When was the last time someone recognized your loyalty after you passed the anniversary of your start date with your company? Chances are it either hasn’t happened or it’s happened infrequently and by chance.
If you are managing staff, acknowledging their loyalty to the company or the team can be an easy but meaningful way to make them feel supported, seen, and appreciated. Here’s a few tips on how do this.
- Find out your employees’ start date with the company. You can go to HR, but you could also just ask your team. Don’t be embarrassed that you don't know—especially if they’ve been there longer than you. In my experience, they’ll just be grateful that you’re asking now.
- Create calendar appointments in your electronic calendar. Set reminders for these appointments 2 days in advance. This way, you won’t miss them as they come up.
- Choose a way to recognize their work. Here are some ideas.
- Send an email. I like to send an email to the rest of our team and cc the executives. This way, their names and sense of loyalty becomes known beyond their department. In the email I specify how many years they’ve been with us, a summary of major contributions they’ve made in their tenure, and an ask to join me in congratulating them on their achievement. In a world where milestones can easily be missed, recognizing each year of dedication from an employee helps them honor their own sense of accomplishment.
- Send a card. You could have everyone sign a ‘congratulations’ card. This one leaves the person with a nice keepsake but takes a bit more coordination with the team so I recommend starting to organize it 1 week before the anniversary date.
- Give a modest gift card. You could give the person a gift card, as a token of your appreciation. However, gift cards can add up.
Finally, make sure that however you decide to celebrate staff anniversaries, you have the time and means to do it for everyone. No one wants to watch her coworker open a gift card after his anniversary date passed with no pomp and circumstance. Also, remember that you should celebrate everyone’s anniversary, not just those of the employees who are excelling. This means that you’ll have to recognize someone’s dedication to the company, even if her performance is dipping, or if she just gave you attitude. I’m not saying not to address her poor performance or attitude, but because acknowledging her anniversary is a public expression of appreciation, you should be consistent.
How do you celebrate staff anniversaries? Tell us below.