Who Caused Applause?

Mary Lou Panzano, V.P. & Head of U.S. Internal Communications, Bayer U.S.

I don’t know about you, but once in a while, it’s nice to hear someone acknowledge your work.

Whether it’s something you did at your job, for your kids or family, in the community, at church or in line at the grocery store, knowing someone else appreciates you makes you feel valued.

I don’t look for it, need it, or expect it, but it gives me a little extra wind in my sails to push me to do even more and be even better.

Apparently, I’m not all that different from lots of other people.

According to a new study from O.C. Tanner, employees who frequently recognize the accomplishments of their coworkers and team members feel more confident, driven and dedicated to their organization. And that translates to better performance and happier customers.

Who wouldn’t want that?

We know our colleagues at Bayer, where I work, make a difference every day in the lives of the customers and people we serve. We take great pride in showcasing and sharing as much as we can about that. In fact, I get great satisfaction out of being in a position to share those stories.

So how do we do that?

Last year my team came up with an idea to engage colleagues in showing their appreciation for each other on National Employee Appreciation Day. All in, nearly 1,000 colleagues recognized each other on that day. Not bad.

But, something else unexpected happened.

As colleagues were giving out sentiments of appreciation to each other, many didn’t really expect to get any back like this colleague who wrote to me:

“To you and your team — thank you for fostering Employee Appreciation Day today. I took the opportunity to extend appreciation messages to my team and many colleagues in Berkeley and across the US. What I wasn’t expecting however, was the multitude of “thank yous” and kind notes that came in reply. I was enjoying the occasion to send my appreciation and found myself humbled and delighted by the appreciation that came back. This was my surprise. I want to close the loop and thank you for providing me with this gift today.” — Director in Berkeley, CA.

Admittedly, we reveled in the success of last year and enjoyed sharing the stories we collected internally and on Bayer’s social channels.

But my team and I don’t rest on our laurels — we keep pushing ourselves to do even better. (It’s one of the things I appreciate most about them, btw.)

So, this year, in advance of Employee Appreciation Day we engaged managers first in showing their appreciation for their team members on our “You Caused Applause” internal wall — akin to Pinterest.

Then we opened the Wall up to all of our colleagues today where many were surprised to see themselves and their fellow colleagues featured. Here’s what happened:

Managers posted more than 700 stories acknowledging their teams. Employees posted another 200 stories acknowledging each other. And words of appreciation like this injected a sense of appreciation among employees throughout the day.

What a great way to recognize and celebrate our colleagues on Employee Appreciation Day!

Beyond that, we now have a mountain of stories of the great work our colleagues are doing every day to improve lives through better health and nutrition. We can’t wait to share them.

You’ll find these stories and more on our social channels. Follow @bayerus on twitter instagram. I hope you’ll appreciate hearing and sharing them.

A final thought and request: I invite you to join us today and consider telling someone you work with how much you appreciate him or her.

I think you’d agree that the world can use more positivity…we can all appreciate that.