Professional Liability Insurance Group Volume #26 2018

Professional Liability Insurance Group Volume #26 2018

The PLIG Professional’s PULSE

Volume #26

Gratitude in the Workplace

Odds are that your company hosts some type ofThanksgiving festivity. Office potlucks are delicious and great for camaraderie, but there’s one element of the holiday that should be part of your company culture year-round: gratitude.“If we think about gratitude only once a year,” notes author David Horsager,“we overlook the immense power of practicing it daily, especially in a business context.” A study from the University ofWarwick found that happier employees are 12 percent more productive. One of the easiest ways to put a smile on the faces of your team is to express your gratitude for them. It sounds simple, but it’s something far too many entrepreneurs, executives, and managers overlook.The holiday season is the perfect time of year to reflect on whether or not you’re saying thanks enough. The Benefits of Gratitude Over the course of his career as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Douglas Conant wrote more than 30,000 notes to employees expressing gratitude and appreciation to them.“On the face of it, writing handwritten notes may seem like a waste of time,” Conant told Harvard Business Review.“But in my experience, they build goodwill and lead to higher productivity.” The number of studies that confirm Conant’s assumption are too numerous to list here, but there are a few that should raise the eyebrows of any business owner.A study from the University of Pennsylvania, for example, found that grateful leaders motivate their employees to be up to 50 percent more productive. Gratitude and acknowledgment have also been linked to increased self-esteem, happiness, empathy, and a better response to stress and negative feedback.And the benefits affect both the person expressing their gratitude and the person receiving it. Everyday Appreciation During the holidays, it’s easy to take a moment to say thank you to the people who’ve made a difference in our lives over the past year. Sharing your appreciation,

however, is just as important in March or August as it is in November. Gratitude begets more gratitude, creating what researchers Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough call an “upward spiral.” Once you set the spiral in motion at your workplace, you’ll see an attitude of gratitude multiply and spread. The easiest way to start is to create a public forum where employees can acknowledge one another.“We have an all-hands meeting once a week, and we finish the meeting by ‘giving props,’ which is recognizing people on the team for their accomplishments that week,” says Badger Maps CEO Steven Benson. “Anyone on the team can give props to anyone else on the team, which fosters an atmosphere of appreciation and teamwork.” Other companies have a thank-you wall or shoutout email chain where employees can share their kudos.The most important thing isn’t the method you use, but that you make it an important part of company culture. It starts with leadership. If you aren’t taking the time to recognize and appreciate people, how can you expect that anyone else will? Instilling a culture of gratitude within your company doesn’t require intensive training or extensive investment.All you need to do is encourage a certain perspective and approach. Outside the Office Businesses don’t operate in a vacuum.They’re all part of the communities they inhabit, and your company’s sense of gratitude should reach beyond your staff and clients. Community outreach is the best way to show your neighbors that you care about them. During the holidays, there’s so much you can do for those in need in your area. Simply raising money for a local food bank or donating turkeys will go a long way for a family duringThanksgiving. Holding a companywide fundraiser brings your team together and gives them a sense of purpose that’s much more powerful than a paycheck alone. Certainly, the power of donating to a worthy cause is reason enough to participate in some philanthropy this holiday season.As a bonus, companies that engage in outreach projects consistently demonstrate higher levels of employee engagement and retention, which goes to show what happens when you get the upward spiral of gratitude in motion.

Go Forth Gratefully Creating a culture of gratitude and appreciation will benefit your company long after the last piece of pumpkin pie has been eaten. So take a moment this year to say thanks and show love to your team.And don’t stop doing it, even after the holidays have passed.

-Shayne

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Getting the Most out of Internal Communication LET’S TALK

conducted by IBM suggests that remote workers are, on average, more engaged and effective than those who come to the office from 9 to 5.With group messaging apps and cloud-based software, you can keep your team on the same page no matter where they are in the world.The best tools to make this possible will depend on your business, but keeping everyone under the same umbrella of programs, such as Google’s G Suite, is a great strategy to start with. Memes and GIFs Galore A company’s culture exists within the ways its team communicates. Having avenues available for employees to blow off steam, share funny stories, and stay abreast of each other’s lives is an important part of improving retention and company morale. Even spicing up a companywide

Maintaining the flow of ideas and information between team members is as necessary to a business as the nervous system is to the human body. Internal communication (IC) is what determines how flexible and responsive your company is to day-to-day challenges. In today’s fast-paced, decentralized marketplace, leveraging the right tools and strategies to make IC engaging, effective, and fun has never been more important. Here are a few tips to help you get there.

the best way to deliver information. Saving in- person meetings for big collaborative projects and important announcements will add more weight to those moments while allowing communications of lesser magnitude to be handled quickly and efficiently over email and instant messaging. Internal,Yet Global Remote work is becoming more and more common — and it’s a good thing. Research

email with a well-placed GIF or pop culture reference can do wonders to give your IC a voice unique to the culture and values of your company. Finding the styles and methods of communication that best fit your company takes time, but it’s worth it. Not only will creating your own communication style ensure that time and resources are used effectively, but it will also ensure that your team has a voice. Nailing this key aspect of your business will allow everything else to run far more smoothly.

More Chats, Fewer Meetings Making IC engaging from a leadership standpoint means taking the time to use the right medium for your message.The last thing you want is to have team members sitting through a meeting thinking,“Couldn’t this have just been an email?” Recognizing what you want to communicate and why are important steps in deciding

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