Interested in more work-life content? Check out our weekly Careers newsletter. Sent out every Sunday afternoon.
I worked for 16 years at a company that celebrated work anniversaries at the December holiday party. The rented hotel banquet rooms were pedestrian and the presentation took place during an alcohol-laced dinner, so the ceremony lacked grandeur and was hard to pay attention to. It marked five-year anniversaries and initially, being young and cynical, all I could think of as I watched people with 30- and 35-years’ service honoured was “I hope that doesn’t happen to me.”
But at the 10-year mark, I was proud of my accomplishments and the company, and thus dismayed that the paltry cheque handed out to mark the anniversary, which would quickly disappear into my bank account, failed to capture the moment. There were a lot of people being honoured, many for very long service, so I could understand the financial constraints, but it made me wonder: Why bother? Still, something inside me wanted to mark the occasion; I added some of my own money and bought an elegant desk pen set as a memento.
Work anniversaries celebrate contribution. They have grand potential in terms of recognition, engagement and belonging – all issues companies struggle with today. Indeed, they can make belonging tangible. But Rick Joi, a proponent who consults with organization on making the most of these moments, acknowledges they are poorly celebrated and don’t get the attention they deserve.
“Work anniversaries can be a wonderful opportunity to get creative and come up with your own traditions, using representative imagery, concepts or even words to generate and project a strong group identity,” he writes in Inspiring Work Anniversaries.
He finds three forces of mediocrity working against success: The need to avoid favouritism, not spend too much and not put too much effort into the commemoration. They prevent the recognition from being well-received. Indeed, failing to personalize can make each employee seem interchangeable, which is the opposite of the feeling that should be generated.
He recommends that executives who want to make more of these anniversaries start by ensuring the anniversaries are easy to discover by anyone in the organization. Some human resources information systems allow this, but you can also put an Excel spreadsheet with everyone’s name and hire date on your intranet. Small organizations can consider putting them on the shared calendar, like holidays, but this becomes unwieldy as you reach 50 employees.
Then look for ways to communicate anniversaries in advance to your workers, deciding whether it will be everyone each year or just special occasions. He recommends that there always be at least one anniversary announced in each communication but never more than 10, because if there are too many names people are less likely to read. Shout-outs at team or companywide meetings can be considered, perhaps with names on a well-designed presentation slide.
Make sure you get the dates right: Some people may have left and rejoined the organization, or started as temps or contractors, or have joined as part of an acquisition and you want them to agree, or at least accept, your interpretation of their anniversary. Where you can, opt for the most generous choice.
Another controversial issue can be whether people’s performance reviews will take place around their anniversaries – some people may feel that’s an appropriate time – and whether raises will be considered then. He argues the best approach is to separate remuneration from the anniversary, thus avoiding igniting bad emotions, but make sure new employees know the policy.
Ideally, you also want performance reviews to be separate from remuneration decisions. So he suggests dealing with money near the start of the budget year and give everyone their first performance review six months after joining the firm, an ideal time for this feedback, and at subsequent one-year intervals, which also means managers can carry out the reviews throughout the year rather than all at once.
As well as recognizing anniversaries throughout the year – individual managers, preferably with some training, can do that on the exact date – he recommends planning something special for big anniversaries at a yearly summer picnic, holiday party or other existing annual event. These have the biggest audiences of the year and are the most impactful place for a speech that reflects on the organization and long-serving employees’ contributions. “Done well, these speeches can be the highlight of the event, not only for the employees being honoured but also for the other employees, who get to learn interesting details about their colleagues, which can enhance everyone’s sense of belonging,” Mr. Joi writes.
If the organization has clear core values, those can be related to the employees’ long tenure by the CEO in an opening talk. Ideally, each employee should be recognized individually, by someone who knows them and can make knowledgeable remarks. That, of course, raises issues of how long it will take, which in turn relates to how many employees will be honoured and whether the event will actually become an obligation for those in attendance.
Other ideas he offers include a breakfast served by the executive team for those in a milestone anniversary year or an after-work event just for those celebrating an anniversary divisible by five and their guests. Whatever you choose, it involves a great deal of thought and a bit of risk. Some people are very private. Others have strong hokey detectors. The reminder of an anniversary for some will be glowing and for others painful. But recognition, engagement, belonging and organizational pride can all be enhanced by celebrating work anniversaries.
Cannonballs
- Consultant Stephen Lynch offers these rules when handing out tasks: Due dates are “commits,” not “hopes,” so negotiate realistic due dates for your projects and tasks. Between now and the due date it’s okay to ask for help or renegotiate your commitment if something happens outside your control. Otherwise, it’s unacceptable to show up with an excuse on the due date.
- Executive coach Mike Ettore warns a constant exodus of competent professionals is a red flag of toxic leadership – a sign that something is amiss in a company, department or team.
- Former Rotman School of Management dean Roger Martin says as a board member you will create the greatest possible level of value by becoming an intelligent and respectful dialogue partner of the CEO.
Harvey Schachter is a Kingston-based writer specializing in management issues. He, along with Sheelagh Whittaker, former CEO of both EDS Canada and Cancom, are the authors of When Harvey Didn’t Meet Sheelagh: Emails on Leadership.