It’s fairly well established that showing appreciation for a job well done is one of the most effective ways of boosting morale at work.  If any further evidence is required however, a recent study from the University of Texas at Austin provides it.

The study asked participants to write a simple letter of gratitude to someone who has done nice things for them in the past, before then anticipating the response once the recipient receives the letter.  Interestingly, across each of the three experiments, participants thought that recipients would feel a lot more awkward about receiving the letter than they actually did, whilst underestimating the positive impact it would have.

“We looked at what’s correlating with people’s likelihood of expressing gratitude — what drives those choices — and what we found is that predictions or expectations of that awkwardness, that anticipation of how a recipient would feel — those are the things that matter when people are deciding whether to express gratitude or not,” the authors explain.

Improving lives

A second study, from researchers at Portland State University reinforces the benefits giving gratitude can bring, for both giver and receiver alike.  It found that receiving gratitude at work corresponded with all manner of positive things, from better sleep, healthier eating and higher levels of work satisfaction.

The researchers chose a profession with incredibly high levels of burnout to test their theory, with a group of nurses in Oregon the particular petri dish chosen.  They believe that their findings should be valuable for anyone, but especially managers in high stress professions.

“Nurses tend to have a thankless job. It’s very physical, and they’re often being screamed at by patients who are at their lowest. When nurses receive gratitude, it boosts them,” the authors explain.  “This type of study helps us understand how to keep nurses in the workforce in a healthy way. Nurses strongly align their profession with their identity and often look out for patients more than themselves. The gratitude matches up with their identity, gives them satisfaction in a job well done and ultimately increases self-care.”

Professional identity

The importance of gratitude normally comes as a result of the connection we have between our job and our identity.  This makes it easy to link up appreciation for our work with a sense of wellbeing in ourselves.

The authors believe that if managers can understand that, and create a supportive environment that creates opportunities for both formal and informal expressions of gratitude, it can provide a significant boost to the productivity and wellbeing of the business.

“Employees that receive positive feedback are healthier, and that can impact the bottom line,” they say. “Preventing headaches and other stress-related symptoms means fewer sick days, and, in this case, cuts down the cost of replacement nurses and overtime pay.”

What’s more, of course, expressing gratitude is such a simple, low-cost intervention that it seems a no brainer to try and create an environment that supports it.  What are you waiting for?