The Value of Praise in the Workplace

Think someone did a good job? Say so.

So, you scored a 5 out of 100," the psychologist from HR told me. Then, in case it wasn't clear, added: "That's very low."

All I could do was laugh.

I had scored a 5 on my "Promoter" score, my ability to persuasively convince people of my value and capabilities in a workplace — and I laughed because the score seemed completely accurate.

I don't like to praise myself.

Because of this, throughout my career I've benefited enormously from times when my colleagues spoke up to celebrate my work. I'm thinking of a particular boss who rooted for me to be promoted without me ever bringing it up. I'm thinking, too, of how I did the same for a coworker, frequently embarrassing him by praising his performance. (I think his "Promoter" score was as low as mine.)

Every workplace benefits from public praise. According to Gallup, employee recognition is one of the best — and cheapest! — ways for an organization to attract and retain top talent. And a study from Harvard Business School says praise in the workplace makes employees more creative, less stressed, and better at problem solving.

That's certainly our experience here at Maark, where we do everything we can to encourage a culture of public praise.

To me, there's nothing better than seeing our pack support each other.

One place you'll see this is on our "#praise-maark" Slack channel, where everyone who works at Maark can view and join in on the praise party. This channel is used frequently to send posts applauding employees for their hard work, expressing how they went above and beyond. On average, two times a week, someone will compliment an individual or team—and this unleashes a flood of fun emojis and comments from people joining in the praise.

This is my favorite Slack channel (and that's a hard thing for me to say, since we also have "#fluffy-creatures," where folks show off adorable pictures of their pets). To me, there's nothing better than seeing our pack support each other, and seeing how excited we all are to recognize a true pack effort. It makes us feel like we are part of a team—and this makes us happier and more productive. We look forward to coming in to work and we enjoy helping each other out.

Maybe that's why the people at Maark think it's a great place to work?

In general, employees thrive in workplaces where they are happy and feel appreciated: they're more effective and they're a lot less likely to quit their jobs. So why not give praise?

Seeing how much good it does inside Maark, I'm inspired to praise people outside of work, too—and, who knows? Maybe once in a while, I can even praise myself.

Way to go, Kaitlyn!