Let’s Make February Workplace Kindness Month!

Acts of kindness are one of the most powerful ways we have to connect with others.
February is the perfect month to share workplace kindness  – with Random Acts of Kindness Day (17^th) and Week (February 17th though the 22nd), and Valentine’s Day! Take advantage of these dates and inspire kindness in your workplace.

Planting seeds of kindness yields improved moods and productivity. Better yet, it’s contagious. Share a little kindness and see how it ripples through your office.

Easy Ways to Share Workplace Kindness

Here are some fun and easy strategies you can try out in February (or anytime):

• Create a kindness wall
  Add some prompts and provide lots of colorful post-it notes. Encourage everyone to participate. Take pictures and share the workplace love socially – #RAKDay #MakeKindnessTheNorm #KindnessMatters

• Spread messages of kindness
  Blanket the workplace with fun posters, notes, emails, etc. of appreciation and encouragement. Delight colleagues with little gifts of appreciation.

• Help colleagues learn something new about each other
  Be creative! Have work groups select “get to know you questions” and answer out-loud. Send departments that don’t work together to a lunch together and provide thought provoking questions on the table.

• Share a thoughtful Candy or Ice Cream Gift Certificate
  A homemade treat is heartwarming but impractical with a large organization. Keep it easy and affordable with a $5 gThankYou Gift Certificate for Candy or Ice Cream and a note of thanks!

• Plan a week of workplace kindness activities
  Plan an entire week to celebrate and spread kindness in the workplace. Here’s your guide to keeping it easy, fun and focused on kindness:  “7 Days of Workplace Kindness”

Kindness is Contagious – Help Spread It Year-Round

As Emilia Earhart once said, “No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another.”
Make 2019 the year to build your kinder and happier workplace. Begin with these inspiring and helpful resources:

• Download Your “Day-to-Day Kindness Calendar”
  The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation provides many free resources for sharing and inspiring kindness including this calendar of daily ideas. We love their mission and inspiration to helping us building a kinder world.
  

• Download “Transforming Your Workplace with Gratitude”
  Kindness flourishes in an environment of gratitude. Learn how to nurture a workplace culture of gratitude, appreciation and kindness with this popular free eBook.

• Download and share gThankYou’s “2019 Employee Celebration Calendar”
  This popular resource is full of ideas and the research behind building a kinder, happier and more loyal workplace all year-long.

Simple Acts of Kindness to Start

LiveLoveWork.com has provided a prompt to boost kindness at work for each week of the year!
Most of these ideas are really easy to do but could really have an impact on a co-worker’s day (and your day too!).  Here are some of our favorites –we kept their original numbers from the list of 52:

• Hold the door open for the person behind you. (#9)
• Make a mental list of all the things you enjoy about your work. (#10)
• Be a cheerleader for someone else’s idea or project. (#18)
• Let go of a grudge. (#24)
• Give someone the benefit of the doubt. (#31)
• Share an uplifting blog post. (Like this one from gThankYou…) (#36)
• Bring in books you loved and pass them on. (#38)
• Start and end meetings on time. (#43)
• Pass on coupons you don’t need. (#47)
• Create a custom playlist for a co-worker. (#50)
• Be responsible for the energy you bring to your workplace. (#52)

Here’s another list we love for posting in the workplace. This acrostic contains 20 tips from O.C. Tanner about random acts of kindness in the workplace. It underscores how being kind can be simple, but isn’t always our default setting, especially in the workplace.
Here’s just a teaser with the word “random”:

R: Recognize when someone is having a bad day; find out what you can do to help.

A: Ask a coworker a thoughtful question, then listen (really listen!) to the response.

N: Nix gossip when you hear it.

D: Drop off a delicious snack at someone’s desk.

O: Offer to help with a task a coworker doesn’t enjoy.

M: Make time to connect with a former colleague.

Check out the rest of their acrostic (acts of kindness) for more great ideas.

Mini-Case Study: “Send a Snuggle Day” for Acts of Kindness Week

Our favorite idea for sharing workplace kindness is from the Monroe County Humane Association in Indiana. We love this idea so much it’s in our 2019 Employee Celebration Calendar!
Monroe County Humane Association in Indiana raises money through its “Send a Snuggle Day” for Random Acts of Kindness Week. For the annual event, which began in 2014, the public can donate money to send “animal ambassadors” to spread a little cheer and kindness to a person or team of their choosing.

The snuggly emissaries have included dogs, kittens, rabbits, goats, a miniature horse, and an albino snake. (No one ever sends the snake, MCHA executive director Rebecca Warren notes.) Volunteers accompany the animals into banks, schools, and other workplaces.
Warren told the Indiana Daily Student that when Send a Snuggle visits a workplace, it’s usually not just one person who reaps the benefits.

“It becomes an entire facility response. Everyone is so excited when they see the animal. Everyone’s taking pictures and getting down on the floor. At least three people cry,” Warren said. “Send a Snuggle is the best day of the year to do my job. It’s wonderful to see people get so excited and emotional about it.”

We’d love to hear your workplace kindness stories.  Share them with us and we will share them on social media and highlight them in our blog!
We hope your new year is off to a great start and wish you and your colleagues a year that is full of hope, happiness and kindness.
The gThankYou! Team