Why so many employee-appreciation efforts feel phony

One of the wonderful things about watching AppleTV’s Severance is seeing the variety of “employee appreciation events” they throw. Each one worse than the last, but they provide wonderful satire of the flat attempts many companies make to demonstrate to their employees that they are valued.

The truth is that employee appreciation is not shown by any event.

It turns out that if you want the people who work in an organization to feel appreciated, you need to show that they are respected and valued every day. Managers should not wait for special occasions to say nice things about their employees’ performance. Instead, leaders need to be looking for chances to compliment excellence, effort, and improvement all the time.

It is particularly important that significant recognition, praise, and rewards be given to people whose actions and ethos are aligned with the mission of the organization. When visible awards and praise go to people who are widely known to be favorites of management rather than to great team players, that undermines people’s belief that leaders care about the values they talk about.

Intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards

Psychologists have long distinguished between intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards reflect the joy of engaging in a particular activity. For example, you might read often because you genuinely love engaging with a good book. Extrinsic rewards are rewards given that are independent of the activity itself. If someone paid me $5 for every book I read, that would be an extrinsic reward.

The danger with extrinsic rewards is that people pursue the activity for that reward, and will often stop doing it when the reward is taken away. In fact, extrinsic rewards can sometimes interfere with people’s ability to learn that an activity is intrinsically rewarding.

There is a parallel with employee appreciation. Authentic employee appreciation is embedded in the daily workflow in a way that feels connected (or intrinsic) to the work itself. Supervisors should regularly catch people doing good things and give them positive feedback. Highlighting great work during team meetings and in email updates is also valuable.

What authentic appreciation looks like

When compliments are freely given to acknowledge significant contributions, then other employee rewards often feel more authentic. Still, it’s useful for organizations to think about ways to provide perks that are consistent with their brand and mission. For example, I have seen leaders at my university use tickets to sporting events and other events on campus to reward service that goes beyond the call of duty.

Rewards ring hollow when they feel separated from the work itself. When leaders routinely lead by creating fear, and fail to acknowledge great work, then any reward—even ones that are on-brand—will still feel forced and inauthentic.

On top of that, the rewards given to employees should feel like actual rewards. Holding a party after hours to honor people who have done great work may create a burden for those who have long commutes home or family obligations to attend to. Sending out gift baskets of food that get dietary restrictions of employees wrong is also a problem, because it signals you don’t really know the people you’re trying to honor.

We spend a lot of our waking life at work. It’s nice to be recognized for the contributions we have made to the mission of our team. But an inauthentic reward can be worse than none. It leaves people feeling cynical because it suggests that their true contribution hasn’t really been noticed.

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