Employee recognition programs have been in existence for at least three decades -- but they aren’t as effective as they used to be. What's needed now is recognition AND appreciation.
Younger employees approach work—and life—differently than many of their colleagues. What they value personally, their expectations for their career paths, and even how they want to be treated on a daily basis reflect a new generational perspective.
Authentic appreciation has many proven practical benefits for the workplace. But what about a deeper benefit to ourselves and our daily lives?
The goal of appreciation isn't to create more work for anyone. In fact, showing authentic appreciation in the ways that team members want will actually make you less busy.
Showing appreciation to your boss can be tricky. But managers and supervisors need to be appreciated too. In this week's blog we offer some advice and suggestions for showing appreciation up the chain of command.
Trust is critical for any functional relationship—with our family, our friends, and even our work-based relationships. For life to work, we have to trust. Repairing and rebuilding trust when it has been damaged between people at work can be complicated. Before you begin creating an action plan, a couple of “prework” steps are needed.
Conflict in the workplace happens, but not all conflicts look the same. Learn more about the causes of these workplace clashes in this week's blog.
Remote and hybrid workplaces are here to stay, and navigating those changes in work relationships seem difficult. Learn more about how appreciation can help you stay connected with your remote team members in this week's blog.
The reality is, some coworkers are more difficult to work with than others. We offer a few tips on what you can do if you find yourself in this situation.
Love languages in the workplace? Yes! While it may seem like an odd concept, research shows that learning to appreciate your coworkers is a key component in healthy workplaces. But are your appreciation language and love language the same?
While looking through my collection of books, I rediscovered a classic with surprising ties to appreciation! Read on to learn more.
A healthy, positive culture is foundational to a healthy organization. But many companies are learning that their employees are unhappy and disengaged. It isn't that managers haven't been trying, but what they're doing hasn't been working.
Many corporate leaders and managers are in denial about employee engagement trends, even as Gallup continues to publish research about engagement being at an all time low. Why is that and what can you do about it?
Help Us Answer an Ongoing Question about Appreciation To date, more than 425,000 people have taken the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory (MBAI) to discover their language of appreciation! Our goal in creating the MBAI has always been to provide relevant, practical and easily applied resources to help team members communicate appreciation effectively to one another. But over time, some relevant questions have come up. What if my supervisor changes? Or team roles and responsibilities have changed? Or if I work for a different organization? How stable are our desired ways of being shown appreciation over life stages and other changes... Continue reading...
Vibrant workplaces draw people to them – quality, talented employees want to work in a healthy place. But what is a vibrant workplace, how do you create one, and why are they more important than ever? Learn more in this week's blog.
Most of us don’t need new goals for the year. Really, we don’t. But we do need to continue to progress toward our current goals (and, hopefully reach some of them). We also need to make some adjustments from the feedback we are receiving from “real life.”
There are many factors to how holidays are handled in the workplace. Work schedules and demands, time off, decorations, and holiday parties all factor into how the season is incorporated into an office space and received by the employees who work there. We polled our readers to find out what they loved and hated about holidays in the workplace. We received nearly 3,000 responses! We explored both the good AND the bad because, while we attempt to focus on the positive and provide hope for improving workplaces, we are also committed to being reality-based. So, what did we learn? Clearly,... Continue reading...
Office holiday gift-giving can be difficult to navigate. We address some of these issues and give tips in this week's blog.
Last week we asked you to share about your Thanksgiving celebrations and experiences and over 200 of you responded! Our staff enjoyed reading about your traditions and dishes – from the familiar to the ‘new to us.’ There were lots of comments about the joys of spending time together, especially with relatives and friends that don’t live nearby, minor frustrations, and cherished traditions. ******* The Basics When asked how large your typical family (or friendly) gathering was, 12% of people expect 4 or fewer guests and 12% of people expect more than 20. The majority of people, around 76%, plan... Continue reading...
Tells us about your typical Thanksgiving holiday and share all the things you love, and hate about this pivotal fall holiday.
Overseeing large groups creates some unique circumstances and challenges in the workplace. Our latest blog offers tips about how to successfully integrate appreciation into your culture when you mange a large team.
Many organizations only want to use resources or processes that have been demonstrated to be effective as supported by research. In fact, “evidence-based resources” has become a catch phrase in many circles. And understandably so – leaders and administrators don’t want to invest time, money and energy implementing a course of action to improve their workplace culture based on slick advertising or unfounded claims. That is why we at Appreciation at Work have been committed to verifying the practical utility and success achieved by using our resources through ongoing research. Let me summarize the foundation we have built over the past decade: To... Continue reading...
There’s a difference between a bad job and one that is truly toxic. A toxic work environment can seriously affect your physical and mental health, even to the point of shortening your life.
Many people assume that appreciation is always communicated verbally. While using words is one way to show staff members that you value them, many employees prefer appreciation shown through the language of Quality Time. In fact, Quality Time is the preferred appreciation language for 26% of employees in the U.S. (or, one of every four of your colleagues). By Quality Time, we mean spending time with a colleague either by giving the person your focused attention, working collaboratively with them, or just hanging out and talking about non-work-related topics. You are showing that you value them by giving them your most... Continue reading...
Appreciation is a powerful intrinsic motivator without which few people can sustainably perform at top levels. Unfortunately, the concept often gets caught up in the long list of platitudes about employee motivation and confused with recognition.
Feeling awkward about communicating appreciation among team members is normal. When teams are first introduced to the 5 languages of appreciation and begin to implement the concepts, this “weirdness factor” is a common reaction.
At Appreciation at Work, we want to create thriving and healthy workplace cultures. But all the work we do comes from the foundation laid by our best-selling book, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.
By nature, we all tend to speak our own language of appreciation. If Quality Time makes me feel appreciated, then I may go out of my way to stop by a teammate’s office and check in to see how they are doing. If Acts of Service make me feel appreciated, then I tend to pitch in and help my colleagues. If Words of Affirmation make me feel appreciated, then you can expect that I will give verbal praise to those with whom I work. But if I only do what comes naturally, the language of appreciation that is least valued... Continue reading...
How to Use Words of Appreciation Effectively While Words of Affirmation is the easiest language for most people to understand and use, it isn’t always deployed effectively. Supervisors and managers often use words to encourage their team members. Compliments, a simple thank you, praise in front of others – are all common examples of using words to send positive messages in the workplace. We have found that following a few simple tips can make the use of words more effective in showing appreciation and encouragement to colleagues (and help you avoid some common errors, as well). To be most effective... Continue reading...