Eight Celebrations Your Company Should Have

(Mondays are Lynn Miles Peisker days at The Daily Blur. Lynn’s the Executive Sister and Chief Plate Spinner at the Imagination Advisory Group. Check out her growing archive of posts here.)

All three of my partners are celebrating wedding anniversaries today.  Tim and Dee are celebrating 10 years of marriage to each other.  Ryan and his better half, Julie, are celebrating 13 years.

Last week, I celebrated one year since I left a job I loved, for a job I love more. I’ve never looked back.

At The Daily Blur, we have lots to celebrate.  Since October of 2008 – the start of America’s economic downturn – most of our clients, including all of our home services clients – have experienced (and enjoyed!) double-digit and triple-digit growth. 

What do you celebrate?  We firmly believe that celebrations belong in business. 

As Tim wrote last week on the website Business to Community, “You need to strive to keep your employees as happy as you want your customers to be.”

Celebrate their milestones.  Celebrate their accomplishments.  Celebrate when they represent the goals and values of your organization.

Here are some  happenings we think worthy of celebration:

• Any time an employee exhibits extreme tenacity through a tough work week, present them with a traveling trophy engraved “What a Week!”  Let them pass it on to the next guy, encouraging and observing the hard work of others in the company.
• When a customer compliments one of your employees by name, present them with a $25 gift card.  This encourages employees to make sure the customer knows their names.  Which is also helpful on the rare occasion things don’t go so well.
• On days when an employee goes the the extra mile, write a note that simply says, “We noticed,”  or buy them lunch.  Employees of a local contractor working on Friday  were treated to lunch by the VP of the company.  He delivered it to the work site and expressed appreciation for their hard work, going the extra mile to meet a deadline on a day that everyone else had off for the long holiday weekend.  By the way, he was working too, which added to their appreciation and his credibility.
• Reward employees for solving customer problems, whether real or perceived.  Leaving  on a Friday is a tremendously motivating reward, especially in the summer.  Just last Friday, a friend who is President and CEO of a $3+ million dollar organization manned the phones all afternoon so her employees could enjoy a longer weekend.  We love that kind of servant leadership!
• Celebrate gratitude.  At Thanksgiving, or any time of the year.
• Acknowledge employee accomplishments outside the workplace.
• Promote and reward random acts of kindness.
• Support your employees charitable contributions and volunteerism.  Consider an employee match for donations, or schedule a company work day at the volunteer event your employee is organizing.

What do you celebrate?  How do you celebrate? Everyday, in big and small ways,  celebrate the VIP customers of your business or organization, your employees.