Employee Well-Being Exchange: Cultivating and Expressing Gratitude
November is traditionally a time to reflect on our gratitudes and express thanks. In this session, Members discussed several ways that they are expanding existing and developing new programs to show employee appreciation and cultivate a culture of gratitude.
Below were some of the themes discussed with supporting examples from Exchange members.
- Giving all employees the same days off, which create an equal experience and can help reduce the stress of needing to catch up upon return:
- F5 is launching "Wellness Weekends" in 2022, giving all employees a Friday and Monday off to enjoy an extra long weekend once a quarter
- Gilead is granting time off between Christmas and New Year
- Getty Images granted 9 company-wide days off and 2 floating days off based on research and staff input. They also declared a meeting-free week the week of Thanksgiving & Christmas.
- Sending dedicated messages to teams and individuals
- Red Wing Shoes branded November as "Gratitude Month" as part of its employment brand work. Managers were encouraged to send letters (digital or handwritten) to employees and teams.
- Kaiser Permanente launched a "Because of you.." internal communication campaign to recognize the work of employees. The HR team held a virtual card writing party to send letters of appreciation to front-line workers.
- Recognizing people with monetary gifts and merchandise:
- Red Wing Shoes expanded their gift card gifting to every employee
- Cultivating a culture of gratitude sharing and kindness:
- Humana launched an "Acts of Kindness" campaign encouraging all employees to make small but meaningful efforts to share acts of kindness to those in their communities and share about their experience as a recipient or actor on an internal employee social media platform. This initiative generated positive energy and connection in the culture.
- Kaiser Permanente has systematized their recognition of employees through a mobile app that helps to capture employees response to a simple and regular direct report with managers that asks, "How are you? What do you need to perform? Is there someone I can recognize for good work?"
- Dolby Laboratories started Microsoft Teams Channels dedicated to sharing kudos between employees
- BNSF created a video montage for Thanksgiving showing employee-submitted photos throughout the year
Our guiding questions included:
- How can we cultivate a culture of gratitude?
- How can employers express gratitude to employees, teams, and the community?
- How can volunteerism support well-being and gratitude?
Building on groundbreaking research by both i4cp and Rob Cross, the Employee Well-Being Exchange is a peer-driven community working group that explores the relational sources of well-being, how personal networks impact this, and the tools to support individual performance and well-being.
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