Transform Appreciation: Personalized Recognition & Leveraging Feedback as a Gift

WEBVTT Our first Impact Accelerator speaker, Stephanie Riley, director of Human Resources at Material Bank, internal leader, been doing this work at a high level and implementing another, a number of programs. One thing I love about what she's gonna share is transforming appreciation and using feedback as a mode of appreciation. I, I think that's something I've always resisted in the past, but once I started to see it as a gift and actually as a mode of love and appreciation and something that people are doing because they care about you, it actually kind of creates this deeper sense of belonging and connection. So I'm excited. I'm gonna stop sharing here. Welcome, Stephanie, for, uh, thank You. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. Okay. Lemme see if I can, Yeah, go ahead and share your screen. Great. I'm gonna hand it over to you. I see everything. Great. And, uh, yeah, the stage is yours. Thanks for being here. Okay, Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Um, hi everyone. I'm super excited. That was an amazing keynote and intro kind of into our discussion today. I'm excited to keep the conversation going and specifically to be talking about feedback and, and ways that we can leverage feedback, something that we're already doing to continue to drive this, um, culture of appreciation. So, just for a little bit of context, the organization that I'm with now, we're a global organization, about 250, um, employees in a high growth mode. Um, but a lot of what I'm gonna share, you know, I've implemented in other medium and sized companies most recently coming from the healthcare background. So you'll hear me kind of reference that a little bit, um, here as we kind of go through this. So, as we all are navigating this world where we're trying to do more with less, if we can really start to kind of rethink how we, as organizations view and use feedback, something we're already doing as a way to show appreciation for employees, we really start to see these transformations within our culture and our environments. We see employees that are more engaged, employees that really know and understand their value and ultimately can contribute more productively. And when you have all of those things happening, it ultimately leads to this culture of appreciation, which is what we're trying to accomplish. So in order to kind of do that, we have to shift a little bit of our mindset. So I think as HR leaders, we fully embrace and understand this idea of feedback as a gift, both positive feedback and constructive feedback. Um, but really when we start to reframe how we're looking at that, we see positive feedback as a way to reinforce someone's value within the organization and constructive feedback as a way of how can you actually increase your value. When we look at where that matters for people and for employees and how that contributes to this thriving culture, there's actually a science behind it. Um, and when we're using feedback to frequently communicate and express value in how to increase value, we're creating this kind of consistent and predictable experience for employees and ultimately through those interactions. Because as people, we're kind of hardwired to build these safe and secure connections with other people through frequent feedback, two-way feedback, we're ultimately building trust, which fosters this environment of psychological safety and belonging for employees. And so we start to look at feedback as the best kind of gift. It's the gift that you want. You wanna hear how you're doing, you want to hear how you're adding value to the organization and how you can continue to do that and increase your value. But ultimately, it's a gift that we need. And so we start to reframe the conversation and think about fe delivering feedback is ultimately helping people feel more connected and kind of thriving on the sense of belonging. So, and also it's something we're already doing, so we know it's important, but more so leaning into how can we start incorporating this into existing processes and really making this a part of what we're doing versus an additional thing to have with time that we don't have. For us, this transition to, uh, culture of feedback really started a little over a year ago. Um, we implemented a new performance review system, and we know that when we're giving formal feedback once, twice, or for us, we do it quarterly. So four times a year, that is not nearly often enough when people really need to know and understand all along the way where they're adding value and how they can increase their value. So we launched with our performance review system, kind of this idea of this feedback culture and how all the times in between the daily interactions, the weekly connects the feed, the intentional feedback is really contributing to this, this, um, environment where the employees know where they stand, how they're doing, and ultimately feel more appreciated at work. And of course, having leadership buy-in is critical, but it takes time. It's an evolving process. And historically feedback's kind of looked at as this thing we have to do, this event that we have to do when there's like a problem or an issue. And when we start to reframe feedback, what's helped us for like adoption has been identifying champions. So across the board, our leaders are agreeing, yes, we want people to know what their value is, we want them to be able to increase their value. So they're, they're bought into this idea of feedback. But looking within the teams and departments to identify champions who can really help to kind of be these catalysts and these success stories within the team is something that we've seen, uh, increase our adoption rates over time to kind of shifting to toward more of this feedback culture. And then when we look at feedback, traditionally being kind of the manager delivers feedback to their direct report, you're kind of waiting that that employee's waiting to hear whether or not how they did, did they add value, are they on the right track? And so we've also shifted that to involving everyone, not just people leaders. So we've launched peer-to-peer recognition and feedback programs. We're asking employees to actually request feedback on themselves. So if someone's not giving you feedback, take it kind of into your own hands and employees feel empowered to, um, get that feedback, uh, upward and deliver that feedback and then receive that feedback that maybe they're not, they're not getting on a consistent basis. But it's really crucial to do this early and often. So, um, the frequency for us, we start with right from the onboarding process and we go into a little bit more detail, what that looks like, but we're checking in with new hires right at week one, and we're asking for them to deliver feedback to us. So when we're onboarding a new employee and we're kind of creating this environment where we're asking for their feedback really early on, we set them up to know that your feedback's important, your feedback's valued, and we wanna hear from you. We wanna be able to take the feedback, all the positive things about how we also are adding value and all of the, um, constructive feedback as well. What can we do better? Um, and another thing that we really focus on, you know, feedback's a form of communication. In order for there to be kind of this fostered sense of trust amongst the organization, we have to look at how we're communicating feedback. And what we found is that having a written form of communication is really powerful in this kind of overall messaging of feedback. When you have someone that when you just say something to them, they have really nothing to reference back, nothing to dig into if maybe they got vague feedback or they were, um, they need more clarity. Having a component of a written communication, um, for feedback is a critical thing that, that we, um, see, find success in this as well. And I already mentioned this, but looking at, um, empowering your people to, you know, if we know, if we wait and just rely on managers, while that piece is really critical and we continue to drive the importance of that with our leaders, we know that by empowering people, you really put it into their hands as to when they, when they receive feedback, and to make sure that they're getting the feedback that they need to really understand and know their value within the organization, which ultimately leads to this co uh, culture of appreciation. But in order to foster a culture of appreciation and to be able to use feedback to do it, we also have to reframe how we look at feedback, which is that feedback is a continuous process. It's not a single event that takes place after an action or behavior happens. So when you look at it as this kind of continuous ongoing process, in order to fo foster that culture of appreciation, if it's a one-time thing, the feeling of appreciation that an employee may have after they receive feedback is fleeting. And so we have to continuously look at the entire employee lifecycle and really how we can incorporate feedback in all aspects to really drive that daily and continuous culture of appreciation that we're, we're striving for. So I wanna share a little bit of some of the things that we do, um, at our organization to really, um, continue to foster a feedback culture. And what you'll see, I'm gonna talk a little bit about the entire employee life cycle, but what you'll see is these common themes that need to accompany any time we're talking about feedback or we're creating a space where feedback can, can thrive both from upward feedback, downward peer to peer, um, across the organization. And really that's that in order for it to have the impact of appreciation, it needs to be timely, it needs to, we should open it up to anyone. So kind of expanding how we're looking at feedback, um, allowing anyone to give and even request feedback from anyone else. And then keeping it personal, personalizing the experience of what feedback is being received to the employee is going to help them know and understand their true value, which is going to help them to feel appreciated. So you'll see kind of having feedback on tap is how we refer to it, will help to, to drive those feelings of appreciation that come from, um, from having a culture of feedback. So I, I mentioned with onboarding, we are doing, um, and we do have a pretty lean HR team I will say. So I know some of you can relate to that. Um, and there's always new things coming down. So when we, but when we look at the new hire onboarding experience and kind of knowing how critical that is to setting people up to be successful in the environment, we're doing check-ins, uh, and asking for feedback with new hires right at week one. And then we do it multiple times within their first 90 days. We've worked to automate this in our, um, and using simple systems, uh, to do that, to automate this on our side one, so we can kind of track metrics and trends, but two, so that we can, uh, do more with less. We have to be able to capture that feedback and connect with those people in a way. So we do a combination of forms and we do a combination of kind of these high higher touch conversations that will accompany, um, the request for feedback. And then we create a structure where the employee and their direct manager have an opportunity for their more formal kind of structured feedback both ways, um, at 60 days. And so encouraging feedback from day one kind of sets that new hire up to, to know how the organization operates and, and feel that their feedback is valued and that they can expect also to receive feedback. And if they don't receive it, they have the power to request that feedback. Um, another thing that we look at, and I know time came up, you know, in the keynote, and we know that time is always an issue. And, and it's not that we don't think we should be doing, uh, or doing feedback more often. We actually know the power of it, but we don't have the time to do it. And so what's worked for us from an adoption standpoint is looking at our existing processes and how our team meetings are structured. How are our one-on-ones structured, and how can we incorporate really easy ways to deliver feedback or to encourage people to give feedback to others? And by identifying champions, we start to see this domino effect. And this can be both probably equal parts from managers or people leaders to, um, individual contributors. And we have a system that allows us to track the feedback that's being captured in the system. It links with our communication tools, so it's right there in their hands. It kind of meets them where they are. And we start to see one person sends feedback to somebody else, maybe it took them by surprise or they didn't realize they were adding value in that way in the situation, and that felt really good. And so that person now gives feedback to five other people that added value to to them, and that it sort of snowballs from there. So we see these really cool domino effects happen when it, when one person kind of kicks it off. And then that experience is used as kind of a success story that we incorporate into other areas. How the meetings are structured. I know Chris mentioned this too, but wins of the week are shout outs to really fostering this culture of appreciation and, and, um, and giving feedback and getting people more comfortable with doing that. And a simple way to kind of start, especially with upward feedback, um, is, is a simple start, stop, continue. 'cause it feels a bit non non-controversial. It feels like, okay, it's something I can, I can start doing or stop doing or continue doing as a leader. That, that I wanna hear from my direct report and asking questions more specifically, like that will open up answers that that could, uh, may not have otherwise become, um, aware and looking at your reform, your communication tools. For us, we're about 65% virtual. So we do have an office, but a lot of our employees are virtual. So we really had to identify a communication tool and system that we were able to leverage in a remote setting. But when I spent five years in healthcare, we were in person in high touch. And so the systems that we're using here wouldn't have worked in that setting. We were doing pen to paper, even when we're trying to incorporate the written component. Um, people were putting stuff all over their desk, and that's what, that's what worked for us in that setting. Um, but starting where you are and kind of knowing what works for your team from a communication standpoint helps in this kind of journey of adoption for feedback culture. Um, we also do a lot of feedback surveys within our organization. So we, we do that really in all stages of the employee lifecycle. Um, we're doing that after any company-wide, like all hands meetings or processes just to continuously gain feedback and constantly be in this iterative process of improving the value that we as an organization are adding to our employees. Um, and in addition to that, when we talk about fostering the sense of belonging, whenever we can tie feedback to core values. So when we, the tool that we utilize for feedback allows you to link core values or cultural attributes or operating principles, whatever you use into the feedback. So you're reinforcing this community that your employees are a part of and how they're adding value by actually living out the values that we say we we have as an organization. And that continues to tie that sense of belonging that the, uh, that we need as people. Uh, I mentioned that we launched this, uh, we started kind of the sentiment around feedback culture when we launched our reviews. And so if you, whatever your process may look like for reviews or check-ins, there's an opportunity there to leverage feedback two way by incorporating upward feedback questions, downward feedback questions, and even peer-to-peer, um, questions that can be incorporated into the review process. And we know that when we have these formal process, it, it forces kind of this feedback culture. But if we, if we have it set up in a structured way in reviews and then can continue to coach on reinforcing it in between the reviews and check-ins, then that really ultimately leads to this, this ongoing process that we're talking about looking at employee engagement and organizations where employees thrive and feel very connected to the cultures that they're a part of. Um, some of the things that we've done, even recently, we launched round tables where we brought in kind of a randomized selection of employees to, to all come together and share feedback and we ask very specific questions, but in a live setting. So if you look at this as kind of a twist on a pulse survey or a form that gets sent out to them, you allow them to kind of connect and interact with their team and deliver feedback into the organization that we can then take, um, action on. So that's another, another, um, outlet that we, we actually did this year for the first time. Um, and then also around engagement. What I think works well too is kind of theming feedback months around, um, holidays. Employees are naturally hi more highly engaged during holidays. So when I was, uh, working in healthcare, we used to theme around October, November, you know, we have Thanksgiving coming up. Anytime we can kind of offer this opportunity, especially kind of the peer-to-peer, um, feedback months where it's generally going to be more on, let me, let me specifically set out and look for ways that you're adding value to me as your coworker, as your colleague. And you start to see again, that snowball domino effect, um, between employees when you do something like that and, and themeing it around the holidays tends to work really well when you already see a bit higher of engagement. And then looking at offboarding. So kind of as people are leaving, you know, they're leaving the organization voluntarily, we wanna know what we could have done differently. And so we're asking more constructive feedback framed questions, um, in our offboarding to see if there's something that we could have caught maybe earlier on, um, with those employees to cha change or what can we change going forward? And I think a lot of us do exit interviews, um, but it's really about how we capture that feedback and are we asking the right questions and then how we're looping that feedback back to improve. Ultimately, for us, we look at employee lifecycle metrics. So we're actually looking at onboarding and offboarding every month together. And because we do so much feedback collection in onboarding, we're we're capturing trends throughout the months, looking at the quarters and then identifying are we seeing consistency? Is there opportunities to improve in these areas? Um, and have we taken action against it? And then we start to see the feedback trends, um, change over time. So, um, that's a lot. I know, and I am at time, I think. Um, but I wanted to kind of, uh, walk you through what we do and there's so much more that we could talk about when it comes to a feedback culture, and it's like, where do we even start? Um, my advice and what we've done is really look at where you are. You know, your organizations, your leaders, your teams, you know, that time is, is precious and is a something that nobody has. And so when we can look at where we are today and how we can incorporate feedback into the processes, the systems, the communication tools that we're already using by making small tweaks and changes, you start to see this feedback culture really thrive. And by leveraging feedback as part of a overall culture of recognition, we're ultimately creating these environments, um, that fill the needs that we have as humans, and they create a work culture that employees feel seen, recognized, and ultimately appreciated at work. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me on here. I am more than happy to continue the conversation. I hope we can connect on LinkedIn and kind of keep this going. I'm happy to be here. Thank you, Zach. Amazing. Stephanie, thank you so much. I see all the, the hearts and thumbs up coming in. Let's continue to show a mode of appreciation for Stephanie. I love that really approach of taking some of the things you're already doing and reinventing them to support this element of appreciation and feedback versus feeling maybe this pressure to like just add something new, right? Where we don't have time. So I really appreciate that perspective on things. Uh, just quick question, Stephanie, I'm just curious, did this start as like a opening conversation at the executive level and then you started getting those champions? I know you just started kind of talking about that, but I'm just curious of how, uh, I'm just speaking for maybe some of the HR leaders in the room here today where they're trying, okay, how do I start this dialogue with our executive team? Uh, how did that conversation go? I mean, it sounded like it started like a year ago, so how, just even like the approach of it, could you share a little bit of that insight? Yeah, it, it Probably started even over a year ago because it's, it's all about finding the right tool and system and process and all of those things that work well together. I think for us, similar to any of the organizations, is really identifying this need for how do we keep people more engaged? How do we keep people that we wanna retain that are leaving us? What, what are we doing to set people up to be successful? And we sort of transformed this idea of performance management into what we call people success. And so we're really looking at all the areas of the employee experience from the moment they're walking in the door to, and probably before, 'cause really it starts before, but this whole experience of them from day one as an employee, how are we ensuring that they're in an environment that's set up to be successful? And when people know their value and they know how they can increase their value because they're given regular and continuous feedback, ultimately that's going to lead to them being set up to be successful. And so that's, that's sort of the dialogue around it. Um, and then leveraging a process like performance management or formal reviews is I think a nice way to couple it together. But you certainly don't need, need to do that. I mean, you, if you're in a position where you just launched something or you have something that's been working for a long time, I think where you could still incorporate it is in your trainings around performance management. You can still incorporate it in other areas that you're doing. So that's more how we started the conversation from a higher level. And then it's a journey to adopt a culture of feedback. It's a journey. Listen, if it was easy, we'd all already be doing it all the time, but it takes time to really adopt and, and kind of understand and say, you know what? I should take that five minutes out of this meeting, or I really do need to take 10 minutes outta the end of the week to check in on my people, not only on their tasks, but how they're doing. And I think it's, it's a process, um, and it takes time. But as you identify those champions and you build these success stories within the teams, that's where you start to see the, the domino effect and you start to really see the value of making the time to incorporate feedback into your processes. I love that. I love having that long-term vision approach and perspective on it and thinking, okay, this isn't gonna be an overnight thing within our organization to truly create a culture of this. It's, we're here for the long haul, right? And, and it is tough. And we wouldn't even be having this program today if it was easy, right? So it just kind of reaffirms the point of, you know, how do we start taking small steps and actions and start, you know, as, as you kind of closed up there, figure out where are you today and what are kind of quick levers you can pull within the employee experience where you can integrate this into it. And I love that idea of pairing it with performance management because I mean, usually feedback's really is fear based. Now, man, if I'm getting feedback, I'm obviously in trouble. Uh, it's something related to my performance and issues I'm having, but if it's a part of our employee experience in a way that we're showcasing value, uh, it's just another mode of belonging and appreciation. So Stephanie, thank you so much for sharing your time and expertise with our community. Uh, I see all the things in the chat and the emojis coming in here. I know she'll be hanging out for a little bit, so you prefer to ask any questions to her directly in the chat or in the q and a. She can help answer those, connect with her on LinkedIn and, uh, appreciate you being part of this program, Steph, Thank you so much. Thank you. Alright, we are going to keep this show rolling up next, which I actually saw a pretty good question in the QA come up around, you know, how does appreciation start to look within different generations, right? And different layers of the organization. How does that differ in the ways that people want to feel appreciated? Now, I don't know if, uh, this next presenter, the Ms. Sarah Harald is gonna talk specifically to the generational differences, but I think there's a lot of value in understanding how do we find more ways to make it more personalized? How do we actually do it in a way that people feel appreciated? Where on one end I might just value quality time with other people. I don't really care about the pizza party, right? But I do love pizza. And that was actually, I was gonna maybe raffle off some pizza gift cards as kind of a, a joke for today's program for those attending. Maybe we'll still do that. But, uh, how do we implement more ways to personalize our approaches to appreciation so it actually connects with our people in a way that's authentic to them, in a way that they wanna feel valued and appreciated. So up next we have Sarah Harold, VP of people at clearly, really excited to share some of her strategies and approach of how she brought this to life at her organization. I'm gonna stop sharing here. Sarah. I, uh, I see you're here with us. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. You should be able to turn your screen on and, uh, your camera as well. Um, perfect. I see you're sharing. Welcome. Hello. Uh, well, we'll make sure this is working perfect. We see the slides. I see you. Thank you so much for being here with us. I'm gonna hand it over to you and the stage of the hours. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks Zach. Um, good afternoon, good morning, everyone. Um, regardless of where you are in the world today, I'm happy to be here and to present a little bit of my learning, um, as an HR leader in the space. Um, much like many of you on the phone, I'm sure, um, the hr, I didn't choose the HR life. The HR life chose me. Um, as such, um, I have a little different perspective on people and, um, I'm truly passionate about my craft and I do consider myself a passionate people person, um, and really do, uh, genuine genuinely believe that work can be a great place for everyone. Um, so the, the talk I'm gonna talk to you about today is the heart of appreciation, um, because it is a balance of not only the art of appreciation, but being, uh, a human in the process as well. So a little bit of a, a play on words. Um, it also ties to the, uh, company that I currently find myself working for. Um, and we are a, a MedTech startup working to create a world without heart attack. So it, it really played well together, um, just from a titling perspective. Um, so, so who am I? Um, how did this presentation come to be and, and why do I think it's important? Um, I'm an HR practitioner. I live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I've worked at HR for many, many years across a few different industries. And what I love about being in this space is just, um, continually learning about what works against, uh, you know, across different industries and in different environments based on the people, the leaders, um, the the age, uh, and the type of the organization that I'm working for. Um, when it comes to how this presentation came to be, um, I was on day seven of my, um, uh, day seven of my employment at clearly when I was, I found myself at an offsite with all of our senior leaders. And the, the COO said, um, Hey, in preparation for that offsite, can you just prepare a, a 60 to 90 minute talking session? Um, so first time I met a lot of people in the room. Um, and so I led with something that I thought would be, um, easy to understand. Um, so I wanted to meet my people, um, that I hadn't really met before. Um, it with something that was, um, easy to digest, easy to understand, thought provoking, but also impactful. Um, and, and, and why I chose the topic that I did around appreciation was I joined the, the, the, the startup in March of 2022. Um, so I was coming into, um, a space where I didn't have a budget that I built. So, um, I was under resource. I did not have a budget. I did not have a big team at the time. So I really wanted to show our leaders, um, different ways to show appreciation without a budget, because I think a lot of us think, okay, if I'm gonna do some sort of recognition program, I need a huge budget, and I need a, a sexy platform, and it needs to have bells and whistles and integration. Um, and, and I took a step back and, you know, took a look at, um, what can I do from a, from a basics perspective. Um, because the reality is, if you don't have a strong foundation in genuine and authentic appreciation, um, regardless of, of what, um, platform you put on top of that, um, you know, it's not gonna, it's not gonna land as strong as it would unless you had that a strong foundation built, um, underneath whatever platform you choose to, to layer on top. Um, so when it comes to appreciation, um, it is, what is it, just to lay some groundwork today, recognition and enjoyment of the good qualities of someone or something. So that's how I define, uh, appreciation today for the purposes of my conversation with you all. Um, so a little bit of background. Um, 69% of employees said recognition and rewards would motivate them to stay with their company longer. Um, the most powerful recognition comes from their direct manager or a higher level manager. Um, you can see the percentage breakdowns there. Um, I did cite my source at the bottom, so I didn't make up my statistics today, but, uh, if you wanna dive into that, you can, the link will be included in my slides. Um, 63% of employees who are usually or always recognized that they're unlikely to job hunt in the next three to six months. So it really does have an impact on the business, the bottom line. Um, so when it comes to being an HR practitioner, a people person, um, having this type of information in your back pocket when you go out to talk to your leaders about why we need to change the way we're doing things, or why we might need to invest a little bit of money, um, in a new, in a new program around appreciation and recognition, um, having some of this, these details in your pocket, um, that you can speak to effectively to show the business impact, the financial impact to the business, um, in the event that they don't wanna fund budget, um, is, is super helpful. So, um, that's why I provided some, some quick facts for you today as to why, um, it's important from a human perspective, but also from a business perspective. Um, so pretty, pretty staggering statistics when it comes to how people are feeling, um, in the workplace today. Um, when it comes to the, the different languages I'm gonna, uh, share with you today, the, the five different languages of appreciation are words of affirmation, quality, time, acts of service, tangible gifts, and physical touch. And if you say to yourself, this sounds familiar, um, if you've ever, um, seen the, the, the book that was made popular years ago around the Five Love Languages, um, which was an outline as to, um, you know, how to, how to best recognize, um, the, the languages of love in a more romantic relationship with a partner. Um, there's also a book out around the Five Love the Five Languages of Appreciation, using the, the same foundation, a similar foundation, but educating you as to how to make it work in the workplace. And I found that the simplicity of it, um, really, um, helps people understand more about themselves and how they operate, how they interact with others, but also it allows you to better understand, um, your team. Um, so I'm just, I'm gonna walk through these with you today just to give you a high level overview of, um, of, of how it works, what the premises behind, um, behind each of these. Um, then I'll also share with you how I've seen it play out in, in my current, uh, organization, um, and offer you some, some thinking questions to take into consideration as you, um, take this information back, back to your teams. So, first up, um, words of affirmation. Um, praise for your accomplishments or affirmation of character. Um, plenty of ways to deliver affirmations. Um, do it in person. If you're working in person. Um, do it one-on-one, um, do it in front of others. Um, writing public, um, it, you know, there are many different ways to provide words of encouragement, words of affirmation. Um, a couple flags though from a pitfall perspective, um, insincerity and neglecting to speak in the moment. Um, so when it comes to any type of, um, appreciation, you wanna be, um, timely in your feedback, you wanna be timely in your compliments or in your expression of, um, uh, of how you're feeling. Um, but neglecting to se speak in the moment, especially for someone who in enjoys and thrives on words of affirmation, um, is, is certainly, certainly a pitfall. Um, you know, a few tips, um, multiple formats, um, use slack, use email use team meetings, but also, um, a lot of stamps go to the post office, send a handwritten note. It's a lot dark, but it's really impactful when you're sorting through your mail and you see something more than, um, you know, a coupon for, for gutter covers and, um, you know, people who wanna cut your lawn. Um, so, um, words of affirmation is the first, um, first, first piece of the languages of appreciation. Um, next up is quality kind. Um, quality time, which is, you know, focused attention, quality conversation or shared experience. Um, so when it comes to quality time, you know different ways that you can deliver that, not only in a, in a in person or a remote work, work environment. Um, schedule additional time to talk and share ideas. Um, meet them for lunch, dinner or a social event, or provide additional time off, um, or reassign work to rebalance the workload so that they can truly enjoy some quality time. Um, some, some pitfalls to watch out for, um, not knowing who they wanna spend quality time with. Um, I think a, a bad way to reward your employee with quality time is making them spend more time with you if they'd rather spend time with their family or a friend or, um, a different cross-functional leader within the organization. Um, another pitfalls, not knowing how they wanna spend their time. Is it that they're, um, a, a one-to-one person? Are they looking for additional time as a team, or are they looking for additional time to work on a special pet project that piques their interest? Um, and then another pitfall for someone who enjoys quality time as their, uh, language of appreciation is being distracted with them. So we all know how to silence our phones and put the cell phones away. Um, but when you're, if you have a person or you are a person who appreciates quality time as an active appreciation, um, you know what it feels like to have somebody spending time with you while staring at their phone or taking a call or responding to a Slack message, oh, it'll only take a minute. Um, but that person who really values that time, um, that's, that's a little bit off-putting. Um, so a few tips for around quality time. Um, set, set aside time to talk about non-work-related topics at the beginning or the end of a call. Carve it out proactively. Um, make sure you're in the right mindset before you show up. Take a few deep cleansing breaths. We all work with bumper to bumper calendars, I'm sure with very little time in between. Um, if you need to be a, a minute or two late for a meeting, um, to, to allow yourself to center and get in the mi in the right mindset, do it, it has, it makes all the difference in the world. Um, and if you are a remote company who has, um, you know, regularly scheduled offsite, um, leverage those times together, fly in earlier, leave later to allow for additional in-person connection with those people on your team or those people in the organization, um, who, you know, really value that quality kind. Um, next up, acts of service. Um, providing extra help and support to someone, but helping to balance workloads. Um, there are a few different ways to, um, deliver active service depending on the person that you're, you're working with or, or working, working for you. Um, but you know, you can reach out to help when you see a need proactively. Um, you can shift responsibilities around to balance those workloads. You can divide up complex projects into, um, smaller, easy to di, easier to digest pieces, um, and volunteer to help work late or come in early to assist someone that you see is in need. Um, some pitfalls to avoid when, when thinking through acts of service, um, assuming that you know what they need, um, and not asking them, um, how you can help before you start helping. So, just jumping in, um, sometimes that those good intentions, um, are misconstrued. So having a, a conversation, uh, in advance, um, certainly goes a long way. Shows that not only you recognize, um, how they wanna be appreciated and how you can help, but that you're meeting them where they are based on their, their current needs and, and, and what they're actually needing from you. Um, some tips for acts of service. Um, make sure that your responsibilities are covered before helping others. Um, similar to the phrase they tell us on the airplane every time we, we fly, make sure your mask is on before you start helping others with their, um, finish what you start. Don't start helping and then bounce and leave them stranded, um, and maintain a positive attitude through the process. Um, don't, don't layer in, uh, additional color commentary through the process where you're, you know, backhanded commenting on yourself, uh, complimenting yourself on, oh, it's so great that I'm able to help you out. Right? Um, you know, when you show up to help maintain an at positive attitude and, and really act, um, with the servant's heart when it comes to, um, the way you're assisting the other person, um, during that time. Next up, tangible gifts. Um, something you can hold, something you can experience, something you can share with family and friends. Um, tickets to events, gift cards, company swag. Um, if you don't have that type of budget, which I completely understand, um, having a working knowledge of favorite restaurants, someone's favorite coffee shop or tea shop, um, it goes a long way. Um, you know, if someone is a tangible gifts person, um, the thank you is, um, is, is is wanted and welcome, but, um, getting a, a surprise in the mail with, you know, that has a $3 bag of Reese's Cups from Target. Um, I don't think anyone would be sad about that. Um, and it really go the extra mile, you know, um, demonstrating to someone, um, you know, your, the true, the, the true heart of your appreciation for someone. Um, some possible pitfalls when it comes to tangible gifts, um, assuming they wanna use tickets with you as a leader or as a peer. Um, just because someone has a language of appreciation around tangible gifts, um, doesn't mean that they wanna spend that gift with somebody else at work. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but, uh, you know, ask, have a simple conversation. Um, another pitfall is, you know, if you're giving someone a gift, it's the wrong size. It's the wrong color, it's the wrong restaurant, it's the wrong sport. Um, you know, if you're gonna give a gift and you want it to land appropriately with someone whose language of appreciation is tangible gifts, um, make sure you take the extra step further to it, truly personalize it and make sure that, um, what the gift that you're giving them, um, is impactful. Um, um, so that's, that's another pitfall. Another possible pitfall, um, not providing them with enough attendant or enough notice to attend something. Um, if you're gonna give someone tickets to an event, um, as a tangible gift, make sure that it's not on a day where they have to do, um, daycare pickup. It's not on a day where they have, you know, a game that they're coaching at night or a different activity, uh, taking place. Um, so some tips, uh, for tangible gifts, um, ask in advance, understand how many tickets they would need for it to be genuinely appreciated. Um, and if, and if it is, uh, easier to give them a cash gift card, um, because you haven't had the conversation about what type of events or places they like to yet, um, that also works. They can use it for, you know, a movie theater or a, um, or Ticketmaster or StubHub, whatever it is. Um, but those are, those are some, some, uh, additional words of advice around, um, tangible gifts. Um, next up physical touch. Um, it can communicate a sense of trust, connectedness, and caring. Um, but it also could be off-putting. Um, so with, uh, any type of physical touch, you gotta, gotta request consent. Just because you know, someone is a hugger, uh, or a high fiver does not mean they want one from you. And that is not a personal thing, it's just who they are as a person. So, you know, different ways to deliver touch, handshake, high five, fist pump, hug with consent. Um, possible pitfalls, um, obviously unwanted touch or misinterpreted signals. Um, so always ask and be aware of cultural norms just because you, you know, somebody mentions on a call that they're a hugger, um, you know, showing up and hugging them and prompted is, is not, uh, uh, a course of action that I would recommend. Um, always ask, always ask. Um, so that's a little bit of a, a deep dive into, um, physical touch. Um, one thing I would say to you is, um, when you start having conversations with your team, with your peer, um, around, you know, what language resonates, um, most with you, um, if you have somebody on your team who is, um, a physical touch person who self-identifies as a physical touch person, it's okay to say, um, to ask them for, you know, how do you think that shows up for you at work? And what would, what do you think you'd be comfortable with? Um, because for some folks with physical touch, uh, in the workplace, uh, they might say, um, you know, default to their second language. So all of us, whenever we think about our, how we like to give and receive appreciation, um, we rank them. Um, so maybe, maybe the physical someone on your team who is a a physical touch person might default to words of affirmation as a, as a close second backup. So it's, it's helpful to ask, um, certainly when starting to have some of these conversations. Um, another thing, if you remember, uh, when we think about languages appreciation is, you know, your default language of appreciation for yourself, um, that you feel good giving may be different than the, the language you like to receive. So if you are a, um, if you're a, a person who likes to give gifts, you might actually be a words of affirmation person yourself. Um, so just having a working knowledge of who you are and how you traditionally like to show appreciation, but also how you like to have appreciation shown to you, um, is a good, good thing to sit down and think about, um, and, and know for yourself, like, okay, uh, well, I really like to give gifts. Um, um, my language that I like to receive is, is different. So it's, it's good to make, make that all, all known in advance. Um, when it comes to showing appreciation virtually, um, you know, some suggestions I have as, uh, someone who's currently working for a fully remote company is, you know, carve out time on a regular basis, make it a priority, um, carve out time on your calendar to think about it. It sounds so basic, but, um, carving out time for, you know, 15 minutes a week to shortlist who you need to show appreciation to and think through. The best way to do so, um, is, is can be very, very impactful. Um, by, by carving out time on a regular basis, um, to, to do this. You, it, it leads you to automatically deliver appreciation consistently. Um, so being consistent in the way that you're delivering your, your feedback and your appreciation, um, is, is really, uh, a really strong way to build a, a culture of appreciation and genuine appreciation in the workplace. Um, don't be afraid of asking your colleagues or employees how they like to be reported. If it's as simple as showing them a little overview of the different languages, um, talk through it, see what their favorites are, make a note of it. Um, bring it up in your next one-on-one, or bring it up at your next offsite or team meeting. Um, um, have it as a, a conversation. Um, I think it's important to think about the, the differences, um, in how we feel appreciated, because for the person who, um, you know, really likes, you know, acts of service, putting them on blast and slack and, and, and in in a team meeting will make them feel way worse. It'll have the opposite impact on them, um, that you are intending to. Um, and if someone is, uh, who really likes those public shows of, um, shout outs and, um, kudos coming in on Slack and email and in meetings, um, you know, they're not gonna feel good if, you know, a surprise, a surprise box of, uh, blow pop shows up at their house, uh, if it's not gonna resonate well for them. So when you think about showing genuine appreciation, you really wanna be mindful of, um, taking each person's, um, perspective, um, into account when, when thinking about the best ways to appreciate people, um, you get to know them as a person, as you know more, as you learn more about 'em, you can, um, deepen that relationship, um, and, and have an even bigger impact in the future. And the more specific you are, the greater impact the appreciation will be. Um, a few questions, um, that you can take away and think about is, you know, walking through, whether it's just a personal inventory or that with your team or, uh, your other leaders that you work with, um, you know, walking through what type of appreciation do you enjoy giving and receiving? Um, how does it feel to be appreciated in your preferred language versus a different one? Um, how does knowing and understanding each other's languages make us a stronger piece? And what can we do to incorporate sharing our appreciation more regularly? Um, so, you know, this is from, from my perspective, some, some basics to genuine appreciation and building authenticity naturally into your workforce, um, with some pretty, um, basic and easy to implement, um, conversations. Um, but when you dig into it and you look at having a broader impact across the team and across again, uh, across the whole company, um, there's some questions you can ponder, um, within your, your company, within your organization as you think about bringing this to life over time. Um, now the million dollar question, uh, okay, Sarah, two years ago you had a speech. You gave a speech in front of, um, your, your conference room full of leaders, um, and, and gave them a, a 60 to 90 minute working session on languages of appreciation. Did it actually work? Did it work? Do you see it alive and well today inside of clearly? Um, I will say, you know, leaders who were bought in, leaders who bought in over time have built the muscle memory. It's a natural part of their, their way of managing now. Um, and it is something that remains top of mind. The leaders who have bought in and have embraced it and understand it and see the value of, and the impact that it's had on their teams and on their people, um, it's naturally ingrained. Um, those leaders more regularly meet, reach out to me requesting spot bonuses or approval to order Uber Eats gift cards. Um, so those and those leaders who have embraced it have really, um, put it into practice, and practice makes perfect. Um, so in addition to spot bonuses and Uber Eats gift cards, um, we have a, a values in action program that I put in place when I started again, um, no money involved. It runs quarterly, and we recognize people who, um, put our values into action on a regular basis, going above and beyond. Um, so we give four shout outs, um, a quarter. Uh, the employees, um, nominate each other. The employees pick who the winners are, management people are not involved. Um, and so we have seen the people that the, the leaders who know that they're people are words of encouragement, words of affirmation, um, and, and like that public recognition, public recognition, um, they're really leveraging the values and action program for those public shoutouts, um, during, during company calls and, um, utilizing our Slack channels that we have in place. Um, so that's where my presentation ends. That's where the, the slack, the, the, the flex the slides stop. Um, so happy to answer any questions, um, or provide any further insights, um, to anyone on the call. Um, I can open my, my chat button, my, my chat zone where I have not been, I see 29, 29 bubbles that I've not seen, or 30. Um, so talk to me, uh, let me know what you're thinking. What are, what are your thoughts, Zach? No, that first thought that was amazing. I love seeing kind of one the journey that you took us down. I mean, I, I, I'd like to reaffirm that to everyone listening like, okay, how do I initiate this? Well, one, Sarah really took time to present this kind of model and philosophy and approach to her team, which initiated a much longer journey that they've been on. So this is just a great case example of how you could begin this. So, one, well done, Sarah, thank you so much for sharing that. Uh, I see all the thank yous coming in the show her some love and appreciation, whether that's using the reactions. I love when people use those. By the way, I would definitely encourage you to connect with her. I shared the LinkedIn, uh, in the chat there. So connect with Sarah, continue the dialogue. We're gonna share these slides and resources and recordings afterwards for you to re-review and understand how you might use them to present this to your own team. Uh, but Sarah, I had a quick question. It came up a little bit earlier, one of the many, 29 that you see in there. Um, have you noticed any, like, since implementing this, have you noticed any trends into how people wanna be appreciated in terms of generational differences or even, you know, status and career, right? Someone who might be like in the company for a long time versus maybe a, a new entry level employee? Like, have you noticed any trends when it comes to how people like to feel appreciated as you do this? Yeah. Yeah, it's, um, that's a great question. Zach and I have seen some trends. So I think a lot of times people think, I think leaders within the company who are not people, people first, um, think like, oh, we just need to give people gift cards, or we just need to give people swag. But not everyone's a gift card person. Not everything's a swag person. Not everyone's a swag person. But what I've found is that, um, some of the people who are younger in their career, people who are, um, uh, newer and still continuing to grow and really thirsty for knowledge and new experiences, um, above money, above gifts, above time off, they like to spend time with other, with leaders other than their own picking their brain, asking them questions, um, sharing their ideas, um, talking to that, like just carved out time to meet with somebody else in the organization who is, who has more experience than you, um, and being able to ask their ask questions and pick their brain and network and, um, and, and really almost mentor. Um, so there's, there's a lot of really, um, there's an appetite for the, for the, I would say the folks in the younger generation to have face FaceTime with senior leaders. Um, and most senior leaders, um, love to talk about themselves and their experience. So it kind of works out. Um, the, the, I will say the challenge is getting the senior leaders to carve out the time and hold the time, um, and not move the time when, you know, things come what may. Um, but, uh, what I've seen is the senior leaders who have embraced it, um, see the value in it, um, have, have really enjoyed the, the, the experience as well. Um, and yeah, it's, it's, it, it, it's been really interesting to see, um, how it all plays out. And I think, um, you know, for the person in the group that always has the swag on, you would think the swag would be the most meaningful, impactful for them. But when you sit down and ask them the question, um, Hey, are you a swag person? They're like, no, this is just an easy work uniform to put on every day. I actually really appreciate, um, a good old fashioned handwritten note. Um, so I think one, one thing to keep in mind is, you know, don't assume, um, just dig in and ask the question. It's the a pretty pretty, um, easy question, pretty safe question to ask to, to lay the groundwork for, um, you know, a quality relationship. I love it. I love it. Yeah. And I, I love reaffirming, like, just start the conversation. I, I'm, I'm getting a sense from even other speakers and this session so far, a lot of it is just simply engaging with your people and asking them, right? Like, really just doing some of the front end discovery work to really get to know your people and then let that drive your strategies and the things that you implement in the future, versus trying to almost guess like, well, well, they probably want this swag, so we should just buy everyone fancy new water bottles with our logo on it, right? Like, that's not as, as maybe appealing. And I totally agree. I remember one of my first roles within you know the corporate world. I was like awarded something and I got to get lunch with the CEO. Like, that was such an amazing developmental opportunity for me at that time where I actually talked to one of my good friends recently and their team was doing really well, performing at a higher level. They threw them this big dinner and happy hour that was all free, and the whole team got to go to it. And he is like, I don't wanna go to that. Like, I wanna spend that time after work with my wife and my family, and I spent all day with this group and being, that's not really what I wanna be rewarded with. Right? Right. Like, I don't care about that. So it's interesting, like where you are in your career and I think generation or whatever, I mean, there's probably themes, but the end of the day, like maybe let's not assume anything and let's just ask our people and really understand what are they looking for. Yeah. And how we could tailor those experiences. So yeah, there. Uh, and one, one thing I will add for those, um, HR people on the line who may not have a budget or the ability to, um, order and store bulk swag and ship it out. 'cause you have a small team, um, shout out to all those people. I'm right there with you. Um, I will have, I will, uh, put a plugin for Land's End. Um, this is the second company. I've used them as a vendor. They allow you the ability to set up a, um, a storefront for your company for free. You send them the logos that can be printed or embroidered on any one of their items. And your employees can go on and order exactly what they want in the size that they want with the logo and the spot that they want. And all you gotta do is provide them with a voucher code, um, or they can go pay for it themselves. So for anybody looking for a, um, a platform that is no car, no charge to you as a, as a company, lands End, um, does it. Um, and the, the, for the, the other side of that is if you have people at your company who are not swag people, and you give them a Lands End gift card, um, they are not required to put the logo on it to check out. Um, they can just go and buy a Black Bull sweater and call it an A and say, thanks for the gift. Um, I got a nice sweater. Um, and the platform also allows you to self-select, um, what's in your catalog. Um, so that if you're not a medical company, you don't provide them the chance to order, um, you know, scrubs. Uh, so, uh, and you can also, that's fine. Pick the color's, the color of items that you're allowed to, uh, purchase as well, so you don't have somebody running around in like a lime green hoodie with your logo on. Um, so it's super easy to customize, um, and it's free. Um, so that's my, that's my hot tip to share as a resource to all my peeps. All right. What a way to close out another hot tip. Maybe we should set up a achieving engagement store. I might look into that myself for, for our community here and all of you HR folks out there, let's give a virtual round of pause for Sarah. Sarah, thank you so much for this and contributing to this Absolutely. Program. Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Happy to be here. Happy to do it. Thanks for the opportunity, Zach. Yeah. All right. We are gonna roll right into our last speaker for this first Impacter Impactor accelerator session. As you know, we always have three speakers for this part of our program. Then we'll get into the panel and the next one. But I'm super excited to welcome. She's already sharing and jumping into it. I love it. Mindy Kupe, uh, chief People officer, fractional officer within a number of organizations. Agile for hr. I think, um, I'm really excited for this. And Mindy, the floor's yours, I'll hand it over. Uh, awesome. Thank you for being here with us. Such a pleasure to be here. And are, can everyone see these faces on this side? Should I get rid of that? I'll put that off. There we go. Thank you guys so much. My name's Mindy Hanco and I'm based in Austin, Texas. And I have been in HR all of my career. I fell in love with HR at through the world of social work. And I, I, it is something that being able to create healthier workplaces, I truly believe drives healthier communities and healthier society. I've been in HR for over 20 years as a practitioner and executive. And now I, I've had the incredible opportunity in switching to fractional HR leadership, being able to really provide that, uh, chief people officer experience with smaller organizations as they're growing and scaling to be able to help be there as a Chief people officer, but they don't need anyone there full-time yet and can't afford it. But you're still able to be able to use your years of experience in multiple places to create great workplaces, which has been such an, an incredible and exciting opportunity. I love this topic. I have a background in agile and human-centered design. And when we really think about tailoring recognition, we've heard each speaker talk a little bit about this. And I, in our time together, I'm excited to be able to kinda dig a little bit deeper into how do we tailor, how can we use human-centered design and agile to create appreciation and recognition that really lives and breathes in our organization. And so why is this important? I wanted to just take a moment to look at some data. You know, when we think about tailoring, tailoring is getting to that human lived experience. We've heard the other great speakers already talk about how recognition and appreciation is unique to each human being. And that is why it's so important to tailor. We need to get to the moment where our employees, the humans and our organization feels seen and heard in order for them to feel valued. And we're seeing this in the data. Gartner recently did a 2023, um, research. And what I loved in their findings is that 82% of employees say it's important for them to feel seen as a person in their organization, but only 45% believe their company sees them in this way. Such an opportunity here for us to really move the needle, to continue to work within organizations, to not just think about that human-centered approach. But I, I beg to, you know, argue that maybe it's time to take that up a level. Maybe it's about how do we actually create a human care design approach going even beyond human-centered, but how are we designing to care? And so how do we do that? How, how, what are the steps? Now, when I was putting this slide together, I could talk an hour about each one of these bullet points, but we only have about 15 minutes together today. So I wanted to kind of walk through each one of these and just provide a stepping off point. You know, I think it's sometimes easy for us to kind of like jump in and get started when we see a problem. But I always like to just kind of take a moment and really make sure, do we have a good understanding of what's currently happening, um, in our organization around appreciation and recognition? And, and when you really think about that current state, you know, where is recognition and appreciation currently happening? And that may be in, in different places, it's really good to kind understand what is that, what does it look like? Is it, is it traditionally just occurring a couple times a year through a more top-down approach? Or do we have some channels, um, within our Slack or our Microsoft teams in which people are kind of organically showing appreciation and recognition? Really being able to understand how is this currently naturally happening in our organization is important. 'cause we wouldn't want to launch something that then stifles something that we didn't realize was going on and it's actually working. How can we take what we're doing today and fuel that to really evolve it to the, to the next level When we're looking at this current state also, how are we measuring, how are we looking at appreciation and recognition? How are we defining that? Is it tied to our current values and culture or isn't? If we're an organization that really is around teaming and collaboration, how is the rewards and recognition tied to incentivizing teaming? Or is it really just currently looking at individual efforts? How are we taking our values and, and driving them through how we give feedback and appreciation to each other? And if we are measuring it, is it through just the engagement survey or are we, and if we are, are we asking the right questions as previous speakers already talked about? And are we getting the level of, uh, data that we need to make sure that as we look at our recognition and appreciation as we grow as an organization, how are we evolving that to continue to make sure we're meeting the needs of our employees in at the moment that matter most? We really need to understand those data points in order to ensure that we're continuing to drive that value and, and seeing the outcomes that we in intending to, to drive and really understanding in the current state, have we clarified what those outcomes are? Do we really understand what we want out of appreciation and recognition? Are those tied to strategic business outcomes or are they not? So really through that current state analysis, we're gathering a lot of data, really understanding what are some of the gaps here? What are some of those problems that we may need to solve for? And the next step really then is about creating what is that future desired state? What are those outcomes that maybe we need to evolve, that we need to shift, that we need to identify, and making sure they're tied to that business strategy, making sure that they're connected to our customer. We've already heard the data from our prior speakers about how employee recognition fuels our employee engagement and how that level of engagement really drives higher impact to our customers. And, and that's just one way in which we can kind of tie that, um, appreciation back to what drives the success of our business. And when we do that, when we create that tie, now, we're no longer looking at appreciation and recognition programs as a spend. It's not just a budget spend. This is something we have to do for our business to be successful. This is an investment. We need to shift our mindset, and we can help tell that story better when we are driving the outcomes, those success measures. And tying that to that business strategy. And we kind of like talked about this, but once we kind of tie it to that business strategy, now we get to, um, really identify those success measures that make sense for our organization. And I'm gonna dig into that a little bit here in a minute on our next slide. Um, which you can already see on the left hand side teased up. Um, but the success measures are so important and each organization that's gonna look different, what those are kinda depending on what industry you're in, who are your customers, who are your consumers? So I wanna provide some potential examples of what that might look like. Um, next, once. So we've identified these things, now we get the chance to create a design team. Now here is when we think about when we're creating a team to design, we wanna make sure that our key stakeholders are involved, but also our employees. How are we including the voice of the employees within the designing process for our recognition and appreciation? And this is something I've done in organizations that I've worked in and work in today. 'cause often we're designing things without getting that feedback channel from the employees until after it's launched. So often. How can we think about bringing the employees at the very beginning stages when we're still designing and dreaming? How can we get that employee feedback channel earlier into the process? And then how do, once we have that team of employees, how are we training them to understand what is human-centered design? How are we as the hr, um, practitioners or leaders facilitating and training that group of employees to understand what does great recognition look like? What is appreciation and what asking, like what does that look like here within our company? Being able to, first they need to understand the examples of, you know, what could it look like in order to then be able to design towards that, something that's uniquely special for your company. They need to understand what does good look like and, and what might that look like in other places to then have the tools and resources to really design that with you as you facilitate that with them. And, and with this team of employees, it's important to make sure that we have an actual group of employees that reflects our, our workforce. We wanna make sure that we have the voices represented within our, within our work. So how are we making sure that we're not missing any of those employee voices? Do we have people that are fully remote? Do we have people that are in a hybrid? Are we hearing from them? Do we have people globally within our other offices, a part of this team? It's important to try and have a representative group of people in this design team as much as possible. And they're the voice then of the larger workforce. Now that we have, uh, this group of, uh, these team members that are equipped, they're trained, they kind of understand, they are now are, um, they are now trained up to be able to help design with you this great recognition and appreciation, appreciation program, they are then, um, you are working with them to truly be able to develop an initiative that's for the employees, by the employees. And then once that's ready to, to launch, what I like to emphasize here is the word agile. So what's great about agile from the software engineering methodology is we really try to think about, we don't wait a year to launch something. We really think about what are those micro slices of full value that we can launch into our company that can quickly meet and provide a difference for the, the workforce. And then we can start to get feedback on, we can start to hear from our, our employees what's working, what's not working. We also don't have to do all the things right away. We really can think about what's that first thing that we want to put into our workplace ecosystem to be able to get feedback from? And then we're gonna take that feedback and then use it. So this is where that monitoring data and refining, when we're thinking about that agile launch, once we launch it, then how do we get that feedback, get the data to then work with our design team to really think about that next slice of value that we're going to, to drop into the ecosystem. And this continues it's continuous improvement. It's continuously learning together as an organization now, as a organization pivots and changes and grows. We have built the continuous mechanism within our organization to respond and proactively be able to get ahead of things so that we're always driving value. This isn't a one and done. This isn't ongoing way to make sure that we're continuing to refine our appreciation and recognition, especially as we grow and we hire more diverse perspectives. How do we continually to check ourselves and ask, do we still have a representative design team? And so here it's also about that when we're launching, how are we making sure that we're training? How do we make sure we have the right communication plans? Really being mindful about how we're launching these slices of value into the organization. As we know we heard from our previous speakers, it's really important to really train the, our employees to help them understand what does great feedback look like? What does great appreciation look like? And how are we continuing to build on that training? And we already kind of spoke here to how does, what does it look like to monitor the data and, and refine and take the learnings from the data to then inform our next iterations of our, um, program. And so now when we think about, okay, what is, what are those data points? What could we be using? How could we be measuring this? So going beyond the engagement survey, what are some actual like metrics that could help us? Like if we do this, we high, we know that our baseline measures are here so that as we refine, we can understand, we believe that we're gonna make a difference in these data points. And by continuing to refine the program, we expect to see improvement in these areas. These are the measures that we continue to see. And yes, it may not be that appreciation and recognition is the only, that, the only thing that's impacting that, but it's one of the key things that could be impacting these data points. And this will look different depending on your organization. But some examples here, obviously the key one is the adoption and utilization of your recognition and appreciation program and, and, and keeping an eye on that. Other ones can also be around your regrettable or voluntary attrition rates. We anticipate as we invest in this, that our attrition rates of our great people should be, uh, decreasing. Another thing to check into that to get further is really making sure what are we hearing in our exit survey conversations, which we heard from another speaker. Also, if this is creating a great place to work, how might that be driving our employee referral rates for our recruiting initiatives? How might we also start to see the data points around our optional programs, the things that employees can choose to be a part of, but may not always be taking advantage of or participating in, in highly engaged organizations. One of the things that I saw from personal experience when driving a human-centered approach, we actually made the hypothesis that we would see an increase of participation in our ERG and activity groups. Because part of our, our emphasis is on how do we recognize teaming. And so we started to see within that, that people were recognizing the work of the ERG in the activity groups and people started to create recognition and awareness of these that maybe they hadn't before, because now they're being recognized. And so now people become aware that these actually exist and start to participate and start to, to become a part of the, the groups that are already exist within the organization. We, we also saw the, um, leave rates around like mental health leave and our, you know, the sickness. You know, often when we have happier organizations, we see a decrease in these areas. So that was the other things that we saw, um, that actually improved. We also saw unexcused absences go down. We also saw, um, within manufacturing, we saw the safety, the safety increase. We saw that workers' comp claims were reducing. We also saw that our learning and development, the optional, um, programs for learning, the participation rates increased. And we also saw participation rates within our volunteering and community, uh, programs increase. And then we also saw, we were really passionate around how is this changing that customer experience? So we also looked at customer churn and retention rates as another, um, as another kind of performance, some indicator of our appreciation and recognition. So it's just some of the things that we saw, um, improve in prior workplaces that I've been a part of. And that, uh, Zach, that is, that is everything that I had. I love it. I love it. Everyone's asking, can I get these slides? I need these questions. And I really appreciate really closing up here just because, I mean, something we really haven't talked about yet into the program is how do we truly measure if this is impactful, if people are feeling appreciated, is it impacting the bottom line? I mean, these are all questions that your executive team and leadership team are gonna be wondering as they look to maybe invest into a platform or invest into an initiative related to appreciation. So, uh, this is powerful for all of you wondering how do I build that business case? How do I communicate to leaders the impact that this is gonna have? Usually reference that slide, maybe even connect with Mindy to help talk through this story. One thing I'll reinfor, uh, reaffirm here, uh, Mindy is linked in there in the chat. Connect with her directly there. And one Mindy, thanks for being such a rockstar through the tech issues. It's like if, uh, you, you just killed it. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Zach. It was such a pleasure to be here. Appreciate it.

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