What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving? Personally, we think of a giant spread of food. đ˝ đ
Along with that feast, of course, is the opportunity for discussion with your loved ones. What do you talk about at the dinner table? Many typically hear variations of, âWhat are you most thankful for this year?â or âIf you were a Thanksgiving side dish, what would you be?â and, of course, âWho do you want to give thanks to this year?â
We're thinking that we should share that spirit of gratitude with the other group you spend the most time withâyour coworkers!
Without further ado, here are 15 great (virtual-friendly!) ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in the workplace.
If your team or organization is looking for a fun way to celebrate, don't miss Gratitude Bingo, a free and fun activity for remote and in-person teams!Â
Â
1. Recognize Native American Heritage Month
First and foremost, we need to address Thanksgivingâs problematic history. There are plenty of ways to learn about and honor Native Americansâ contributions during Native American Heritage Month and every other month of the year. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Keep an eye out for virtual events you can attend as a team to learn about Native American history together. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress offer thoughtful virtual events for free.Â
Host a book club with your team with a book by a Native American author. You can start with this list.Â
Â
2. Host a recipe swap
Ask your colleagues to share their absolute favorite recipes, and make sure to report back!
To level up this recipe swap, you could even host a virtual âWorksgivingâ to cook each otherâs recipes together. Along with recipes, make sure to share your favorite Thanksgiving memories! Another twist on this idea would be to vote on one excellent recipe to cook and enjoy together virtually.Â
Toast's Employee Experience team runs a company-wide pumpkin carving contest every Halloween and they offer Bonusly Awards to encourage participation. Maybe a turkey or tofurkey carving contest is in your future!
Â
3. Send thank you cards
Sending cards in the mail is a super low-effort but meaningful way to show someone you appreciate them. Have everyone randomly pick out a colleague to write a thank-you card as a heartwarming act of recognition. Plus, a cute card is a great way to brighten up your workspace.
4. Give back to the community
Volunteering and giving back to the community is one of the best Thanksgiving traditions. Whether youâre in the office or not, you can still organize a canned food drive, fundraise for an organization, or volunteer virtually as a team.
Â
5. See who can draw the best hand turkey đď¸
Show off your arts and crafts skills by drawing your best hand turkey! Remember to write what youâre thankful for on each of your fingers, and vote on who has the funniest or most heartwarming drawing.Â
Check out Gratitude Bingo, our free Thanksgiving work activity. Download the PDF that can be easily shared with others.Â
Â
6. Match the plate to its owner đ˝ď¸
At Bonusly, weâve had a lot of fun sharing baby pictures anonymously and trying to match them to their adult counterparts! đź
Similarly, how someone loads up their Thanksgiving plate can tell us a lot about them. Is their food beautifully plated or piled on? Turkey or ham? What does a vegan plate look like? Or is green bean casserole the only vegetable on their plate?
Make it a fun game to encourage team bonding!
Â
7. Fill out an employee "Madlibs"
Let us make gratitude-giving a little easier. We made a hilarious "Madlibs" activity that you can share with your employees to help them recognize one another. It's an interactive PDF with three different templates to appreciate employees based on different scenarios. Get yours today!
Â
8. Tell your origin story
The story we learn about Thanksgiving in elementary school may be a little fictionalized, but the spirit of gratitude, community, and abundance still lives on. Take a walk down memory lane and have your founders and long-tenured employees tell the story of how your company was founded and other great moments of your companyâs past.
In a distant future, how would the founding of your company be celebrated? Itâs time to get creative⌠đ
Â
9. Host a potluck like none other
Host a Zoom (or in-person) party and ask your team members to bring something along to shareâlike a memento that reminds them of your company or a colleague.
You may or may not be able to try each otherâs dishes, but you can still tell stories, express your gratitude, and celebrate!
Similarly, you could try a Thanksgiving-themed scavenger hunt!
Â
10. Join a Turkey Trot as a team
Turkey Trots are typically foot races that take place on the morning of Thanksgiving. Itâs super family-friendly and is a great way to get active before the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Many cities and towns host Turkey Trots, and the proceeds from these races usually go to a charitable organization.
Jogging is a great outdoor activity that you can enjoy with your team, and give back to the community in the meantime! Bonus points if you dress up as a turkey. đŚ
Itâs a tradition for many families to hang out, watch TV or a movie, and generally veg out after a big meal. You can easily adapt this tradition to spend time with your coworkers, too! Use a tool like Teleparty to watch something together. Remember the popcorn! đż
Here are some great Thanksgiving-themed options:
đŚ A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving đŚ Planes, Trains, and Automobiles đŚ The Oath
Â
12. Take a Thanksgiving-themed cooking class
Teams that learn together, stay together! Take a cooking class, in-person or online, to learn how to make a classic Thanksgiving dish. Weâre talking scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, or maybe the entire turkey (though that would be a long cooking class...).
Â
13. Host a pie swap
Weâve all heard of cookie swaps, but have you heard of pie swaps? If youâre in-person, each team member can bring a pie (homemade or store-bought) to share with the team. If your team enjoys some friendly competition, have everyone vote for their favorite pie and award a prize to the winning baker.
Did someone say turkey gift card? đŚ Each team member can take home a hodgepodge pie. If youâre remote, send a pie to each team memberâs home and enjoy a slice virtuallyâswap flavor reviews while youâre at it!Â
Â
14. Do a Thanksgiving craft together
Thanksgiving crafts arenât just for the little ones in our lives. Doing something creative together is a great way to build rapport with your team. Here are a few ideas to get you started. Gather up the necessary materials for in-person crafting or give employees a supply budget and DIY over Zoom:
Design table centerpieces with flowers, pumpkins, succulents, and beyond.Â
Get materials to make autumn paper lanterns to line the walkway.
Decorate gratitude jars to keep the thanks-giving going all year round.
15. Play Gratitude Bingo
Challenge your team with this fun Thanksgiving game to play at workâGratitude Bingo. Celebrate and recognize the little milestones along the way and reward winning team members with fun prizes. Create a Slack channel where folks can share photos and reactions from participating in acts of gratitude.Â
Â
16. Recognize your employees
Giving thanks on Thanksgiving: itâs a given! đ
Donât save it for Employee Appreciation Day. Recognizing your employees should be a year-round practice, but the spirit of Thanksgiving makes it a particularly great time to show gratitude to your team members.
Whether written or verbal, remember these key characteristics of effective employee recognition:
Specific
Timely
Visible
Inclusive
Frequent
Values-based
At your final Zoom happy hour before the holiday weekend, why not go around and say something about your team that you're thankful for? Itâs a great way to send employees off: feeling good about their work and ensuring a refreshed and energized outlook when they come back. đ
Â
Table of Contents
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What do you think of when you think of Thanksgiving? Personally, we think of a giant spread of food. đ˝ đ
Along with that feast, of course, is the opportunity for discussion with your loved ones. What do you talk about at the dinner table? Many typically hear variations of, âWhat are you most thankful for this year?â or âIf you were a Thanksgiving side dish, what would you be?â and, of course, âWho do you want to give thanks to this year?â
We're thinking that we should share that spirit of gratitude with the other group you spend the most time withâyour coworkers!
Without further ado, here are 15 great (virtual-friendly!) ways to celebrate Thanksgiving in the workplace.
If your team or organization is looking for a fun way to celebrate, don't miss Gratitude Bingo, a free and fun activity for remote and in-person teams!Â
Â
1. Recognize Native American Heritage Month
First and foremost, we need to address Thanksgivingâs problematic history. There are plenty of ways to learn about and honor Native Americansâ contributions during Native American Heritage Month and every other month of the year. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Keep an eye out for virtual events you can attend as a team to learn about Native American history together. The Smithsonian and the Library of Congress offer thoughtful virtual events for free.Â
Host a book club with your team with a book by a Native American author. You can start with this list.Â
Â
2. Host a recipe swap
Ask your colleagues to share their absolute favorite recipes, and make sure to report back!
To level up this recipe swap, you could even host a virtual âWorksgivingâ to cook each otherâs recipes together. Along with recipes, make sure to share your favorite Thanksgiving memories! Another twist on this idea would be to vote on one excellent recipe to cook and enjoy together virtually.Â
Toast's Employee Experience team runs a company-wide pumpkin carving contest every Halloween and they offer Bonusly Awards to encourage participation. Maybe a turkey or tofurkey carving contest is in your future!
Â
3. Send thank you cards
Sending cards in the mail is a super low-effort but meaningful way to show someone you appreciate them. Have everyone randomly pick out a colleague to write a thank-you card as a heartwarming act of recognition. Plus, a cute card is a great way to brighten up your workspace.
4. Give back to the community
Volunteering and giving back to the community is one of the best Thanksgiving traditions. Whether youâre in the office or not, you can still organize a canned food drive, fundraise for an organization, or volunteer virtually as a team.
Â
5. See who can draw the best hand turkey đď¸
Show off your arts and crafts skills by drawing your best hand turkey! Remember to write what youâre thankful for on each of your fingers, and vote on who has the funniest or most heartwarming drawing.Â
Check out Gratitude Bingo, our free Thanksgiving work activity. Download the PDF that can be easily shared with others.Â
Â
6. Match the plate to its owner đ˝ď¸
At Bonusly, weâve had a lot of fun sharing baby pictures anonymously and trying to match them to their adult counterparts! đź
Similarly, how someone loads up their Thanksgiving plate can tell us a lot about them. Is their food beautifully plated or piled on? Turkey or ham? What does a vegan plate look like? Or is green bean casserole the only vegetable on their plate?
Make it a fun game to encourage team bonding!
Â
7. Fill out an employee "Madlibs"
Let us make gratitude-giving a little easier. We made a hilarious "Madlibs" activity that you can share with your employees to help them recognize one another. It's an interactive PDF with three different templates to appreciate employees based on different scenarios. Get yours today!
Â
8. Tell your origin story
The story we learn about Thanksgiving in elementary school may be a little fictionalized, but the spirit of gratitude, community, and abundance still lives on. Take a walk down memory lane and have your founders and long-tenured employees tell the story of how your company was founded and other great moments of your companyâs past.
In a distant future, how would the founding of your company be celebrated? Itâs time to get creative⌠đ
Â
9. Host a potluck like none other
Host a Zoom (or in-person) party and ask your team members to bring something along to shareâlike a memento that reminds them of your company or a colleague.
You may or may not be able to try each otherâs dishes, but you can still tell stories, express your gratitude, and celebrate!
Similarly, you could try a Thanksgiving-themed scavenger hunt!
Â
10. Join a Turkey Trot as a team
Turkey Trots are typically foot races that take place on the morning of Thanksgiving. Itâs super family-friendly and is a great way to get active before the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Many cities and towns host Turkey Trots, and the proceeds from these races usually go to a charitable organization.
Jogging is a great outdoor activity that you can enjoy with your team, and give back to the community in the meantime! Bonus points if you dress up as a turkey. đŚ
Itâs a tradition for many families to hang out, watch TV or a movie, and generally veg out after a big meal. You can easily adapt this tradition to spend time with your coworkers, too! Use a tool like Teleparty to watch something together. Remember the popcorn! đż
Here are some great Thanksgiving-themed options:
đŚ A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving đŚ Planes, Trains, and Automobiles đŚ The Oath
Â
12. Take a Thanksgiving-themed cooking class
Teams that learn together, stay together! Take a cooking class, in-person or online, to learn how to make a classic Thanksgiving dish. Weâre talking scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, or maybe the entire turkey (though that would be a long cooking class...).
Â
13. Host a pie swap
Weâve all heard of cookie swaps, but have you heard of pie swaps? If youâre in-person, each team member can bring a pie (homemade or store-bought) to share with the team. If your team enjoys some friendly competition, have everyone vote for their favorite pie and award a prize to the winning baker.
Did someone say turkey gift card? đŚ Each team member can take home a hodgepodge pie. If youâre remote, send a pie to each team memberâs home and enjoy a slice virtuallyâswap flavor reviews while youâre at it!Â
Â
14. Do a Thanksgiving craft together
Thanksgiving crafts arenât just for the little ones in our lives. Doing something creative together is a great way to build rapport with your team. Here are a few ideas to get you started. Gather up the necessary materials for in-person crafting or give employees a supply budget and DIY over Zoom:
Design table centerpieces with flowers, pumpkins, succulents, and beyond.Â
Get materials to make autumn paper lanterns to line the walkway.
Decorate gratitude jars to keep the thanks-giving going all year round.
15. Play Gratitude Bingo
Challenge your team with this fun Thanksgiving game to play at workâGratitude Bingo. Celebrate and recognize the little milestones along the way and reward winning team members with fun prizes. Create a Slack channel where folks can share photos and reactions from participating in acts of gratitude.Â
Â
16. Recognize your employees
Giving thanks on Thanksgiving: itâs a given! đ
Donât save it for Employee Appreciation Day. Recognizing your employees should be a year-round practice, but the spirit of Thanksgiving makes it a particularly great time to show gratitude to your team members.
Whether written or verbal, remember these key characteristics of effective employee recognition:
Specific
Timely
Visible
Inclusive
Frequent
Values-based
At your final Zoom happy hour before the holiday weekend, why not go around and say something about your team that you're thankful for? Itâs a great way to send employees off: feeling good about their work and ensuring a refreshed and energized outlook when they come back. đ
Bonusly maintained its #1 overall ranking in the Employee Recognition category and earned 'Leader' and 'Momentum Leader' badges for both Employee Recognition and Employee Engagement categories.
Summer came and went and the Fall G2 report is here. (Though for our summer fans out there, donât fret. We still have 11 more days until the solstice! đ)Â
Weâre proud to report that Bonusly has earned 69 awards as we head toward the end of the year. đ
The G2 Fall Reportâwhat it is and why it mattersÂ
Every quarter, G2, the leading business product review and ranking platform, releases a comprehensive report rating companies in the recognition and engagement industry. The report is based on reviews from verified users that showcase an unbiased view of the worldâs best software companies.Â
G2 uses a complex algorithm to evaluate platforms and tools, taking into account in-depth, authentic reviews and data collected from various online sources. In fact, G2 recently updated its algorithm to double-down on its efforts to rank software that business can truly trust.
âWeâve been working hard since 2013âyes, we were the first recognition and rewards solution to enter the marketâto help companies amplify daily wins and foster authentic connections.
Why do we care so much? Because companies that prioritize effective recognition are more successful and their employees are more fulfilled. Meaningful employee recognition enables high-performance, drives collaboration, increases retention, while saving time for everyone across the organization. We call that a huge win.
But donât take it from us. Hear from some of our amazing customers:
 âEmployee recognition is something every company talks about; but doing it in a way that makes it easy and available to all employees can be really hard. Bonusly has allowed every employee at Headspace to feel empowered and energized to recognize their peers and allow others to share that recognition. During these times of remote work and the global pandemic, the Bonusly platform has shown to be an invaluable asset." - Rick Jensen, Chief People and Places Officer, Headspace
"I wish I invented Bonusly. Seriously. This is the best way to give peer recognition and immediate positive reinforcement across an organization and within a team. It's so much more effective than yearly/quarterly 360 reviews.â - Tim Myer, VP of Engineering, Discuss.io
Bonusly continues to lead in employee engagement
Weâre also honored to be named a leader in G2âs Employee Engagement category. Why does this matter? Companies with highly engaged teams outperform their competitors by147%; meanwhile, low-engagement teams experience turnover rates that are 18% to 43% higher than highly engaged teams.
Effective recognition directly impacts employee engagement, and nearly 80%Â of our customers recently shared that using Bonusly improved employee engagement on their teams.
âSaid another way: investing in your employees is an investment in business success.Â
"In the six months since adopting Bonusly, our eNPS score jumped from 72.2 to 82.1." - Daniel McAdams, President, Andiamo
Bonusly remains strong in implementation and usability
Best-in-class employee engagement solutions are intuitive and easy to use, and automate time-intensive processesâreducing admin overhead and saving significant hours each week.Â
Bonusly is easy to use and accessible to all users. This matters. Our goal is to make recognition a habit on teams, and this canât be possible if Bonusly is not an intuitive and inclusive solution for everyone.Â
Our recent customer survey revealed that the average company using Bonusly is up and running within one month, and the average Bonusly admins spends less than 1.5 per month administering Bonusly! Best yet, users who switched to Bonusly from a manual recognition solution decreased time spent administering recognition and rewards by 36%. Â
"I used to spend up to five hours a week managing points and rewards manually. Today, I spend next to no time on the process, apart from the time I spend recognizing others myself. Bonusly has lifted an enormous burden from my shoulders." - Daniel McAdams, president at Andiamo
A note of gratitude to our customersÂ
We are grateful for every Bonusly customer whoâs taken the time to share their experience on G2. Writing a review takes time and effort and we appreciate each and every person who writes one. Check out our 2,400 + reviews!Â
Weâre continuously releasing new and exciting updates, and would love for you to discover how Bonusly can help your team. Request a free and fast demo of Bonusly with a Bonusly specialist today.Â
Everyone has weeks where you check off everything on your to-do list with easeâand weeks where youâd really rather be anywhere but at work. đ´đš
Itâs  normal for employees to face dips in motivation, but it becomes a problem when your colleagues are consistently disengaged. In fact, Gallup recently reported that employees who are not engaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity.
Employees who are not engaged or who are actively disengaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report. That's equal to 11% of global GDP.
If that's not enough, the most recent report from Gallup found that a majority of the world's workers are currently disengaged, and half are looking to leave.
That's why we gathered some helpful tips from experts on how to motivate your employees to help increase employee engagement and experience productivity and retention gains.
These tips aren't specific to any industry, and most of them are either low or no cost. They can be applied in small establishments, franchises, startups, and Fortune 500 companies.
Let's get started with one that has the potential to change everything: recognition.
1. Recognize great work
One of the most important factors that contribute to employee motivation is how often their hard work gets recognized. 70% of employees say that motivation and morale would improve massively with increased recognition from managers. After all, if an employee produces exceptional results but their hard work isn't recognized, why would they continue to be a high-performing employee?
Bonus points: there are other surprising benefits of employee recognition including improved working relationships, employee engagement, retention, and even empathy. đ
It's not just important to recognize great work. How you recognize your team's contributions has a significant impact. Employee recognition shouldnât just be an annual bonus at the end of the yearâit should be meaningfully and frequently given.
Meghan M. Biro shared excellent advice on effective recognition. Here's one of our favorite tips:
Money is appropriate much of the time, but itâs not the onlyâor even the most effectiveâmotivator. Treat employees as valued team members, not as numbers.
â
2. Set small, measurable goals
We've all had projects that just drag on and on, and seem to never end. It can be demoralizing to be stuck in a rut, which is why seeing how you've made visible progress feels so good. It's also a clear indicator that our work is making a difference.
We met with Walter Chen, co-founder of iDoneThis, who shared some great insights into the importance of clear goal-setting and tracking progress. You can check out full the interview here.
Setting clear, achievable goals provides a real boost of motivation each time one is conqueredâand it keeps teams on the right track. You can magnify these effects by taking the next step and celebrating those achievements.
3. Celebrate results
Part of what makes setting small and measurable goals so important is that it provides plenty of opportunities to celebrate your teamâs hard work.
This doesn't mean you need to give a standing ovation to every employee who made it to work on timeâbut it is crucial to let everyone know exactly how (and how much) each of their contributions moves the organization forward.
Be specific in your applause. Don't just tell Marie "good job." Don't even stop at "great job on the new email campaign!" Applaud her success and when you do, tie her to the greater picture. For example: "Great job on that new email campaignâitâs going to really grow our community and nurture our customer pipeline."
4. Encourage teamwork
Teamwork is one of the greatest motivators out there. Knowing that your colleagues have your back and are your cheerleaders is an amazing feeling. When your motivation dips, your teammates are right there with you, rooting for you as you complete your next project. đ
In fact, 54% of employees say a strong sense of community (think: awesome coworkers, celebrating milestones, working toward a common mission) was a big reason they have stayed at an organization. Plus, organizations that communicate effectively are 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees.
One of the best ways to encourage teamwork is to start at the foundation with a working agreement. Working agreements are guidelines created by a team to set group expectations, provide ways to collaborate, and establish a positive team atmosphere.
5. Stay positive
Letâs be realâweâre a little suspicious of people who are happy all the time. đ¤
Negative emotions have their place, and some really good organizational changes can stem from having tough conversations. However, it's important to find ways to inject positive experiences into your team's interactions to create a net positive workplace.
Why? Because itâs actually a competitive advantage to have happy employees. Research shows that happy employees outperform their competition by 20% and generate 37% greater sales. đ¤
It turns out that happiness and positivity play a greater role in the success of your business than you'd ever imagine. If you're not fully convinced yet, take a moment to view this hilarious and fascinating presentation by psychologist Shawn Achor, explaining why:
A simple shift in bias toward positivity and happiness can have an immediate impact on your work experience and relationships, which are major factors in success, motivation, engagement, and productivity.
It's hard to stay focused and driven when you're hangry. That's why it's so important for everyone to stay fed, hydrated, and in some cases, caffeinated. âď¸
Unfortunately, it's common for employees to become so busy that they can barely squeeze in time for lunch. That's not great for their health and even worse for their productivity. Not convinced? Read more on food's crucial role in employee well-being and engagement.
Keeping healthy snacks around the workplaceâor providing a food stipend for remote employeesâ is an easy way to help your team maintain energy levels throughout the day. The cost of providing them will likely be offset by your team's increased productivity.
If you don't have the time or resources to manage this on your own, there are some great services that can help you keep your office stocked with healthy snacks. Our friends at Caroo will even drop a curated box of healthy snacks right at your company's or your employees' front door. When the Bonusly team was working in an office, we'd get a Fruit Guys delivery every week. It was a godsend at 3 p.m. or whenever we needed some fuel to power through the rest of the day!
Tip! If you want to motivate remote employees, Caroo offers custom care packages that you can curate with company swag, home office gifts, and healthy snacks to send a little love their way!
7. Take regular breaks
Banging your head against a problem for three hours is rarely productive. Stepping back and taking a moment to recalibrate isn't just helpful in staying motivatedâit's also important to your health.
Sitting all day isn't good for you, and neither is working nonstop. Especially for remote workers, taking a short break every hour or two can have a positive effect on both your mind and body (work-from-home burnout is real!). Don't forget to get up from your desk and grab some fresh air!
Get up, stretch your legs, rest your eyes, and come back to work with a refreshed mind and body.
8. Stay healthy
This brings us to our next topic: staying healthy. As we learned in our interview with Button's Stephen Milbank, sharing is caring, but not if what youâre sharing is germs. đˇ
When youâre ill, take a sick day! It's unlikely that you'll be getting any of your best work done when you can hardly hold your head up, and not taking the time to rest will only prolong your sickness and prevent your body from recovering.
Make sure the policies you're instituting aren't keeping people from taking the time they need to stay healthy. Think about the way you approach time off, medical benefits, and employee wellness. The stress and frustration from worrying about taking sick time can lead to disengagement and cost companies across the world billions of dollars each year.
A generous time-off policy or options for more flexible schedules or remote work might seem expensive at face value, but it can actually save your company quite a lot of money in lost productivity, poor attendance, and suboptimal engagement.
9. See and share the big picture
A large part of understanding the purpose behind your work is seeing how it fits into the larger picture. You can help boost motivation in the workplace by ensuring your team understands how each of their efforts impacts the organization, customers, and the community.
Completing a task usually provides a small sense of accomplishment, but knowing how that work helped others is the real antidote to disengagement.
Need more proof? Check out Zach Mercurio's talk on meaningful work:
10. Be transparent
Every relationship, including work relationships, is built on trust. Defaulting to transparency is one of the best ways to encourage an atmosphere of trust between you and your team and a team that trusts you will be more motivated and engaged with their work.
Transparency also helps ensure that everyone is working with the same information. That in itself can benefit the team.
11. Provide clarity
In order to be motivated about your work, itâs crucial that you actually understand what your goals and objectives are. For many employees, that understanding starts with transparency in the workplace and ends with clarity. Without clarity, transparency begins to lose its effectiveness and motivational power.
Make sure you're giving everyone a clear and concise mission they can get motivated about in the first place because it's nearly impossible to invest genuine motivation into something you're unaware of, or confused about.
12. Envision and share positive outcomes
It's easier to achieve success when you can envision it. Professionals of all types, from athletes to musicians and CEOs, all practice this technique to improve their motivation. Luckily, if you're providing a clear objective, you're already more than halfway there.
Help the team understand what it would mean to achieve that objective. When someone makes real progress toward that objective or outcome, share that progress as a source of motivation for everyone.
13. Find purpose
Although it's commonly stated that millennial employees are motivated by purposeful work, that's really true of most employees. Purpose is a vital factor in employee motivation and it starts with finding meaning in the work they do every day.
Erica Dhawan explains in an article about motivation she wrote for The Muse. She describes why it's so important to take time to explain the purpose behind the work you do:
Another key to staying motivated is knowing that the work youâre doing makes a difference in some wayârecognizing the impact youâre making on your clients, company, or the world.
Autonomy and flexible work schedules are incredibly effective motivators. Giving employees more agency around when and how they get their work done can actually improve their efficiency, and help keep them motivated.
Tell your employees what needs to be done by what deadline; allow them to decide when they will do the actual work. For some, that may mean coming in early; for others that might involve working on the weekend.
The key here is that you're giving employees the freedom to work on their projects when their motivation is strongest, not just when they're in the workplace.
Giving employees more control over their work also helps eliminate one of the worst enemies of motivation in the workplace: micromanagement. It can also help employees build resilience.
15. Provide a sense of security
We're not talking about hiring a bouncer for your office (although you should make sure your employees feel safe at your workplace!). Weâre talking about employees feeling secure enough to show their full selves at work.
Psychological theory suggests that there is a hierarchy of basic needs that people require before they can be motivated to reach their full potential. Security falls right beneath physiological needs like food and water.
Once employees feel secure, they're more likely to be motivated to reach and further stretch their potential.
16. Power pose
Your posture not only says a lot about your motivation levelsâit can actually impact them. Amy Cuddy gave an outstanding TED presentation about what your own body language can tell you, and how it affects your mood, your work, and your interactions with others.
Take a moment to think about your own posture, and the postures you're seeing around the workplace. What are they saying? If what they're saying isn't positive, try experimenting with different postures, and see how they impact your overall motivation.
17. Offer small, consistent rewards
Rewarding employees for their hard work is a motivational rule that nearly goes without saying. However, there are several ways to go about doing that, and some are more effective than others.
Annual bonuses are a common way many employers reward employees for their hard work. Unfortunately, they don't often provide the motivation they're designed to. An annual bonus perceived as routine, disappointing, or unfair can even damage motivation in the workplace.
Providing smaller, more consistent rewards is a great way to boost motivation consistently over time.
Sometimes a small shift in scenery can provide a big shift in motivation. If it's possible, think about how the environment your team works in impacts motivation. If there aren't many sources of natural light coming in, it might be valuable to step outside together from time to time.
Spending even a few moments in different surroundings can provide a new perspective, and often a noticeable boost in motivation. Consider taking your team on an offsite or retreat, and notice how their spirits could lighten after a day working outside of the office. âď¸
19. Practice and promote mindfulness
Taking time out of your day to slow down and practice mindfulness might sound like it would negatively impact productivity, but in many cases, the opposite is true.
Many of us work in jobs where stress is a matter of course, but as the Harvard Business Review staff explains in their article Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity, "Stress is not a function of events; itâs a function of the view you take of events."
Embracing mindfulness at work can improve productivity and motivation by providing the perspective we need to see that.
20. Have fun!
Not every task at work is going to feel like a day at Six Flags. That's okay. What's not okay is having a team that feels like every day is a slog. You don't need a ping pong table or a kegerator in your office to make work fun. Find little bits of fun in everyday activities, and focus on what it is that makes working in your organization great.
You and your team will be amazed at how motivating a little bit of fun can be.
Bravo, you made it through the list! đ
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Originally published on October 26, 2022 â Last updated March 1, 2023
Recognition gets a whole lot of airtime these days when weâre talking about employee experience, engagement, retention, and everything else that makes businesses succeed and people perform at their best. (Bonusly includedâweâve got a whole section on our blog dedicated to the topic!)
But with all the much-deserved love given to recognition, another equally important element of the employeeâand humanâexperience is often overlooked: appreciation. Letâs dive into why appreciation is not the same as recognition, why theyâre more powerful together, and why your business should embrace appreciation to succeed.Â
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Recognition vs. appreciation
Too often, recognition and appreciation are used interchangeably. And while theyâre certainly connected, thereâs a vital difference in the two concepts that matters if youâre trying to create a workplace where everyone feels seen, supported, and engaged.Â
Hereâs the breakdown: recognition is about what someone doesâthe results they get, the milestones they hit, and the progress they achieve. Appreciation, on the other hand, is about who someone isâthe work they put in, the way they collaborate with others, and the way they make your team and your company a better place to work.Â
Appreciation is a way to show gratitude for a person's value, and recognition is a way to show gratitude for their actions. Recognition is conditional upon achievements and results, while appreciation celebrates peoplesâ intrinsic selves.Â
While recognition and appreciation differ, you need both elements to create a company where employees enjoy working, and where theyâre motivated to perform at their best. In fact, they work better when paired. But since appreciation gets a lot less buzz than recognition right now, letâs cover why it deserves to be a higher priority for every business.Â
Why appreciation matters at workÂ
Recognition is, of course, critical to the success of any company (just check out all the data on the ROI of recognition for proof). But thereâs a natural limit to how much recognition you can give people, not everyone can get the maximum bonus, an annual promotion, or an award. Plus, your employees can work hard and work well and still not achieve the desired result, and recognition would feel inauthentic.Â
Appreciation, however, can go to everyone, all the time, just for being themselves. Letâs take the example of an employee who led a team to get an innovative new project off the ground. It took months of hard work, strategic thinking, and leadership, but due to external market conditions, the project didn't succeed. The employeeâs dedication to the task and the team merits plenty of appreciation, even if the results donât warrant recognition.Â
And imagine youâre that employee, feeling discouraged and down after putting in those months of work. Even a small gesture of appreciationâa handwritten note, a kind emailâcan mean the world, because it shows that the company, and their managers and peers, value them as a person, not just for what they achieve. Â
How to balance recognition and appreciationÂ
All this talk about how amazing appreciation might seem like itâs more important than recognition, and thatâs not true. They both play an absolutely vital role in employee engagement and retention, and generally in creating a company that people love to work for.Â
âRecognition is critical because, of course, youâre running a business and you do want to reward outcomes and results. You have targets to hit, and recognition helps you celebrate the people who take your business across that finish line. Plus, employees also want to be recognized for the results they produce when theyâre successfulâit feels great to hit those milestones and reap the rewards.Â
But unfortunately, appreciation is missing in many workplaces, and so the balance is tilted towards rewarding results and accomplishments only. This can leave many hard-working employees feeling lonely and discouraged more than they should when something doesnât pan out as they hoped.Â
Finding a way to encourage managers, leaders, and colleagues to both recognize and appreciate employees begins with effective communication about why both elements are essential. Let people know what you expect of them, and why it matters from both a human and a business perspective, and youâll begin to build a better workplace culture.Â
The business case for appreciation
Appreciation is not about giving participation trophies for simply showing upâthat would be inauthentic, and thatâs the opposite of effective appreciation. Plus, accountability and standards still matter when giving appreciation. Itâs really about ensuring that everyone in your workplace feels like theyâre valued for their whole selves, not just their contributions to the quarterly quotas youâve set.Â
And this feeling has more benefits than giving everyone a warm, fuzzy glow (although thatâs lovely!). Psychological safety is a term thatâs used a lot because more and more organizations understand that itâs a key component in creating innovative cultures, and it can sound complex. But at its core, itâs about creating group trustâknowing that you can make a mistake or fail and still be a valued member of your team.Â
Without that feeling of safety, taking risks is frightening for employees at all levels. Appreciation can foster a culture of continuous learning and trying new things because your people know that they donât need to fear failure; theyâll still be welcomed and celebrated and secure even if the risk they took doesnât pan out.Â
When we work in a place filled with people at all levels who we know care about us, we not only want to work harderâwe want to push the envelope (intelligently) and see what we can do for the company, our colleagues, and our leaders.Â
And that combination of recognition and appreciation gets better results than recognition alone. According to a study by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, when people were recognized for work they did well, they were 23% more effective and productive than those who werenât recognized. Yet, when people felt valued and cared for by the teamâappreciated, in other wordsâthey were 43% more effective and productive than people who werenât valued.
Speaking of leaders, appreciation isnât any less valuable for them. In fact, managers and leaders often get the least amount of genuine appreciation (not recognition or compensation based on their position and power, but pure appreciation for who they are). It can be extra meaningful to deliver some well-deserved appreciation to those above you, as long as itâs done without an ulterior motive.Â
The takeaway
While appreciation is not a brand-new or groundbreaking idea, itâs often sorely missing in our workplaces, and that makes them a less pleasant place to be. Adding appreciation into your recognition strategy can make a big difference in your employee experience and your retention rates tooâpeople tend to stay in workplaces that reward both results and everything else they contribute to the team.Â
Looking for a way to make recognizing your employeesâ accomplishments and appreciating everything else they do easier and more instinctive? Thatâs the key to making both elements more frequent so they become an integral part of your company culture. Bonusly is here to helpâsee for yourself.Â