Most of us know about the many benefits of regularly expressing gratitude in our personal life: increased feelings of happiness and self-esteem, less stress, better sleep, improvement in relationships and increased empathy. But what about expressing gratitude at work? Can the benefits we receive in our personal life trickle over into improving life at work too?
Yes. In fact, 81% of employees report they would work harder if their manager regularly expressed gratitude for their work and 53% would stay longer with a company if they received regular expressions of gratitude. In fact, a lack of gratitude in the workplace is a large contributing factor of dissatisfaction at work, burnout and turnover. At a time when the Great Resignation continues to boom, companies can no longer afford to ignore the importance of regularly expressing gratitude to their employees. We even have a blog post about How to retain employees during the great resignation using handwritten notes and gifting.
Two areas to focus your Gratitude at Work Strategy:
Internal gratitude strategy with employees
External gratitude strategy with customers
Benefits of practicing gratitude in business:
Increase work satisfaction and happiness among employees
Increase motivation and desire to reach goals, creating a cyclical pattern of productivity and positivity
Improve employee tolerance to stress
Decrease employee stress and burnout
Increase employee retention
Sets your business apart from competitors
Strengthens professional relationships
Shows customers you appreciate them
How to create an internal culture of gratitude:
Consider adding gratitude to your company’s core values
Regularly give employees praise publicly, in 1-on-1 meetings and through thank you notes and gifts from Hello Mailbox
When expressing appreciation, recognize all contributions - both the highly visible successes and the less visible
When gifting, put thought into how you can make it useful, memorable and special
Recognize those in your organization who regularly express gratitude
Designate one day a week as Gratitude Day and encourage employees to thank someone who helped them that week
Make gratitude a part of weekly team meetings or daily standup, where everyone has the opportunity to thank someone on the team
Create a ‘thank you’ channel in your internal communication tool
How to express gratitude with customers as part of your external strategy:
Express appreciation for customers at every interaction and incorporate it into processes and scripts
Thank new customers for signing up with a Hello Mailbox thank you note or gift (a little insider secret: become a Hello Mailbox customer and you'll see first hand how we express gratitude!)
Share positive experiences and thank you messages for customers and partners on public channels
Send appreciation and congratulatory gifts - keep an eye out for promotions, fundraising rounds, new product launches, announcements where it would make sense to send a note or gift.
Hello Mailbox is excited to help foster a deeper sense of satisfaction between your company, employees and customers. We take care of everything from custom stationery, handwriting, envelope (even the stamp!) and can also help with your overall strategy to make the process as effective and streamlined as possible. Contact us or set up your free strategy call today!