What are work anniversaries really?
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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. |
You probably think you know what a work anniversary is.
But, because this is a blog about work anniversaries, we think it might be interesting to try to more deeply answer the question, what are work anniversaries really? 🤔
For leaders, work anniversaries are a mirror 🪞
While we obviously don’t encourage this, if an organization truly cares about employees, and if they treat their employees as important in every other way, then ignoring their work anniversaries is probably fine.
And we would also admit that if an organization treats employees terribly, and employees hate their jobs, then amazing work anniversaries aren’t going to fix anything.
But the thing is, neither of those two scenarios actually happen, especially not the second one.
For HR and for leaders, work anniversaries are a mirror that shows how they regard employees.
Does your organization not do anything at all for work anniversaries? — We’ll bet employees aren’t that important to the leaders of your organization.
Does your organization do something expensive? — We’ll bet employees are also paid really well.
Does your organization do something thoughtful? — Then, we’ll employees truly matter to the leaders of your organization.
Does your organization do something, but it’s often not great? — We’ll bet employees matter to your organization’s leaders, but they struggle to make them a priority relative to all the other stresses and emergencies.
If your organization isn’t doing much, we get it.
Employees aren’t actually all that important to a lot of businesses. Maybe your employees are readily replaceable. There are plenty of candidates, the jobs are straightforward to train, and your market doesn’t really change much. Many successful businesses haven’t treated employees well.
But, for some organizations, the passion that employees bring to the job makes a difference. The extra effort that they put into the quality of their work makes a difference.'
Maybe your organization needs to stand out for customer service. Maybe your organization needs to innovate. Maybe the relationships your employees have with others outside your organization are important. Maybe there just aren’t enough people with the skills your organization needs.
If you see your organization in the previous paragraph, then you’ll want to think hard about whether or not the work anniversaries mirror reflects the value of employees to your organization.
And the great thing about work anniversaries is that they provide leaders with an opportunity to tangibly change in a way that will be visible to all. Instead of just deciding that going forward they will value employees more, they can do something that everyone can see.
This works especially well, because for employees, work anniversaries are a signal.
For employees, work anniversaries are a signal 🚦
No enthralled employee is going to quit their job solely because of a forgotten or terrible work anniversary. And, no employee who hates their job is going to stay because of a great work anniversary.
But the thing is, most of your employees aren’t enthralled with your organization, and hopefully, most of your employees don’t hate your organization. Instead, for the bulk of your employees, your organization is a good choice for now.
That means that most of your employees are open to signals that can give them hints about where they stand and how things are changing. Have you ever reduced your organization’s benefits? You’ve felt it.
But benefits, and the rare pay reduction, are signals about money and the financial health of the organization. What about the organization’s culture? What about how respected and cared for employees truly are?
Employees don’t know exactly how your organization’s leadership feels about employees. Anyone can say employees are important. But are they? Employees need tangible, unfakeable signs.
Work anniversaries are one of those signs.
And they come at the perfect time.
Employees are twice as likely to leave the month after their work anniversary than any other month.
Not only is this fact known by work anniversary bloggers, but it’s also known by many recruiters. If a recruiter knows one of your employees that they would love to work with, they know they can’t call every month, and so they’ll call near their work anniversary.
That makes work anniversary time an especially great time for your organization to make a good impression. This is when employees are more likely to be considering whether or not changing jobs might make sense. Sending a signal that they’re cared about at your organization will make that move more risky, and thus less likely.
For candidates, work anniversaries are also a signal 🚦
Work anniversaries aren’t just a credibly tangible sign backing up your words to your employees. They can also play that role as part of your hiring brand, both to attract great candidates and to get acceptances from the best candidates, who will receive multiple offers.
If you don’t have any trouble attracting plenty of good-enough candidates, then this isn’t an issue. But if you do, one idea is to invest in your work anniversaries and use them as a concrete comparison point.
It doesn’t take a lot to be better than average, and once you are, you can use that to get candidates to take you seriously.
Your pitch is along the lines of saying that your organization cares more about employees than the other ones that gave them offers. You then admit that anyone can say that, and there’s a lot that goes into the employee experience, but one concrete example is what you do on work anniversaries.
Work anniversaries are a tangible window into your organization’s culture 🪟
A bigger concept than simply caring about employees and treating them well is considering the role organizational culture can play in providing your organization with a strategic advantage. By this, I mean intentionally crafting a culture that attracts and retains the kinds of people who have what it takes to make your organization successful.
Is fast-paced working and innovation crucial to your strategy? Or, is meticulous quality and reliability crucial to your strategy? You’ll want very different employees in those two cases.
Does your business thrive on outgoing social connections? Or does it thrive on deeply intellectual contrarian thinking? Again, different kinds of employees are needed in those cases.
If your organization can just naturally attract the right talent and repel the wrong talent, that will give you a very cost-effective advantage over your competitors.
But the problem with this, is that it’s really vague. How do you create a culture?
Work anniversaries can play a big role in crafting an intentional workplace culture.
Work anniversaries are usefully tangible and measurable, unlike many other aspects of workplace culture. They are intertwined with many other aspects of workplace culture, and they can helpfully make any hidden shortcomings visible, so that they can be addressed.
And the great thing is, this isn’t about spending a lot of money. That is, unless you want to signal that your organization pays employees above market, and if you want to signal that, go for lavish work anniversaries. But most organizations will want to signal something else. Maybe your organization is caring. Or maybe your organization is geeky. Or maybe your organization is team oriented. Or maybe what your organization does is really meaningful. All of these can be signaled by the choices you make in how you acknowledge work anniversaries.
Work anniversaries are “ownable moments” 📣
One last way to look at work anniversaries is with the lens used in user experience design. From this perspective, work anniversaries are “ownable moments”.
An ownable moment is a moment especially prone to amplifying or changing a person’s positive or negative emotion.
Work anniversaries are moments that will be remembered with a specific emotion and meaning rather than shrugged off and quickly forgotten.
If an employee is feeling good towards the organization, then their work anniversary is an opportunity for them to feel even better. Or, if they’re feeling negative towards the organization, then their work anniversary may cause them to feel even worse and perhaps decide to leave.
A work anniversary can also be a moment when an employee might flip from feeling good to bad about the organization, or, from bad to good!
Put in wonky engineering terms, work anniversaries are moments when a small input can produce an outsized output relative to the input.
Put in colloquial terms:
You can get a lot of bang for your buck by improving work anniversaries.
Putting it all together 🧩
So, what are work anniversaries, really?
If you’re an employee or a potential new hire, then work anniversaries are a tangible way to see how leaders really feel about employees and what the organization’s culture is really like.
If you’re a leader, then they are an opportunity for self-reflection on how you actually feel about your employees and what your organization’s culture is really like. If you don’t like what you see, then they are a concrete opportunity to cost-effectively make changes in the right direction.