WORK ANNIVERSARIES Ideas for making them meaningful for your employees and valuable for your organization
Work anniversaries probably aren’t the first thing you think of when you think of addressing workforce challenges. But done well, they can (1) reinforce your organization’s purpose; (2) strengthen your employees’ sense of belonging; and (3) boost their perception of organizational support. All three of these have been scientifically shown to improve organizational performance. At the same time, work anniversaries are rarely perceived as a priority, so it’s usually important to keep them simple and inexpensive. The following five ideas require minimal effort and expense, while also reaping the benefits of purpose, belonging, and perceived organizational support. There’s no downside!
A couple of thoughtful paragraphs Everyone wants their manager to notice what they do and be thankful for it. One way to make sure that happens is to have managers write up a couple of paragraphs about each of their direct reports to share on each direct report’s work anniversary. The paragraphs can reflect on the employee’s contributions, accomplishments, and learnings over the past year. They can also include personal stories, icebreaker facts, and photos. For biggest impact: Share these paragraphs broadly. This will help employees learn about each other and feel more connected, which is especially valuable in hybrid and remote organizations.
Equipment upgrades
Skip-level one-on-ones
Organizations want their employees to be productive. A month or two before their work anniversary, ask each employee if there’s any purchase that would help them be more productive. Then, deliver what they ask for on their work anniversary, and include a “happy work anniversary!” message. Second monitors, larger monitors, more computer memory, underdesk exercise bikes, even plants are all scientifically proven to more than pay for themselves in productivity improvements. And, they’re all much, much better than typical work anniversary gifts.
Skip-level one-on-ones help higher level managers stay connected to frontline employees, and contribute to frontline employees feeling valued. Work anniversaries can help prevent them from being repeatedly postponed. For larger organizations, conversations with the CEO can be scheduled for bigger milestones like 5-year or 10-year work anniversaries.
For biggest impact: Empower the employee to choose what they need and trust them. Empowered employees serve customers better and solve problems better.
For biggest impact: Coach your leaders to understand that these meetings are for listening, and that the leader should speak less than 20% of the time.
Team lunches Eating together is a powerful part of human traditions and holidays and strongly signals belonging. It helps teams build trust and often triggers serendipitous connections that can lead to innovative improvements. For biggest impact: Include a quirky tradition. For example, maybe before eating everyone chants: “Two, four, six, eight, whose 17 years with XYZ Corp do we appreciate? Joan’s!”
18 | LANCASTER Thriving! | Summer 2024