International Thank You Day falls on January 11th every year and serves as a very important reminder of how powerful two simple words can be. Thank you.
The exact roots of International Thank you Day are hazy, but it is thought to trace back to the 1990s when it was initiated to promote the culture of gratitude and appreciation worldwide. Its universal significance lies in its overwhelming simplicity: it encourages people to take a moment to recognise and express their gratitude to individuals, communities or even strangers for their contribution, kindness and support.
Recognition in the workplace
There is a genuine superpower behind managers, business leaders and even peers saying thank you to a worker or colleague. A sound Recognition Strategy is a really good way to keep employees motivated and engaged – and especially in the current climate. If companies cannot afford big pay increases – and many cannot – recognition can reward staff in a way that encourages positive behaviour and reflects the company’s culture.
Where leaders integrate recognition into everyday culture and business practice – for example given for strong effort, the reaching of milestones and anniversaries as well as performance - appreciation becomes second nature. With this kind of positive affirmation, employees – particularly Gen Z and Millennials - thrive because they feel valued and are far more likely to stay in a company, boosting retention.
What might a Thank you look like?
There are many ways to say thank you. Some might be monetary, for example a small pot towards a chosen charity, a voucher for coffee and cake or something more expensive and personalised. There are also ways to recognise people in a non-monetary way or on a budget:
- Give someone a recommendation on LinkedIn
- Encourage peer to peer recognition – sending e-cards or cards in the office to say thanks
- Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day – make a positive word cloud for each person
- Give an employee a ‘duvet day’
- Organise for business leaders or directors to send a personal email of thanks
For more on this, I recommend reading my colleague Sarah Lardner’s article about Recognition on a budget.
Four steps to start Recognition from scratch
- Align recognition strategy with your business - Before you start, think carefully about how you want to align Recognition with your business culture and values, and with employee and business objectives. What is important for you to recognise? Which behaviours or results do you want to encourage and see more of?
- Plan end-to-end: from budget to delivery – Start with budget as it will help determine the scale and scope of recognition. Can you allocate an amount per person per year? Do you want a peer-to-peer or manager-to-team member model? Consider how you will stock or store any rewards, and the mechanism for distribution: doing things manually benefits from the personal touch, but can take a long time, and exclude remote or hybrid workers. Could you achieve better return on investment from an HR App-based platform like Hapi with an integrated recognition hub alongside other employee benefits and services?
- Clarify policies and processes – however well you plan it, never assume that recognition will simply happen. It doesn’t need to be somebody’s sole job but it should form part of the KPIs and deliverables of a person, or team of people. As well as driving the process and making sure it happens, they can also be charged with making sure everyone understands how it works: how can I give or receive recognition? How often? What do rewards include? What rules do I need to observe to ensure the system is fair, transparent and consistent?
- Communicate effectively throughout the process – think carefully about your communications. They should work throughout the lifecycle of recognition, especially if you are putting something in place from scratch. Many companies give their scheme its own mini brand, or create engagement and excitement by running competitions to name it. My colleague Cathryn Edmondson wrote a great article outlining three crucial phases in communicating recognition (pre-launch planning, launch time and post-launch and ongoing) which I would recommend reading.
