It hit home. People this year and are in need of basics. Being able to provide a Turkey Dinner with all the fixings is a real gift. That’s why today I’m thankful for generosity that has filled family’s tables across the country this Thanksgiving. A special Thank You to those who use ingenuity to get Turkeys on tables this year, like one gThankYou customer that used employee cash donations to purchase gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificates for its food drive benefiting families of a local school.

Writes Wendy Stane, Star-Telegram Special Events Coordinator,

“…employees’ generosity in cash donations far exceeded previous year’s contributions.  These turkey certificates will go to all families in need who submitted an application for assistance compliments of YOU, the Star-Telegram employees. Thank you! In the past, actual food donations required a bob tail truck loaded down and several volunteers to load and unload. With fewer resources this year, we were still able to provide 80 families with a turkey certificate and 31 with a complete dinner kit.”

The certificates were a big hit, according to this from Cynthia Monsevalles, a counselor at Hubbard Heights Elementary:

“The Turkey Certificates to be redeemed at any store were a great idea.  Every family got one.  Thanks.  Through our PTO, a special teacher fund and Star-Telegram we were also able to provide a food box for every family.”

The story is the same, I suspect, most every place. When times are tough, people take the opportunity to shine with acts of gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at gThankYou!

Lynn Welch is a contributor to gThankYou, LLC, based in Madison, WI.  gThankYou® Certificates of Gratitude™ are one way savvy companies recognize employees’ great work at Holiday Time. The company is best known for its Turkey Gift Certificates, Ham Gift Certificates, and Grocery Gift Cards.

Formally called “strategic recognition” in Human Resources management lingo, the practice and policy of Thanks goes beyond the intangible in benefits for a company.
Consider the following evidence from experts in the field:

Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business says offering formal Thanks in a company generates  higher ROI than bonuses. In his book, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First, Pfeffer notes that “Companies that manage people right will outperform companies that don’t by 30% to 40%.”

In fact, a McKinsey study published last year showed a $1,000 payment had a 10 times greater ROI when it was given as recognition than when it was given as a pay increase.

In its recently released WorkUSA study, Watson Wyatt, the global HR services firm, quantifies Thanks in an organization this way. In encouraging firms to build and share a system of equitable rewards, Watson Wyatt says, “organizations need to understand which reward programs are most important to engage their critical employee segments.” Their research shows that organizations that have an effective system of rewards have employees 20 times as likely to be highly engaged and 50 percent more likely to perform well.

It’s up to the HR manager to drive the conversation toward programs that make employees feel valued. It’s also quite prudent now to instill these formal Thanks into an organization. It’s more than just the right thing to do.

This is the first in a series describing some of the great ways our customers distribute gThankYou® Gift Certificates to employees. They’re touching, inspiring, thankful, often funny and just plain effective.

When gThankYou does our year-end wrap-up calls with customers we always ask:

1.  “How did you distribute gThankYou® Gift Certificates to employees?”

And

2.  ”How did it go?”

The responses are always revealing. Often they illustrate great creativity, sense of purpose and, of course, gratitude.

One thing customers often ask us: “How do other companies distribute your Gift Certificates?”

We chose to make this our first blog on this topic because it’s simple, easy and effective.

The Background. The Company was closing out a difficult year. Sale were down slightly, but less than the rest of the industry. An exciting new product was about to be introduced; it had huge potential. The Company had also overhauled its website. The new website required the help of all departments and touched everyone in the Company. It may be a big sales booster for the Company.

The President doesn’t like to give awards or gifts to individual employees, relying instead on a team-oriented approach. Still, she wanted to recognize the individuals and departments that had led the new product and website efforts.

How did she do it? Simply and elegantly.

The Payoff. She began by explaining it was a difficult year; that things were worse for competitors; that the sales force had shown its ability to out-hustle national competitors in a down market. And more:

• The whole Company had contributed to out-performing the market and laying the groundwork, in tough times, for a better future;
• That the new product and website were major accomplishments and the leaders of these initiatives had shown what a great, resourceful company can do.
• That the company is fortunate to have a great workforce and that the successful new initiatives wouldn’t be possible without major personal commitments from all departments and everyone’s families.

“That’s why”, she said “we want each of our families to celebrate our success knowing better times that will surely come.” She went on to explain how gThankYou Turkey Gift Certificates work.

Next, she personally handed the Gift Certificates to the two Department Heads who led the new product and website development projects, giving them indirect, but prominent recognition.

After that, the two Department Heads presented the Gift Certificates to their teams.

Finally, the new product and website teams handed the Gift Certificates to remaining employees.

There were lots of hugs, plenty of laughs, a few tears.

All-in-all it was a very successful “gThankYou!”

The Bottom Line. Simple, powerful, emotional, effective, memorable.

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