Peacock tails, dancing, wasted food, expensive handbags, uselessly fast cars, hugging, complicated schedule coordination, and the value of 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. |
I’d love to share a simple ROI calculation that shows how celebrating work anniversaries drives better business performance.
Unfortunately, that calculation doesn’t exist. (with one minor exception)
But yet, countless organizations spend money and effort on work anniversaries.
Why? 🤔
The big questions
Why do peacocks have beautifully un-aerodynamic tails? 🦚
Why do humans put so much time into dancing? 💃🕺
Why do rich women carry Gucci handbags? 👜
Why do rich men commute to work in Italian sports cars? 🏎
Why do party hosts prepare way too much food? 🧆🧆🧆
Why do families spend so much time hugging hello and goodbye? 🫂
Why do families put so much effort into eating dinners together? 👨👩👧👦
Why do organizations celebrate work anniversaries? 🎉
And maybe more mysteriously, why is it that the more successful an organization is, the more likely they are to celebrate work anniversaries, and do it better? 🕵️
Signaling theory
The answer is hidden in a branch of evolutionary biology called signaling theory. You can read about it in extensive detail on Wikipedia, but the overall concept is fairly straightforward.
Actions that appear wasteful or unnecessary exist because they send unfakeably honest signals about something important.
Beautiful peacock tails signal that that peacock is descended from peacocks strong enough and fast enough to survive despite the extra burden of carrying the extra weight of the tail and being extra easy to spot by predators.
Great dancing signals physical health and an interest in advertising it.
Italian handbags and sports cars signal wealth and the resulting ability to weather leaner times in the future.
Like Italian handbags and sports cars, too much food at parties signals wealth and the ability to easily weather potentially leaner times in the future, but it also adds another very important signal, which is that the party host values sharing that wealth with others.
Hugging and family dinners signal each member valuing family. Hugs signal to each member they are valued and loved. Family dinners signal to the family that each attending member still values and loves the family.
Like peacock tails, dancing, wasted food, expensive handbags, uselessly fast cars, hugging, and complicated schedule coordination, the value of work anniversaries is in what they signal.
What do work anniversaries signal?
Work anniversaries are not about sex like peacock tails and dancing.
They aren’t exclusively about wealth like Italian handbags and sportscars.
They can be like too much food at a party, that is, having both enough wealth and an interest in sharing it with others.
They also can be like hugs and family dinners, that is, a sign of a deep commitment.
Specifically, well done work anniversaries signal that employees matter to the organization.
The signal can also be a more nuanced signal about what kind of culture the organization has, which can help to attract and retain employees who fit in with the culture:
Team-oriented cultures focus on the team being involved in the celebration
Purpose-driven cultures emphasize the impact of employee has had over the past year
Performance-driven cultures emphasize the numbers achieved over the past year
Family-oriented cultures strive to do something super-personalized
Of course, part of signaling theory is that the absence of a signal conveys information, too.
Doing nothing for work anniversaries signals not caring. 🚫
Doing something mediocre signals not caring much.
A final question
What do work anniversaries at your organization signal? 🚦