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.

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.

Thanks to a recent New York Times piece, “In Month of Giving, A Healthy Reward,” by Tara Parker-Pope, whose Well columns have this year has become some of my favorite Google Reader picks, I know a lot more about the gifts of giving. During this season, it’s important to be mindful of those rewards.

There are real reasons we feel good giving people gifts, whether they’re gifts of time, talent or a treasured trinket. It’s particularly interesting that scientific studies confirm that giving is, indeed, good for you.

Quoted in the piece, Stephen Post, who wrote “Why Good Things Happen to Good People”  says that giving and helping provides benefits that last years.

“It turns out that giving — far more than receiving — is a surprisingly potent force whose impact reverberates across an entire lifetime, nourishing health and happiness in astonishing ways.”

Post directs the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University, which  has compiled evidence of the good of giving in 50 studies.

So, as we near the end of the year – the end of the decade, in fact – and thoughts turn toward incremental ways you can change your daily life for greater happiness, health and good, keep in mind the power behind a simple Thank You and other little ways to include giving in your daily life. You could be the greatest benefactor.

Peter Warr and Guy Capperto’s new book “The Joy of Work?” is among the work being presented on this hot topic. We spend one quarter of our lives at work, so it’s important to make the best of it, says Warr, emeritus professor a the UK-based Institute of Work Psychology. It’s important, Warr explains in a New York Times article, to focus on job satisfaction or finding meaning in your work, describing nine necessary elements of happiness in work and life. These include: having some sense of empowerment, using and expanding your skills.

There’s more:

• Consultant and author Alexander Kjerulf (self-dubbed Chief Happiness Officer) offers 10 reasons happiness at work is the top productivity booster. Among the benefits of workplace happiness Kjerulf cites: less complaining, more energy, higher optimism, increased motivation and fewer sick days.

• Performance Coach Arvind Devalia chimes in with his 12 steps to workplace happiness. He cites a  UK survey that found that two out of three people are dissatisfied with thier jobs and encourages workers to “See your work as a game. Life is meant to be fun and if you are going to spend a third of it at work, you might as well enjoy the game.”

• Finally, author Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project shares 16 practical tips for feeling happier at work.

This offers more proof that employees, and companies, gain from thankfulness and appreciation.

Rick Kiley is President of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

Australian psychologist Timothy Sharp, of the Happiness Institute recently asked 50 people what they consider to be the top three things that contributed to happiness at work. Their answers provide very valuable information to HR managers.

While I won’t rehash all five things Sharp outlines as steps to happiness at work, number three in particular struck me as relevant: Give Thanks

Says Sharp:

“Employees want to be valued as members of a team and organization. But they also want to be told, frequently and appropriately, that they are valued, as people. They want to be thanked and appreciated for their accomplishments. When managers and colleagues openly congratulate employees for their wins or efforts, it makes everyone happier.”

Sharp explains that this response is consistent with a great deal of research into what he terms the “social and emotional benefits of gratitude.” University of California-Davis psychologist Robert Emmons discusses this concept in his book, Thanks!.

He explains gratitude as a way of life, and provides tips on how to practice it in our everyday lives arguing that it enhances our sense of self-worth, while at the same time strengthening social ties. Emmons continues his study of expressing thanks, which he calls the “forgotten factor” in happiness research, saying that it increases the happiness of both giver and receiver.

Sounds like required reading for anyone interested in boosting workplace happiness…and maybe the rest of your life, too.

Rick Kiley is President of gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way  savvy companies demonstrate commitment to valued employees. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

Thanks to the positive psychology gurus at the University of Pennsylvania, you can measure your level of gratitude. In six simple questions, Dr. Martin Seligman – often credited as the father of positive psychology – offers a tool to test your thanks. (An easy registration is required for this quiz.)

Thanks is key to happiness.

In his own words, Seligman says gratitude amplifies good memories of the past. He offers an exercise in expressing gratitude. Think of it as a way to throw out bad memories to make room for the good.

How does this apply to the workplace? Writing on happiness on the job in her HarvardBusiness.org blog, London-based executive coach Gill Corkindale explains it this way:

“It all comes down to choice, and this is where I believe happiness lies. In choosing — as far as you are able — what you want to do and how you will do it. While not all of us can choose our work and colleagues, we can all choose how we approach things — with an open, optimistic, and positive outlook or with a   frustrated, irritated one. To this end, I suggest you look at the work of positive psychologists such as Martin Seligman and Tal Ben-Shahar, whose course on happiness at Harvard has been inspirational for many students.”

It’s important, today more than ever, to recognize the importance of tools like gratitude to amplify the happiness we all have in our work. This is happening in the most unlikely of places. In England, the British government has appointed economist Richard Layard to the post of “Happiness Czar” to bolster the happiness of its citizens. It’s certainly worthwhile, in our own lives, our own work, and our own organizations, to look at how to be thankful and boost our own happiness quotient.

Drawing on examples from my own career as well as stories from others where bumpers stickers and sticky notes became treasured badges of thanks for a job well done, it’s apparent authentic praise, in whatever form, goes a long way toward creating engagement.

Amazing as it may sound, giving simple thanks can be less than easy in some companies. In a 2007 article. BusinessWeek careers columnist and author Liz Ryan asked: “Is Praising Employees Counterproductive?” Some managers have an irrational fear, Ryan writes, that too much praise can “spoil” a good employee.

After exploring what she sees as the basis for some of this fear, Ryan concludes this: Praise is a key motivator but effectiveness hinges on the praise being credible.

“Of course, you can’t go around praising people all the time, even when they’re doing a great job, and you should never praise people when they don’t deserve it.  If you praise people nonstop your complimentary words will lose their effectiveness as a motivator. If you give praise when it’s not deserved, you’ll lose  your credibility and undermine the whole group’s efforts.”

It’s all a matter of style, of course. But the following examples provide some solid tips to get HR managers and company leaders started on developing a program that gives well-deserved and credible thanks to employees:

1. Don’t praise the employee, praise their work. Gary Vikesland writes on Employer-employee.com that it’s important to be specific and target abilities or work when handing out compliments. Furthermore, it’s best to be specific and make you’re your praise has a purpose. (http://www.employer-employee.com/praise.html).
2. Work to build an organization that has a “climate of positive reinforcement”. Bruce L. Katcher, president of The Discovery Group, says a healthy organization makes praise part of the culture. These companies have supervisors frequently overheard saying: Good point!  I’m glad you brought that up!  I really appreciate that!  Good job!  Well done!  (And my favorite Thank you!
3. Praise in public, advises the Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) in its five tips for praise “Acknowledging people in public accomplishes two important things. The employees feel even better as they are recognized in front of their peers. In addition, public praise is one way of reminding other employees of what you want from them.”

Great insights indeed!

One past employer never praised anyone.  Anyone.  He thought praising good work would make other workers envious and feel left out. Ya think?!?!?  Of course it would!  That’s the idea.

• Praise good work and everyone wants a piece of the action.
• Praise good work and then employees know what you value.
• Praise good work and employees want more.
• Praise good work and everyone gets in on it.
• Praise good work and employees praise each others’ work.

To paraphrase that great American sage, Forest Gump: “Praise is a praise does.”

Or, to repeat one of “One Minute Manager” guru Ken Blanchard‘s basic tenets: “catch someone doing something right”.

That’s it: catch someone doing something right = praise.

Do it.  It’s free; it’s appreciated; it builds great organizations.

That sense of thankfulness creates employee engagement and builds loyalty.

It’s a big topic for HR pros and in companies today – engagement – and in particular engagement framed by low-cost or no-cost strategic recognition programs, formal and informal.  Studies and examples underscore this point, as Robert Morris, a business commentator from Dallas, wrote recently on the Examiner site. Morris contends, in fact, that reward and recognition programs provide firms with a direct competitive advantage

Here’s an example cited by Morris:

“I once called on a consulting client…and while being escorted from the reception area to the CEO’s office by his administrative assistance, as we walked past one office, I stopped when I saw through the open door a framed ‘something’ on the wall. It was the office of a senior vice president and he was not there. ‘Everyone notices that,’ she said. ‘Here, take a look.’ I examined what was under the glass: more than a dozen multi-colored Post-its, each personally inscribed with brief, congratulatory comments addressed to ‘Warren’ for a winning proposal, an excellent presentation, etc. ‘He’s so proud of those little notes that he went out and got them all framed’”.

Talk about Gratitude²!  Here’s a senior exec who’s proud to display “merit badges” of achievement that cost about 1/10 cent each.  He probably spent more time having them framed than the writers spent writing them.  And what a huge pay-off.  This is clearly an engaged, grateful employee.

A survey released earlier this year by the O.C. Tanner Co. says  companies that “appreciate employees’ get a 20 percent to 30 percent boost in engagement. The global study shows that a simple “thanks” provides results that cross countries and cultures.

Such job appreciation creates measured stickiness. I’ve seen it work in my own career:

An executive  at a company I worked for gave out a bumper sticker (a bumper sticker?!?!) as a monthly award to the employee he thought made a measurable impact. He presented the award in grand fashion at a highly-attended staff meeting each month singing the praises of the awardee. I was not the only one who proudly displayed that bumper sticker at my desk – and was motivated to stick with the company for a long, long time.

It’s an amazing tool!

Simple Rewards = Gratitude Squared (SR = g²).

Share your own examples of how recognition – formal or informal – helped motivate you. We’d love to hear from you.

gThankYou!

Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian announced the program on a USA Today travel blog “Hotel Check-In” titled Hyatt CEO announces random “surprises” for loyalty members saying: “We will be empowering hotel employees to perform what we’re calling random acts of generosity. So, don’t be surprised if Gold Passport picks up your bar tab, comps your massage or treats your family to breakfast.  It’s part of bringing authentic hospitality to life and making you feel more than welcome.”

It can be tricky, however, to generate such an authentic act of gratitude in the marketplace. It’s a point not lost in the blogosphere.

Posted on the Economist’s Gulliver blog: ”…at the risk of quibbling, it’s not quite down-home ‘authentic hospitality.’ Deducting items from the bills of certain treasured guests is more a sensible commercial decision than a charming gesture.”

And 5 Circles Research’s Mike Pritchard questions in his company’s blog whether Hyatt’s program is a “good idea or off target.”

Research by the University of Washington’s Robert Palmer, an associate professor of marketing, says that “a customer who is made to feel grateful most likely becomes enduringly loyal as a result,” according to Walker’s column. He continues: “Gratitude, as the paper bluntly puts it, can ‘increase purchase intentions, sales growth and share of wallet.’ Psychological studies have shown that people feel good reciprocating genuine acts of gratitude and guilt when they do not. It’s a point that businesses should well note with caution that it’s not all that easy to do.

Walker’s column and the debate it has stirred reminds me of an experience we had several years ago on a stop at the Mall of America. My family dined at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant and were stunned when, after a very messy spill by my then-toddler and meal replacement, the waiter picked up our entire tab! We were genuinely thankful, and gave a tip to match our gratitude. This random act put a new, positive spin on what was winding down to a terrible travel day.

It’s that sort of event, when things could be better (or couldn’t be worse) that the random act of generosity has the most impact.  Two examples, Hampton Inns guarantees 100% satisfaction; no questions asked.  Period.  When the Internet connection didn’t happen a few years back the hotel comped me the entire night.  Gratis!  Wow, was that a delight!  I didn’t request it.  In fact I suggested a discount.  But, the front desk manager insisted.

Finally, for a recent round-number birthday my wife, toddler and I were dining at DisneyWorld‘s Wolfgang Puck restaurant when the server asked our three year old if she wanted to watch her pizza made; regardless, what a relief to have an antsy youngster be ably entertained away from our table for ten minutes.  Again, we tipped generously.  How often would you feel great about a 25% gratuity?  The next night?  Same thing; different Disney restaurant.  Talk about great training; that’s what makes Disney, Disney.  Everyone at Disney does it; no hesitation.

Generosity Inc. = Gratitude Squared (GI = G x G)

We’ll be back. Promise.

In its white paper “The Time for Employee Recognition and Reward Programs Is Now,” the group says  rewards and recognition provide the kind of engagement that create success for companies during tough times.

According to the report: “Creating and maintaining a climate of employee appreciation can make the difference – and it doesn’t always need a large budget. In fact, it can be one of the most effective moves an employer can take. Companies of all sizes need to make a conscious commitment to keep their recognition if they want to keep their employees engaged and productive.”

Some key findings from the report:

• Companies with recognition and reward programs outperform competitors.
• Recognition and reward programs are ROI compatible.
• Customer satisfaction, loyalty and profitability are tied to recognition.

Another interesting survey that’s from a collaboration between the International Association of Administrative Professionals and OfficeTeam, the admin staffing division of global giant Robert Half International, shows the power of a pat on the back. While supervisors surveyed rated job promotions and cash as the two most valued forms of recognition to administrative professionals, support staff favored a simple thank-you and having their accomplishments passed on to senior management.  That’s “Thank You Power” in action.  It’s free or inexpensive, it’s meaningful and it’s powerful.

Also, two out of three (66%) administrative employees said they would probably leave their jobs if they did not feel appreciated by their manager, while seven out of 10 (70%) admitted the company’s recognition program would factor into their decision to accept a job with a potential employer.

“While financial rewards should not be overlooked, the research shows there are other ways to effectively recognize someone’s commitment and dedication,” says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. “Administrative professionals are working harder than ever, but their accomplishments usually occur behind the scenes. Therefore, praise from supervisors or a colleague that is specific, immediate and genuine can go a long way toward keeping these employees motivated and loyal.”