Gratitude in the Workplace: Better Employees Through Chemistry

Employee sentiment increases dramatically when companies focus on creating a culture of gratitude, according to a new study by Motivosity. The study of 254 companies and roughly 100,000 employees examined the role gratitude and appreciation play in the workplace.

“Gratitude-centric” cultures are present when people express appreciation not only top-down, but also on a peer-to-peer level.

When surveyed year over year for 5 years, employees working in a gratitude-centric environment reported the most significant increases in feeling appreciated at work (182%), company loyalty (134%), and positive workplace relationships (106%).

The study showed an overall 196% increase in employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS). Like NPS for customers, these scores are a way of quantitatively measuring how your employees feel about your company.

The study took a deeper look at how gratitude affects different aspects of employee satisfaction, including internal relationships with managers and co-workers, company culture, and brand outlook.

When introduced to a gratitude-centric workplace, employees reported an average eNPS increase of 20 points.

This positive effect on culture and interaction between employees led to increased workplace relationships, with employees being twice as likely to have a best friend at work and a 96% increase in employees who felt they had a stronger relationship with their manager.

Companies that focused on a culture of gratitude saw increased employee loyalty, brand outlook, and even long-term retention, with employees reporting they were 134% more willing to stay with their company, even if offered a 10% raise to leave.

Employees were also 196% more willing to recommend their company to a friend. In addition, employees in a gratitude-centric environment reported an 82% increase in company values regularly demonstrated at work.

“Gratitude makes people happier at work. Our research shows it. Gratitude has a meaningful impact and the benefits are pretty far-reaching. It strengthens relationships at work, causes people to want to stay longer in their job, and invite all their peers to be a part of it,” said Bobby Low, human performance and organizational psychologist at Motivosity.

“Additionally, the neurochemicals released in the brain, like oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, all help in reducing cortisol, which reduces stress and anxiety and improves mental health,” he said. “From the bonding and strengthening relationships and human connection all the way to improving mental health in the workplace, it is hard to miss the benefits of flooding your organization with gratitude.”

Scott Johnson, CEO and founder of Motivosity added, “The more I look at it, the more I’m convinced that gratitude is the competency that makes a job worth having. Gratitude is a virtuous cycle. (We need more virtuous anything in life!) The more gratitude there is, the better things are. Grateful people bring more energy to life, they solve problems better, they have fewer health-related outages, they have fewer HR complaints, less stress, and more customer satisfaction,” he said.

“The great news is that helping people become more gratitude-centric isn’t an expensive and enigmatic problem to solve. You can hack into the cycle with a small but consistent effort focused in the right direction. We’ve seen gratitude initiatives become referred to as ‘magic’ for the impact they’ve made.”

Motivosity, a provider of employee recognition and feedback software, was founded in 2013 by Scott Johnson. Previously, he founded Workfront, an online work management company. Learn more about Motivosity here.