Practical Ways of Cultivating a Culture of Gratitude in the Workplace

Welcome to Edition 4 of the Joyce Appreciation Corner biweekly newsletter.

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Allow me to celebrate our first significant milestone in this global journey to reactivate the culture of gratitude and benefit from its wide-ranging outcomes everywhere including the workplace. We are officially 1000 plus subscribers! Yes we are and counting!

Dear current and future subscribers, I can’t thank you enough for graciously coming alongside us on this global journey of gratitude transformation. Afterall, we wouldn’t want to leave our families, friends, colleagues, and our network members behind as we continue to become more, achieve more, and give more through gratitude, do we?

In the last edition Dr. John Allotey, PharmD shared his miraculous healing and transformation from trauma to gratitude.

In this 4th edition of the newsletter, we would want to continue the conversation where we left off from the 2nd edition when we established the relevance of the subject matter of gratitude on the ?LinkedIn platform. The logical sequel to that is to continue this discourse with how to cultivate a culture of gratitude in the workplace. This is important because an unknown source has been quoted as saying: ??

"When employees feel valued, they give their best. People who feel appreciated will always do more than expected."

Our goal today therefore is to provide actionable tips and strategies for professionals and organizations to incorporate gratitude into their daily routines to foster a more positive, inclusive, team-enabled, and productive work environment, which is a win-win for all.

Creating an Organizational Culture of Gratitude

Organizations can cultivate a culture of gratitude and appreciation in diverse ways, effective strategies that have been used include:

• Public recognition for a wide range of factors including innovation, leadership, teamwork, small and spectacular achievements, contribution to profitability or the wider recognition of the organization.
• Depending on the organization and how it routinely functions, this public recognition has taken the form of a post in the organization’s newsletter, official email communication, a verbal recognition at meetings with or without a citation or gift, or a handwritten note of appreciation.
• ?Other public recognitions strategies have included promotion or elevation of some sort with higher level responsibility which throws the searchlight on the honored employee. Some organizations have organized special appreciation events or incorporated ?employee appreciation into the company’s milestones during the celebratory events.
• ?I have seen organizations where employees are recognized for exceptional service, output etc. by designating them as “employees of the week, month, or the year; some employers have gone further to make this recognition more formal and widely known beyond the confines of their offices; strategies here have included honoring such employees with officially designated and clearly marked parking slot in the company’s car park for the requisite award period, a bonus, or time off according to their policies.

In addition to these management/corporate level recognitions, an organizational culture of gratitude would best serve the wider interest and be more effective by the intentional promotion of inter-collegial recognition. Encouraging peer-to-peer recognition by creating opportunities for team members and individuals to recognize and thank each other fosters a culture where gratitude flows freely among colleagues (horizontal recognitions) and also vertically from management down.

Organizations can facilitate this horizontal culture of gratitude in several ways including:

• Gifting packs of 3”x5” thank you cards to employees at end-of-year company parties to facilitate their written thank you notes to their colleagues.
• Encouraging genuine and heartfelt “Thank You” for assistance of any kind, however small, among colleagues.
• Some organizations have created channels dedicated to sharing thanks and recognition among staff using their organization’s communication platforms including Slack and Teams.
• Some organizations have created gratitude boards which may be physical or digital spaces where employees can post notes of gratitude and appreciation to their colleagues, creating a fun and interactive way to promote a culture of appreciation.

Do you know that thank you notes, which are specific, i.e., explain what we are thanking others for, have been found to be more effective and better appreciated by the recipients than a general “thank you” without any qualification?

?So, what are the benefits of promoting an organizational culture of gratitude and appreciation?

An organizational culture of gratitude has been found to promote employee loyalty to the organization or brand, higher employee engagement, innovation, higher productivity, ?better team functioning, higher employee retention rates, better interpersonal relationships, higher employee satisfaction, and better physical and mental health and well-being. These have resulted in better customer service, higher customer satisfaction rates, and customer loyalty.

All of these are better for the organizations’ business bottom-line, and are in line with the thought process of Anne M. Mulcahy, the former Chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation who is credited as saying:

“Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person—not just as an employee—are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.”

Maximizing the impact of gratitude practices in the workplace

• For maximum impact of gratitude in the workplace it’s important to avoid making gratitude conditional or transactional, i.e., making people feel that they need to do something in return for public recognition for which they have already worked.
• Gratitude should be free from insincerity, coercion, and superficiality, which can make the practice more harmful than helpful. Appreciation should be heartfelt and genuine to prevent damaging trust.
• Tokens of appreciation are important, but organizations would do well not to rely solely on material rewards; sincere verbal or written expressions of gratitude make the whole practice more personal and better received.
• ?The most important thing to avoid in maximizing an organizational culture of gratitude is that of favoritism.

????? Perceptions of Favoritism in Gratitude: What It Looks Like

Perceptions of favoritism may arise when certain employees consistently receive more attention, praise, or rewards than others, regardless of their actual contributions or performance. Favoritism can be perceived by employees in an organization when they observe certain patterns including:

• Repeated recognition of the same individual(s); continually praising or showing appreciation to a select few while ignoring the contributions of others can create an uneven sense of recognition within a team and/or the organization as a whole.
• ?Overlooking equal contributions; this can be perceived by a member of a team who feels that their individual but equal contribution to the team or organizational effort is overlooked or downplayed when compared to the praise heaped on other members.
• ?Public praise for a select few; this can be perceived when the same individual(s) is repeatedly recognized in public settings including meetings and emails without considering the contributions of others.
• ?Exclusive rewards or perks; this perception can arise when specific perks or rewards are seen to be given to a small group of employees repeatedly and not equitably distributed based on merit.

??? Consequences of perceptions of favoritism in expressing gratitude

1. ? Decreased morale and motivation is unfortunately the result of employees’ perception that their hard work is not valued, this can lead to decreased overall engagement and productivity, which can also give rise to increased resentment and tension among employees, resulting in a toxic work environment.
2. Perceptions of favoritism can also undermine trust among colleagues in an organization; those who feel undervalued may be less willing to collaborate, share useful ideas, or support team efforts.
3. Perceptions of fairness and equity are essential to a healthy workplace environment. Employees’ perception of recognition being based on favoritism will lead to loss of satisfaction and contentment which may reduce retention.
4. Favoritism has another unfavorable outcome of hindering the professional growth and development of those not in the “favored” group when they are consistently overlooked in opportunities needed for advancement and growth within and beyond the organization.
5. The organization’s reputation may be adversely affected in this highly competitive job market, when its toxic organizational environment resulting from favoritism, becomes a barrier to recruitment and retention of top talents.

?Organization would do well to avoid the perceptions of favoritism in employee recognition by any of the following strategies:

1. Establishing clear criteria and guidelines, along with a transparent process for employee recognition, in alignment with the organization’s values and goals.
2. Diversifying recognition efforts by recognizing a diverse range of contributions from team members; this can include acknowledging diverse types of achievements, such as innovation, initiative, leadership, teamwork, so that a wide range of people can be recognized.
3. Reviewing these guidelines and procedures regularly and soliciting employee feedback to guide the criteria and process.
4. Regularly training managers and supervisors regarding the importance of equitable recognition at all levels and providing them with the needed tools to do so.
5. Promoting a culture of gratitude vertically and horizontally across the organization through peer-to-peer appreciation.

In seeking to develop an organizational culture of gratitude, let’s be guided by the wisdom of Pamela Stroko, the author, speaker, and HCM (Human Capital Management) Transformation and Thought Leadership at the Oracle Corporation, who described the “new talent contract” in her own words as follows:

“People want to know they matter, and they want to be treated as people.”

We would love to hear from you regarding additional ways that organizations can develop and foster a culture of gratitude across their institutions.

What has been your experience or the experience of others you know regarding this workplace culture of gratitude?

?Is it easy or difficult to achieve this organizational culture of gratitude and appreciation? Let’s hear your voice on this in the comments section, thank you.

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?Signing off for now with gratitude and deep appreciation.

?Yours truly,

Joyce

The Gratitude Ambassador

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