Work anniversary tips for managers
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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. |
Work anniversaries are a tiny part of managing employees, but they’re moments with unexpectedly large impact.
Employees are twice as likely to resign close to their work anniversary than any other time of the year. Even those employees who are less aware of their work anniversary are affected, because recruiters know that employees are twice as likely to leave close to their work anniversary, and they time their reach-out accordingly.
A forgotten or mishandled work anniversary can trigger an employee saying “tell me more” to that recruiter, or it can trigger an outright job search. On the flip side, a well-handled work anniversary may be remembered for the rest of the employee’s career.
Work anniversaries are a time of heightened reflection. The impact of whatever you do on a work anniversary, good or bad, is going to be magnified. It’s a great time to do something special, as you’ll get extra points for your effort (and it’s a really bad time to be “too busy”).
Ready to level-up? Here are some quick and easy tips…
Things every manager should always do:
Remember work anniversaries - Come up with a system that works for you. Add them to your reminder app, add them to your calendar, or do whatever else works for you when you absolutely can’t forget.
Reach out - Reach out first thing on the exact day. If it falls on a day they won’t be working, then reach out the day before. Always find a way to reach them. Live in-person or on video is best. If that’s not possible, a voice call is the next best. If you can’t talk to them, text them. Email is a last resort, but far better than missing the day.
Be on-time with reviews and raises - If your organization times reviews and raises with work anniversaries, then make sure you’ve completed the review and shared the amount of the raise before the work anniversary, never after. If your organization does reviews and raises at a different time of the year, remind the employee of that.
Support psychological safety - Remember that everyone is insecure. In your communication make sure your words and non-verbals telegraph that you value them, you’re glad they’re at the organization, and they’re safe at the organization.
Things to consider doing:
Check in on whatever else your organization does - If your organization recognizes work anniversaries in any sort of formal HR-driven way, then ask if it happened, and if it didn’t, find a way to get it to happen.
Know them well enough for a small, thoughtful gesture - Do you know your direct reports’ favorite candy bar? Favorite coffee order? Favorite something else small? If you work in-person and show up first thing in the morning with this, it will go over really well. Just be sure to do something roughly equivalent for everyone.
Make a ritual of work anniversary meals - Social science shows that eating together increases trust and cooperation, making teams more effective. Work anniversaries are a great reason to get out together.
When possible, reveal promotions on work anniversaries - Promotions revealed on an employee’s work anniversary are more memorable and viewed with more gratitude. This is especially true of unexpected promotions.
Consider parting ways with anyone not worth acknowledging the work anniversary of - Do you have any direct reports that you wouldn’t want to bother doing any of this for? Any that you don’t want to feel psychologically safe? That’s really bad for your team. We would highly recommend that you use this moment of reflection to either commit or move on. Don’t leave employees in this uncomfortable limbo where you’d be happy if they left, but you don’t have the courage to tell them.
(For managers of managers) Have skip-level work anniversary conversations - Work anniversaries are a great “excuse” to keep in touch with what’s really going on at the front-line. Our favorite model is the 15-minute conversation that starts with, “if you had a magic wand, what would you change at work?” This question uncovers a lot of insight and valuable ideas, and as importantly, it doesn’t set up an expectation that you do something you don’t want to, because, you don’t have a magic wand.
Feeling too busy to do any of these ideas with everyone? Just pick specific anniversaries, like maybe “the fives” (5, 10, 15, etc.) so that the number of employees is manageable again.
And as a final bonus idea, if you’re a manager of managers, consider forwarding this post to the managers under you! 🙂