Hi there,
When was the last time you celebrated something at work?
Besides finally making it to a Friday? 🤔
Building in time for intentional celebrations, appreciation, and recognition at work has an astounding impact.
According to SHRM, almost 90% of employees who received recognition from their manager indicated higher levels of trust with that manager.
💥 If that doesn’t convince you of its impact…
79% of employees say recognition at work motivates them to work harder.
56% of employees are less likely to look for a new job if their organization prioritizes appreciation.
70% of employees say recognition at work makes them happier at home.
⚡ Supercharge of the Week
Remote Octopus recommends setting aside time every month to identify upcoming opportunities to celebrate and recognize your colleagues. Set a repeating Asana task or 15-minute calendar event.
Let’s dive into the what, when, and who of work celebrations.
What do we celebrate?
Depending on whether you are an IC or a manager, your celebrations might be different.
⚡️ As an IC: You might celebrate key project deliverables, especially if you are the project owner. For example, the Design Team emailed incredible graphics for an upcoming Marketing campaign. Or maybe someone on the BI team figured out a complicated automation to streamline data management in HubSpot.
🚀 As a Manager: You might celebrate larger deliverables and wins. For example, the on time completion of a challenging project. Or the launch of a new internal communication strategy. Or maybe it’s as small as making it to a Friday after a challenging week for the team.
➡️ Important! Carefully consider what you are celebrating as it relates to your company values and culture. For example, if a colleague worked until 4 am to meet a late cross-functional request, is that a behavior you want to publicly celebrate? What tone does that set for your team? Depending on your company values and culture, a private thank you, debrief, and apology to this colleague might make more sense than a public celebration.
When do we celebrate?
As it happens or within a few days. Build on the momentum of the accomplishment.
➡️ Note: The celebration should be separate from any retro – but you can continue celebrating at the top of the retro too!
Who do we celebrate?
Team wins and personal wins. Company wins too! 🏆
What do we mean by personal win? A big accomplishment at work achieved by one colleague or a set of colleagues working together.
📈 Remote Octopus recommends polling colleagues and/or your team for their favorite ways to be recognized. We love a good Slack emoji poll. Depending on your budget and leadership responsibilities, recognition options might include:
Team Slack shout out
Team meeting shout out
Private Slack message or email
Slack message in a larger team channel tagging every team member
15-minute team celebration call
Gift certificate for personal food delivery
Gift certificate for food delivery to use during a video celebration lunch
🥇 Whether you’re an IC or a manager yourself, consider how you might elevate a colleague’s big personal win with their manager. So much of our work communication is reactive – something is on fire, there’s an unexpected challenge… A quick, proactive, & positive message to the manager ensures they are in the loop of their employees’ positive impact.
📆 Who are you going to appreciate, recognize, and celebrate before the end of the year? Now is the time to check in with your team on recognition preferences and then get that repeating task set on your calendar for 2024!
🚀 Remote Octopus Resource of the Week
Ever been in the middle of a project and realized key stakeholders have opposite ideas on everything from the target audience to key deliverables? Maybe that’s happening right now!
Over 10% of resources are wasted as a result of subpar project management practices… Don’t let that be your team. Recent research shows that companies who build effective project management strategies are more likely to meet project objectives, stay on budget, and deliver on time.
Check out The Project Template!
Looking for additional Remote Octopus resources? Explore here.
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