basics are covered. No amount of appreciation can make up for a lack of fair pay and equitable opportunities for growth. This follows the Motivation-Hygiene Theory developed by the psychologist, Frederick Herzberg. His theory explained that there are some factors that are motivators, such as growth, the work itself, achievement, etc. Then there are factors that can be demotivators is not present such as salary, work conditions, company policies, etc. This means that if the employees perceive a lack of fairness in the way they are treated or paid, they won’t be able to enjoy forms of appreciation. It’s hard to trust the authenticity of a thank you card when you’re getting paid less than those doing the same job as you at the same or at a lower level of quality than what you deliver.

Encourage self-appreciation. During his acceptance speech for receiving a Hollywood star, artist and business mogul, Snoop Dogg, said, “I want to thank me.” It was a phenomenal example of self-appreciation. It’s incredibly difficult to receive appreciation from others if we don’t appreciate ourselves and our own capabilities. This is not about competing with others. It’s about contemplating our individual worth and the value of what we bring to the job.

As a leader, we can encourage individuals to reflect on the value they add to the workplace during 1-1’s and team meetings throughout the year. After all, we expect employees to self-reflect during performance reviews. We should engage them in appreciating their strengths as much as we expect them to evaluate their opportunities to improve.

Demonstrate individual appreciation. A lot of focus tends to be on giving performance feedback. However, as a leader, it can go a long way to use gratitude feedback. A Glassdoor survey found that 80% of employees say they’d be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. A study conducted at a fundraising center showed that calls were boosted by 50% after a director thanked employees for their work.

Instead of sharing your critique or approval about what your employees do, try sincerely sharing what you’re grateful for with them. By sharing what they’ve done that’s helped you and expressing your appreciation you end up sharing with them vs. lecturing them. It’s a connective dialogue. It can also help them feel their value on the team, beyond simply understanding whether they are achieving goals or not.

Generate year-round team appreciation. Part of why holiday celebrations or pizza lunches are sometimes met with ire vs. delight is because the year-round employee experience of the team is not a positive one. Are we using year-end events to make up for a lack of appreciation the rest of the year? If so, it may do more damage than good. A great way to fix this is to create opportunities for peer-to-peer appreciation, as well as the leader taking the time to celebrate the team milestones and smaller wins over the course of the year.

According to a recent study by Gallup and Workhuman regarding appreciation and recognition at work, there is a significantly high impact of peer-to-peer recognition programs. The key being for all appreciation efforts being a consistent and year-round practice.

Make time for team celebrations. Microsoft research shows that over 50% of hybrid and remote employees feel lonelier at work than they did while in the office every day. Team bonding and community are as important to employee engagement as ever. However, with an increase of flexible scheduling and hybrid work environments, the moments to build bonds and connectivity are diminished. Holiday parties and team building events are key opportunities to establish and deepen those bonds.

To set these up for success, include the team in the planning. Even if it’s doing a quick pulse survey, it’s important that they can be part of shaping what celebration and team building looks like for them. This also helps build in a level of inclusivity to the types of activities and celebrations that the team engages in.

Using appreciation as the driving force is a major principle around shaping customer behavior and brand engagement. It makes sense to embed it into your approach at building engagement levels of your employees.