Category Archives: Gratitude

Business Gifting Best Practices Revealed!

Posted on December 7, 2010 by | Leave a comment

At gThankYou, we’re  in the fortunate position to learn and share information about how corporate gifts – to employees, customers or friends — impact business. Study after study as well as documented experiences shared by firms we serve reveals that corporate leaders practicing workplace gratitude gain a lot of what we like to call Thanks Equity. It can be measured in engaged employees, loyal customers and a healthier bottom line.

As another year comes to a close, it’s fitting to look back and share the best information we’ve found in the past year plus, a best practices of corporate gifting of sorts.

  1. How to engage employees? Just add dirt! 
  2. Gaining worker buy in by offering an office recess.
  3. Making Thanks easy by lowering the transaction cost.
  4. Timing is everything, except when it comes to workplace giving.
  5. What to give: It’s truly the thought that counts.
  6. Creating awareness with recognition.
  7. Health and happiness through giving.
  8. Recognition helps gain competitive advantage.
  9. Giving builds customer loyalty.
  10. Gifting is the best recruitment and retention tool.

More innovative corporate leaders are recognizing the value of Thanks Equity. You probably won’t find it on any P&L, but it does mean a lot to an organization’s health. Please share with us your stories of how workplace gifting helps your company.

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Posted in Employee Gifts, Fun with Gratitude, Gratitude, Gratitude Research, Management & Leadership, Showing Gratitude to Employees, Thank You, Thank You Power, The Art of Thank You, Workplace Gifts

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A Lesson in Appreciation

Posted on November 24, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Around Thanksgiving each year, teachers invariably urge students to talk and write about what they are Thankful for. (Insert groan here if you remember this exercise.)

This is not an easy task for child nor adult. So, it’s with utter amazement and heart-melting admiration that I learned this year about one 10-year-old child’s poignant expression of gratitude before his class this Thanksgiving.

When asked by his teacher to share what he appreciates, this kid thought and thought. Finally, he told classmates how he really is grateful for how his mom pours milk on his breakfast cereal every day.

What sounded trivial to him turned into a lengthy classroom discussion about how the little things we do for each other daily really add up to make a big difference. And his simple expression of Thanks became not so little anymore.

The simple truth is that small good things we do in our homes, communities and, yes, workplaces, every day add up in ways we probably don’t realize.

Another truth: Thanks is a powerful tool that pays big dividends when shared. It needn’t be a big gesture, either. (Even though I’m sure things like Snowplow Driver Appreciation Day marked this week in Wisconsin is nice, so is a well-worded note.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from all of us at gThankYou.

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Posted in Fun with Gratitude, Gratitude, Thank You, Thank You Power, The Art of Thank You

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The Best Pumpkin Pie (or, Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!)

Posted on October 11, 2010 by | Leave a comment

If you’re Canadian, you’re celebrating Thanksgiving today. Living close enough to see the border of our northern neighbor like us, we hear plenty about how the Canadian celebration differs from its November counterpart celebrated in the U.S. My Canuck friends always distinguished their Thanksgiving as more of a harvest dinner, than a food fest.

 

With pumpkin pie, fresh is best.

 

But according to a recent article in the Toronto Star, the Canadian feast differs in one primary way:

“It’s an annual feast held the second Monday of October, but the calendar isn’t the only thing that distinguishes our Thanksgiving from that celebrated south of the border.”

What about pie? Pumpkin still dominates, but it’s a pie with more pronounced flavor notes. Again, Thanks to the Star:

“Canadians enjoy a spicy pie infused with nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, while Americans typically complete their feast with one that’s custardy and sweet.”

Regardless of your spice-to-sweet taste preference, pumpkin pie is a true seasonal joy to behold and an absolute must on any Thanksgiving table. According to several recent news articles, home-roasted pumpkin versus its store-bought canned season is the key to making a really fantastic pumpkin pie.

According to a testimonial in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blog post, “…a blind taste test of pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin and with fresh pumpkin. Guess which won by a landslide? Fresh.”

Roasting a pumpkin in your oven is as easy as pie, too. See a video demonstration on the JS Online blog.

Claiming it makes a “truly exceptional pumpkin pie,” the Chillicothe Gazette provides those uninitiated with a “recipe” for home-made pumpkin puree

Fresh pumpkin puree can be used in any pumpkin recipe, not just pie. But in my mind, there’s no better way to use pumpkin than in a pumpkin pie. Try roasting one in your oven this year if you prefer the home-made variety, then weigh in with your preference.

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Posted in Gratitude, Pie Gift Certificates

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Look to the Professional Gift Pros

Posted on October 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Those in the business of Thanks rarely get a chance to see it in action first-hand.  But that’s what happened recently when gThankYou was among a select group of professional gift pros highlighted in a story in the October Business Beat Magazine. The feature in the publication of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce explores the wide array of opportunities for giving professional gifts, noting that many firms choose to recognize employee accomplishments and occasions.

The heart of the message: “a gift lets you know you’re appreciated.”

And that’s really at the heart of why we’re here, to help company leaders appreciate employees, customers and friends. But it’s how we help that means the most to both employees and employers. Explains gThankYou President Rick Kiley of our popular Turkey Gift Certificates, the gift that launched it all and continues to be popular during the holidays, particularly around that season of gratitude, Thanksgiving:

“It’s so convenient for employees, and gives them flexibility and choice. They can redeem the certificate at their convenience and choose the turkey that suits them. It’s a very meaningful, highly visible gift that puts the employer front and center.”

That convenience and meaning allows gThankYou certificates convey appreciation in a way that builds relationships and engages employees.

It’s a rare treat for us to have such an “aw, shucks” moment. But having our work highlighted in this way gives us a glimpse of the appreciation that comes through recognition. Sort of a validation that what we’re doing really works. It certainly has given us a boost to work even harder to spread Thanks around.

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Posted in Gratitude, Grocery Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, Ice Cream Gift Certificates, Pie Gift Certificates, Showing Gratitude to Employees, Thank You, Thank You Power, Trends, Turkey Gift Certificates, Workplace Gifts

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Frozen Dairyland (or Ice Cream Flavors we Love)

Posted on June 3, 2010 by | 1 Comment

It’s hard to imagine just how many flavors of ice cream exist. But creative ice cream makers keep coming up with new tastes all the time.

Take, for example, one boutique ice cream maker here that concocts custom ice cream flavors for big events and special occasions. During a recent charity event, The Chocolate Shoppe came up with a “festive yellow/red cookie dough” ice cream that had the distinct appearance of – you guessed it – sausage laden with yellow mustard. (Yum!) When the city this year wooed Google to bring its fiber optic service here, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Babcock Dairy launched Madfiber ice cream featuring M&Ms in Google’s company colors with sweet granola in vanilla ice cream.

Although it appears that I live in a magical Frozen Dairyland, plenty of other ice cream artisans across the country come up with unusual flavor combinations , too.  Exotic is the niche at In the Mood Coffee and Ice Cream in Woodbury and Magic Fountain in Mattituck. Not to be outdone, the tiny Humphry Slocombe in San Francisco keeps customers current with its 100 flavors including prosciutto, milk chocolate tarragon and foie via Twitter.

Regardless of the number of flavors out there, one flavor stands alone as the consummate favorite: vanilla. There are good reasons why. Vanilla is anything but plain or boring. Vanilla’s flavor profile is complex as the Washington Post notes.

“Such complexity and multidimensionality have made vanilla one of the most sought-after and copied spices. But its use is still fairly limited. We add it to sweet dishes to emphasize their sweetness. And that’s about it. Although homemade vanilla ice cream is one of the most wonderful things I know, I don’t think we should stop there.”

Plus, vanilla pairs well with just about everything. Check these top flavors from a Food Network survey. The top five of 15:

  1. Vanilla
  2. Chocolate
  3. Butter pecan
  4. Strawberry
  5. Neapolitan

For contrast, here are the top ice cream flavors based on sales listed by the NPD Group:

  1. Vanilla
  2. Chocolate
  3. Butter Pecan
  4. Strawberry
  5. Chocolate Chip Mint

I see a trend. What’s your favorite scoop?

www.npd.com

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Posted in Fun with Gratitude, Gratitude

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Growing Engagement: Just add dirt

Posted on May 19, 2010 by | 4 Comments

What’s an instant recipe for growing  morale? Just add dirt.

Some companies have  found a fun and innovative way to engage employees by providing an unlikely benefit: a vegetable garden. This growing trend was recognized as one of the best ideas in Human Resources recently.

Minneapolis PR and branding company Haberman & Associates  spent about $10,000 last year to start a garden for its employees.  “It’s creating that water-cooler effect,” the article quotes company co-founder and chief executive Fred Haberman “People have a greater excitement [about] working at Haberman.”

Haberman’s off-site garden, called the “Dude Ranch,” was recognized by Human Resource Executive magazine editors as one of the  “Best HR Ideas for 2010.” You can follow the company’s growing season, or get tips on how to start an employer-sponsored garden yourself, at the project blog.

The National Gardening Association says vegetable gardening is up about 20 percent, although it’s not clear how much of that is done by companies. But a growing number of firms have taken up the hoe including Google, Yahoo, Kohl’s, PepsiCo and Twisted Limb Paperworks, which began a 1,500-square-foot garden outside its offices to boost engagement, as this Washington Post story relates.

University of Maryland business professor Paul Tesluk says a garden can encourage camaraderie, help in recruiting and differentiate a business from competitors. Perhaps it’s time to plant a row for employee morale and engagement and, of course, to just say Thanks!

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Posted in Fun with Gratitude, Thank You, The Art of Thank You, Trends

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How to Gift in the Workplace: Part III

Posted on April 14, 2010 by | 2 Comments

It became a popular fun topic of conversation around the water cooler the same time every month. Who would receive the certificate and hearty handshake? As the ritual went, monthly all-staff meetings concluded with the top executive handing out his pick-of-the-month for the stand-out employee.

Although the certificate (suitable for framing) held no monetary value, it was treasured by the recipient and often displayed for years in cubes and offices. Accolades like this have been proven to be the greatest workplace gift of all. And I would argue that it’s not so much what or when (see Parts I and II of this series), but how the gift is presented that is really key to a successful workplace gift program that will return rewards to your company.

Saying Thank You to employees with meaningful rewards is good. Doing it in a way that recognizes specific achievements in a forum that creates awareness is great. Even if it’s a simple gift, putting thought behind the presentation has been proven to motivate.

It a recent Workplace Wrangler blog the Seattle Post Intelligencier drew attention to author Daniel Pink’s recent speech at the TED conference. The talk, detailing the science of motivation, notes that “when it comes to motivation, there is a huge gap between what science knows and what companies do.” Pink wrote the acclaimed Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. According to the PI:

Pink convincingly argues that once our basic need for financial stability is taken care of, the desire for intrinsic motivation kicks in. Intrinsic motivation is founded upon personal rewards (individual interest or love) rather than extrinsic motivation (money). In fact, many scientific studies have demonstrated that people actually become less motivated when money is tied to doing something we are already drawn to doing. It actually devalues it for us!

Pink advocates employers to adopt a “now-that” approach to rewards and gifts instead of the usual quid-pro-quo “if-then” rewards system to gain motivation.

A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers and OfficeTeam reported in the Toronto-based Globe & Mail recently  noted that 33 percent of workers in North America believe their manager fails to recognize them.

The certificate and hearty handshake method worked because it was a gift that carried a lot of meaning behind it. The recipient was most often a surprise, and always well deserved.

What’s the best workplace gift you have received? What’s the best reward program you’ve been involved with at a company? Chime in.

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Posted in Employee Gifts, Showing Gratitude to Employees, Trends

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Best Workplace Gifts: What? (Part II)

Posted on March 31, 2010 by | 2 Comments

That old adage that says when it comes to gifting, it’s the thought that counts holds up in research. And as it turns out, it holds particularly true in the workplace. It’s been proven that positive recognition of employees is a strong morale booster that can strengthen the bottom line.

But, gift giving experience shows that there’s more to it than that. Following Part I of our guide to the Best Workplace Gifts,  exploring when to give, it’s important to now consider how you decide what to give, To wrap your head around that question, consider that the psychology of gift giving  suggests that “the nature of the gift, not its monetary value, determines the prevalence of reciprocal reactions,” according to researchers at the University of Zurich’s Institute for Empirical Research in Economics who in 2008 published a paper on “The Currency of Reciprocity – Gift-Exchange in the Workplace.”

In field studies, researchers found out that employees offered a gift performed better than if offered higher wages.

“…An increase in fixed wages only has a negligible impact on workers’ productivity. However, a gift in-kind of equivalent monetary value has an economically and statistically significant effect on productivity. Workers provide 30 percent more output on average. Moreover, this effect remains large and significant over the course of the entire working period…. Our main result remains largely unchanged if the price of the gift is communicated to the workers.”

Gifts are personal expressions and should be treated that way. But this suggests that small tokens can be more meaningful than big bonuses. Follow these simple guidelines to best determine what to give:

  1. Consider any company policy or rewards program details first when looking at specific employee gifts. (If you don’t have a reward policy, it could be a good time to develop one.)
  2. Your mission and culture can give strong clues to good gift fits. Family-friendly firms, for example, will reap great benefits form gifts that will be meaningful to entire families, rather than an individual tchotchke.
  3. There’s nothing wrong with promoting your company with gifts, such as corporate logo goods, but stay away from anything that says “gag” gift. That sends the wrong message.
  4. Fun is good. Enjoy the process and make the gift choosing and giving fun for managers and employees to create a positive, strengthening atmosphere.

There’s no need to wrack your brain about what to give. It is important to have a rewards program that emphasizes the mission and culture of your organization. Revisit it, evaluate it and tweak it when necessary.

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Posted in Employee Gifts, Gratitude, Thank You Power

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Engage to Rebuild Your Workforce

Posted on January 28, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Economic uncertainty seems to remain in the air, but it’s also clear that the job picture must be improving, at least in the macro, from some recent things I’ve been reading on certain career-focused Web sites.

This recent post from Career Builder advises companies how to attract and win over ideal job candidates. The list includes lots of perks that range widely:

  • Offering a healthy work/life balance
  • Having flexible or alternative work schedules
  • Corporate volunteering groups and efforts
  • Cross-training opportunities
  • A “Green” facility
  • Tuition reimbursement
  • Health benefits for an employee and his/her family
  • Casual dress
  • Dogs in the office
  • Employee trips
  • Candy at the reception desk
  • Free yoga
  • In-house massage
  • Learning opportunities
  • Fun contests to promote recognition
  • 15 days off during the holiday season
  • Profit sharing

Missing from this list, arguably, is the key strategy of engaging current employees and offering them a tangible system that helps them set, achieve and celebrate goals. Employees under your roof now are your greatest asset, and best advertising tool to boost your ranks with top-performing people. Best to start the year right by setting a policy and agenda toward employee engagement for a sustainable organization.

As discussed in this recent post from Jo Confino, executive at the London-based Guardian, employee engagement is not really rocket science, but more a matter of communication. Says Jo:

“We are delighted that our most recent employee survey has shown that our staff engagement programme has led to a dramatic uplift in the scores on sustainability, compared with the same survey the previous year.”

According to Career Builder, the job forecast for the upcoming period is improving. It’s probably a good time  to shore up employee engagement to build a truly sustainable and productive workforce.

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Posted in Thank You Power, Trends

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How to use your gThankYou! Certificate

Posted on January 18, 2010 by | Leave a comment

To the fortunate many who received gThankYou! Ham, Turkey or Grocery Gift Certificates recently, congratulations! Yours is a thoughtful and useful reward for a job well done!

To help you through the process of using your gThankYou certificate, I’ve created this handy primer designed to answer any questions. Since I, too, was the recent recipient of my first gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificate, I thought there no better way to help than to share my own experience

Told that my gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificate would cover $20 toward the purchase of any Turkey of my choice from any grocer, I went shopping. Here’s how it worked.

After settling on the exact Turkey I wanted – Kosher this year – I planned where to shop for the perfect size Turkey at a good price. I found the perfect bird at Trader Joe’s, a national specialty food retail chain that caters to the foodie crowd. The bird fit my criteria, and those spelled out on the certificate (it needed to cost at least $20).

Certificate in hand, I advanced toward the check-out. After I presented the certificate, my checker examined it and began reading the instructions. He was a first-timer too, having never seen a Certificate from gThankYou. A manager responded, and after he read the certificate instructions, completed my transaction.

After hardly the bat of an eye, I was done. It worked just like a coupon presented during the check out process. But this was better, because I was fulfilling a reward.

A few tips:

  1. Pay attention to the specifics. Details on your certificate will tell you what the gift covers: Turkey, Ham or Groceries and for how much.
  2. Certificates will have a good-through date. Use the certificate by this day to ensure you receive the full benefit of your gift.
  3. Expect to wait a minute or two for verification from a store manager. Shopping during a slower time of day on a slower store traffic day will minimize your wait.
  4. If you run into stores with questions, there’s a toll-free number on the certificate that managers or clerks can call on the spot.
  5. Rest assured that the certificates are usable for any specified item at any store, even if they’ve never (as was my experience) processed a gThankYou certificate. It’s the real deal.

It was truly an unexpected thrill to receive a gThankYou Gift Certificate. I felt proud using it, and enjoyed serving the Turkey I purchased with it, which this year had more of a story. Share your experience getting and using gThankYou certificates, and serving the resulting meals.

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Posted in Employee Gifts, Showing Gratitude to Employees, Thank You

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