Boosting productivity through better work anniversaries
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by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries. |
Boosting employee productivity probably isn’t what comes to your mind when you think about acknowledging work anniversaries. And that makes sense. The most common ways to acknowledge work anniversaries — having the employee pick a gift from a catalog, eating cake in the break room, or doing nothing — at best have no impact on productivity.
But, there is a way to acknowledge work anniversaries that has a big positive impact on employee productivity.
Really? How’s it work? 🤨
Your organization has an IT (and perhaps furniture) budget allocation per year per person.
Each employee knows best what they need to do their job well. Maybe the employee has back pain and wants to try a standing desk. Maybe they’ve started working with really large spreadsheets and need more memory. Maybe they travel and their computer isn’t reliably connecting to the projectors in their customer’s conference rooms.
These things can get in the way of the employee doing their job well, and their manager isn’t well positioned to help them. Also, these problems often aren’t sudden or urgent. They slowly grow, and it’s hard to know exactly when they should be addressed.
A once-a-year check-in from the IT team, where employees ask for and get what would make them more productive, and timing it to their work anniversary, helps employees both to work at their full potential, and also to feel special.
This will more than pay for itself 💰
This is likely a big process change from how your company does things. It may require more time, and especially initially as you catch up on “debt”, it may cost more than you’re currently spending.
The good news is that getting IT involved with celebrating work anniversaries is backed by very quantifiable hard science, which supports both that better equipment improves productivity and that feeling empowered to influence your work environment improves productivity. (Most of the following research was collected in the highly recommended book, The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul.)
Multiple monitors improve employee’s memory:
Researchers from the University of Virginia and from Carnegie Mellon University reported that study participants were able to recall 56 percent more information when it was presented to them on multiple monitors rather than on a single screen. (source)
Larger screens help employees think broader and more insightfully:
When using a large display, they engaged in higher-order thinking, arrived at a greater number of discoveries and achieved broader, more integrative insights. Such gains are not a matter of individual differences or preferences, Ball emphasizes; everyone who engages with the larger display finds that their thinking is enhanced. (source)
Standing desks help everything except taking sick days:
The British Medical Journal published a study showing that standing desks improved job performance, improved work engagement, reduced occupational fatigue, reduced sickness presenteeism, reduced daily anxiety, and improved quality of life. The only thing tested between the intervention and control groups where no difference was found was sickness absenteeism. (source)
Under-desk exercise bikes help employees focus:
Moderate-intensity exercise, practiced for a moderate length of time, improves our ability to think both during and immediately after the activity. The positive changes documented by scientists include an increase in the capacity to focus attention and resist distraction; greater verbal fluency and cognitive flexibility; enhanced problem-solving and decision-making abilities; and increased working memory, as well as more durable long-term memory for what is learned… The beneficial mental effects of moderately intense activity have been shown to last for as long as two hours after exercise ends. (source)
Empowering employees to choose the improvements themselves doubles the impact:
In the lean office, found Knight and Haslam, participants invested a low level of effort in their assigned work; they were listless and lackadaisical. In the disempowered office, subjects’ productivity was similarly mediocre; in addition, they were very, very unhappy… In the enriched office, participants worked harder and were more productive; in the empowered office, people performed best of all. They got 30 percent more done there than in the lean office, and about 15 percent more than in the enriched office. (source)
We could go on and cite much more research, but think that was convincing enough that you’re ready to get started…
Step 1: Set up the process ☑
To get the most out of this approach, it’s very important not to miss anyone and not to be late.
That means that the IT team needs to track all work anniversaries and set up appropriate reminders to start the process enough in advance to get the employee their updated equipment in time for their work anniversary.
Each IT team will have a slightly different process that works best for them, but these are the general steps:
Get an initial list of all employees and their start dates
Create a shared spreadsheet with all of the work anniversaries with columns for:
The employee’s name
Their work anniversary date
The IT employee assigned
The status (not started, initial meeting scheduled, initial meeting complete, ordered, on site, shipped, delivered)
What was purchased
Cost
Notes
Assign IT employees to each of the employees with upcoming work anniversaries
Check in on the spreadsheet at regular IT team meetings
Work with HR to have new employees added as part of the onboarding process
Step 2: Empower employees 💪
Someone in IT should set up a meeting with each employee about a month before their work anniversary. The meeting can be called something like “Annual equipment check-in”.
The meeting description should say something like “Congratulations, Jim, you’re about to hit your fourth work anniversary here at XYZ Corporation! We wanted to make sure you have what you need to be as productive as you can be. Maybe you have ideas, and we’ll also share some of our own.”
At the meeting, the IT person should start by asking the employee what they’re thinking could help them do their job better and note down all that they say. As the IT person gets more experienced with doing this, they may be able to ask the person about issues that other employees in similar positions had.
Depending on the organization, the IT person then needs to navigate any budget constraints. Some organizations may have a policy of getting employees anything they ask for within a budget for each category, that is with a max price per monitor and a max price per chair, etc. Others may have a max amount per employee per year, over which needs approval. Others may have a list of “always say yes” items and a list of “choose one” items, that is, small things are fine but then you need to choose one big thing…a monitor, an under desk exercise bike, or a standing desk, but not all in the same year.
It’s helpful for the IT person to be transparent about any budget constraints and ask the employee what’s most important for them.
There’s also the opposite issue of an employee who says everything is fine and they don’t need anything. This is great and helps make room in the budget for employees who need more, but we recommend having a small number of low cost “token” options for these employees. Maybe a plant. Maybe a stress ball. Maybe a fidget spinner. That way, they’ll get something on their work anniversary, too.
Step 3: Deliver on the exact work anniversary date 📆
Delivering on the exact day matters, and every attempt should be made to pull that off.
If there is uncertainty around delivery time, then set it up to be delivered early. Then, on the actual work anniversary, the IT person should send an email wishing the employee a happy work anniversary and expressing hope that their new equipment is working well.
If something happens that the equipment has to be delivered late, then on the actual work anniversary, the IT person should send an email wishing the employee a happy work anniversary, apologize that things aren’t in on time, and provide a status update.
If they choose nothing, reach out on the day, wish them a happy work anniversary, and let them know their budget is rolling over to next year.
Step 4: Make it special ✨
Can you put a bow on it? 🎀
Are you in person, and can you add balloons? 🎈
Are you remote, and can you put colorful confetti in the box and a congratulatory note? 🎊
If you’re shipping it directly from Amazon, can you put the little bit of effort into putting in the gift option message wishing them a happy work anniversary? 📦
These things are minor, but they’re also not hard. In general, throughout the process you want to avoid the employee feeling like a chore on a checklist.
By putting in a little special flair you can be a big part of helping the employee feel genuinely appreciated by an organization that deeply values them.
Looking for a low-cost and low-effort work anniversary experience that’s still really meaningful?