One of the first things we teach our children when they are young is the value of saying thank you. I remind my young boys to say thank you when someone helps them, gives them something they need or compliments them. The list of reasons to say thank you is boundless. If saying thank you is something that we are taught at such a young age, why is it something that we seem to forget as adults in the workplace?
I was recently involved in a meeting at an organization to discuss employee morale and how to improve it. The primary issue causing low morale in this organization, and many others, is the lack of employee recognition. The conversation around this topic became long and the ideas were varied. Some were costly, unreasonable, or made sense, but required a great deal of time and effort to implement. Many blamed it on generational differences and asked why Generation Y is so entitled and demands recognition for simply doing their job. It was during this point that I started thinking that maybe it isn’t about feeling entitled or demanding recognition, maybe it is simply about wanting to be thanked for doing a good job.
What if we all decided to say thank you to our staff, to our peers and to our management? What if we thanked them on a regular basis?
Managers should be role models when it comes to expressing appreciation. If you express thanks often enough, it will become habit and create a culture of gratefulness. A hand written note of thanks is especially meaningful as it serves as a record of gratitude or managers can thank their staff though email. When recognizing an employee, include the entire organization on the email. Sharing the good work of an employee or team during a staff meeting is another effective way of thanking and further motivating your staff.
The return on saying thank you is huge compared to the effort it takes to say the two words. Saying thank motivates staff to work harder and at a higher level. We all want to feel appreciated and saying thank you does the trick.
Finally, saying thank you is free. It is something we all know how to do and usually do a good job of it in our personal lives. Instead of implementing costly programs, let’s all start with something that costs nothing. So instead of blaming another generation for “demanding” recognition, perhaps we should be thanking them for reminding us of one of the first lessons we learned as children.
