The holiday season is the ideal time to reflect on the year and consider everything we’re grateful for in our lives. Practicing gratitude in our personal lives is a key ingredient to self-care and happiness. What about practicing gratitude at work? Injecting gratitude into the workplace—not just at this time of year but year-round—can have a more dramatic impact than you might imagine.

Workplace Gratitude Strengthens Teams

Researchers have explored the science of gratitude for decades. Studies show that a mindset of gratitude generates more positive emotions and reduces stress, sick days, and health issues. Practicing gratitude in the workplace also contributes to higher job satisfaction and contentment with coworkers. In a series of four experiments, psychologists Adam Grant and Francesca Gino found expressing gratitude has a ripple effect across a team or community. Individuals who share their feelings of gratitude trust each other more and are therefore more likely to collaborate and help each other with tasks.

Eight Tips to Incorporate Gratitude into the Workplace

Take advantage of these eight gratitude practices year-round to reap the benefits of an appreciative workplace:

1. Thank widely and regularly. Grant and Gino’s study reveals that a simple “thank you” from a supervisor gave people a strong sense of self-worth and self-efficacy. It doesn’t take much to express thanks after a task or project has been completed. This doesn’t only apply to supervisor-employee interactions. Regularly thank customers, colleagues, maintenance staff, outsourced teams, leaders, stakeholders and other important connections to make gratitude a natural part of every interaction.

2. Make employee appreciation an ongoing practice. Individual appreciation matters, but companywide recognition goes a long way. More than 91 percent of HR professionals believe recognition and reward contribute to employee retention. Create procedures to ensure employee recognition is a regular practice throughout the organization. Don’t simply implement an “employee of the month” and stop there. Instead, recognize departmental successes, new employees, longtime mentors, special projects or exceptional customer experiences.

3. Take it offline. In this highly digital world, a handwritten note, phone call, small gift, treat or meal or in-person greeting can take expressing gratitude to the next level. Laszlo Block, Google’s senior vice president of people operations and author of Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead, says it’s best to offer thanks with something personal. “In the end, employees will end up happier if you give them an experience—something personal and nonfinancial,” Block says. “But it only works if you know what makes your people tick.”

4. Compliment a colleague. Thankfulness often means recognizing what someone has done to benefit you. It’s important, however, not to limit recognition and gratitude to activities that result in personal gain. Take a moment to let a colleague know you recognize their hard work, their talents, decisions, professionalism, organization or working style. Selfless acts of gratitude have a spillover effect, increasing trust and collaboration between peers.

5. Practice mindfulness. According to Mindful.org, mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, without being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Mindfulness in the workplace helps us to recognize our roles, our environment, our teams and how we relate to one another. Without mindfulness, it’s easy to hyperfocus on deadlines or negativity. Make mindfulness an ongoing practice by employing healthy habits such as journaling, exercise or meditation to regulate attention, seek out appreciation and communicate meaningfully.

6. Create a “gratitude challenge.” Total Wellness Health offers a “30 Days of Wellness Challenge” to tackle one gratitude-related task each day. By offering a structured or incentivized challenge, gratitude can become an exciting and shared experiment for teams. It also makes gratitude a conscientious practice, helping employees experience firsthand the positive impact of the experiment.  

7. Recognize efforts, not just successes. Sometimes, employee recognition can feel like a competition or performance measure. While celebrating success is important, it’s also vital for employees to understand that profit and productivity aren’t the only metrics of achievement. Ensure gratitude and recognition are incorporated incrementally. Celebrate efforts, practice, dedication, attempts and hard work. Keep in mind what Ariana Huffington, founder of Huffington Post famously said. “Failure is not the opposite of success, it’s a stepping stone to success.”

8. Don’t forget about self-gratitude. Even the most gracious people sometimes forget to include themselves in the practice of gratitude. It’s essential to remember you’re at the center of your own capacity to be grateful. Self-gratitude is a thankfulness practice that helps you take stock of your own traits and abilities. Constructive and encouraging self-talk is proven to have lasting positive effects on our self-esteem and performance.

Gratitude Costs Nothing

While holidays remind us to express gratitude to our friends and family, it’s important to incorporate gratefulness into our professional and personal lives year-round. Appreciation is a fundamental human emotion that integrates vital positivity into our daily lives. The best part? It costs nothing to say, “thank you.” When we practice gratitude in the workplace, everyone benefits, creating a positive, uplifting cycle that impacts engagement and performance.