The Importance of Kindness in the Workplace

The last couple of years have taken a toll on many people’s mental health and ability to find meaning and connections in their work environments. In a world that shifted to back-to-back online meetings and discussions in the virtual space, many people have longed for small tokens of interpersonal connection that represent kindness: a small “thank you” or a handshake from a superior, a quick catch-up at the water cooler on how one’s family is doing, or perhaps the handover of a card in recognition of a birthday. All of these are small acts but they do big things to reinforce team cohesiveness and a sense of belonging to a company or organization.

Every day as my teams move back to hybrid and, eventually, on-site work regimes, I see increased appreciation of kind acts and connection. And so I encourage my colleagues to take up the practice of showing kindness as it benefits them as individuals and ultimately our organization as a whole.?

Kind words and acknowledgments boost performance

The vast majority of workers are committed to their jobs and want to perform well. Bearing that in mind, it doesn’t take much to help our employees and colleagues succeed. It is typically small forms of recognition that reinforce individual workers’ commitment to performing at top level and helping the company thrive. Studies show that small gestures like compliments on a job well done, delivery of certificates of recognition, rewards for quality performance, etc. all have a massive impact on business operations. They increase employee outputs, they reduce absenteeism in the work place, and they boost self-esteem. This, in turn, leads to greater likelihood of hitting targets and KPIs and also developing talent to advance to bigger roles with greater responsibilities, i.e., cultivating future leaders.?

Kindness helps achieve the organizational vision and mission

A further important benefit of kindness is helping employees and teams find deeper meaning in their roles and the outputs they are meant to produce. Increasingly, with younger GenZ and Millennial hires, these groups report that they assess their employers based on the organization’s broader role in the community. So if businesses show a commitment to kindness and community engagement, their employees will form a more grounded connection to the organization and act as ambassadors for company values. Activities as simple as company involvement in charity campaigns or community volunteer work can reinforce employee understanding of a company’s mission and boost their alignment with why they chose to work for the company in the first place.

A culture of caring and support

It’s a simple truth: kindness begets kindness. In working with teams where your efforts are recognized and rewarded, this makes employees and team leaders also want to share praise and remind their colleagues of their value and impact. Although the virtual workspace has put up some barriers to compliments, which often seem more genuine when given in person, there are ways to make the virtual workspace kinder. If you’re the leader of a Zoom meeting, set aside time at the start or end of the meeting to recognize and reward your colleagues.

The above comments are just a quick reflection on how kindness impacts the workplace. But it has been proven that small acts of kindness improve efficiency and productivity while cutting employee turnover. So as motivational speaker and author Leon Logothetis puts it: Go be kind!