Work anniversary messaging tips for managers

by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries.

As a manager, whatever you do for your employees’ work anniversaries, here are some general tips to help your interactions have the most value.

Convey enthusiasm, not a desire for task completion

The key thing to remember when talking to your employees about their work anniversaries is to keep the excitement up. Especially if you have a lot of direct reports, it can become routine. But remember, for each of your employees, you’re celebrating the anniversary of a day that was one of the biggest changes of their lives. If you have any employees hired directly out of school, then it was a really big change for them.

One way to think of it is, don’t ever do anything “unceremoniously”. If your organization has managers give out pins or certificates or something like that, never just silently put the pin or certificate on their desk when they’re not there and walk away. Stop back again, or leave a note for them to come find you because you have something important for them.

The goal is to convey that they’re really important to them, and you’re glad to celebrate their work anniversary because you’re really thankful they’re there. You don’t want it to come across as one more task you’re trying to quickly check off your list.

Another sort of subtle way to convey excitement is to take photos. You know, that’s the sort of thing that people do at birthdays and other holidays and at big events. Going back to the pin drop off, pull out your phone and take a picture of them with the pin. That small gesture will give the experience more weight and show you care.

Reinforce your organization’s purpose, core values, and/or goals

If a work anniversary was only about time, it really wouldn’t be that special. Pushing it to the extreme, some people stay at an organization for a long time just because they never took the initiative to look for something better or because they were anxious about change.

The really special thing to celebrate about a work anniversary is that it commemorates the amount of time that the employee and the organization have teamed up and joined forces to work towards a common purpose or mission with shared core values.

When you talk about an employee’s work anniversary, the more you can emphasize that common bond, the more special it will be. For example, saying, “wow, ten years, that’s a really long time” just isn’t great. Instead, saying, “wow, that’s ten years of helping us improve XYZ, and you’ve helped over 100 customers over that time, and I’ll bet you’ve seen lots of progress since you started!” is much, much better.

Boost psychological safety

Psychological safety is the fancy term for not feeling insecure about your job.

Everyone is insecure about something, and for many people, it’s their job. Work anniversaries are a great opportunity to reduce that anxiety by really reassuring the employee that you and others see their contribution to the organization, that you appreciate it, and that you’re really glad they’re there.

This is important because employees feeling psychologically safe at their jobs has been shown to be the number one predictor of team performance by a number of different studies. Note that this is team performance, not individual performance. And also note that, as the manager, you’re responsible for team performance.

What if you aren’t enthusiastic and appreciative?

So far, we’ve said, be enthusiastic, let them know they’ve contributed to something bigger than themselves, and make sure they know that you are really glad they’re there.

What if those things are hard, because you don’t actually think them for one or more of your employees?

I’m going to be really blunt. Either come up with a new story in your head for why you are thankful for them, or find a way to part ways. Life is too short for both of you to have that tension in your lives. And trust me, the employee senses how you feel. And the employee/manager relationship is too important to your employee to have a bad one in their life.

You owe it to both of you to get things on the right path.