5. The key to engagement and retention
Gianna Driver | CHRO, Exabeam
Creating Joy at Work:
Employee Recognition

6. “People rarely succeed
unless they have fun in
what they are doing.”
- Dale Carnegie

7. Most workplaces lack joy
• High levels of burn-out across all
sectors. Adrenal fatigue given
sustained loss and continual
uncertainty, exacerbated recently by
layoffs. Many are in survival mode.
• Remote working has led to social
isolation, which contributes to poorer
cognitive performance and executive
functioning
• Leaders, especially in HR, have had
to be strong for others when we’ve
not been okay. The disconnect
between our inner selves and
outward behaviors creates cognitive
dissonance, which diminishes
psychological well-being, or joy.
• According to a recent McKinsey
study, companies with happy
employees outperform the
competition by 20%; distressed
employees are at least 10% less
productive than the baseline.
• Employees who are happy report
fewer sick days, are more engaged,
stay longer, and are more innovative
• Research shows that joy is an
emotional response vital to our well-
being, cognitive functioning, and
performance at work
• Numerous studies concur workplace
joy comes down to three basic areas:
• Harmony: Understanding each
person’s role and having strong
bonds between people
• Impact: Having relevance and
criticality to business success
• Acknowledgement:
Celebrating success and
acknowledging each person’s
contributions
• As business leaders and HR
professionals, we have an opportunity
to help our organizations become
more joyful!
Joy is critical to performance How we create joy
Status Quo: Where are we today?
We’ve emerged from a pandemic, which highlighted loss and injustice, leaving us exhausted and emotionally raw
Focus on Practical steps for creating joy at work

8. Deciphering the
Components of
Creating Joy in
Workplaces
Most people concur that
being happier leads to
better business
outcomes, but how do
we become more joyful
professionally?
Additional Notes
Social Impact is a force multiplier: Employees
who feel their company makes a positive societal
contribution experienced the most joy at work.
Gen Z is changing workplace dynamics: The
influx of Gen Z into the workplace is changing the
employer-employee paradigm. Employers who do
not focus on harmony, impact, and acknowledge
will find it difficult to attract and retain talent.
Not everything costs money: While appropriate
resourcing helps, organizations can become more
joyful without breaking the bank. Interestingly, a
recent study showed that employees would give
up an additional $5k per year in salary to be
happier at work.
Encourage connectivity between employees,
even friendship: People with a best friend at
work are healthier and are 7x more likely to
engage fully.
Leaders often focus on business success, but
rarely joy. Let’s be change agents!

9. Harmony
Understanding your role and the role of others,
and having strong bonds between team members
✔ Have clearly articulated roles and responsibilities for everyone on the team. Invest in
competency-based job ladders and career pathing. Develop goals, and if possible, individual
development plans (IDPs). Implementing a company-wide leveling program was foundational.
✔ Invest in mentorship programs. Programs that match one employee’s strengths with another
employee’s development areas strengthen connection between people. Provides a framework.
✔ Be action-oriented around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiatives. To have
harmony on teams, employees need workplaces free from discrimination and disrespect. Create a
psychologically safe organization where people are free to bring their whole selves to work. Form
Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and have regular space for conversation.
✔ Perform regular benefit audits, ensuring adequate consideration for mental health offerings.
Thankfully, mental health is no longer stigmatized, but employers need to ensure there are resources
for those who need it. Go beyond the normal Employee Assistant Program (EAP).
✔ Lean into the hard conversations. Paradoxically, having authentic conversation, even when
difficult, strengthens connection. Normalize mistake-making and use that as a catalyst for
communication, authenticity, and building trust. “We can do hard things.”
✔ Make time for fun! Don’t underestimate celebrating milestones together and enjoying one another’s
company. Ideas include picnics, social gatherings, capstone projects, and parties. Partner with ERGs.

10. Impact
✔ Be clear about the organization’s vision and mission. What problem does your business solve,
and what value does each team member bring to the company? Remember to refer to goals and, if
applicable, IDPs.
✔ Create a strong feedback culture. Regularly and authentically practice giving feedback, especially
when it’s positive. Identify the impact of the action or behavior and be specific. Highlight the effect
on you, the team, and/or the organization. Leverage continuous, check-in, and formal feedback
cycles. Destigmatize “feedback” so it’s welcome, wanted and usually joyful.
✔ Invest in growth opportunities. Identify strengths and current contributions, while also architecting
a path to become even more effective and amplify impact. Remember those IDPs!
✔ Enable managers to engage in meaningful conversations about performance, feedback, and
career growth. Communicating role expectations for team members and articulating their impact
may be new for some leaders, so take time to enable managers with tools for healthy, sometimes
vulnerable, conversations. Managers have outsized impact on an employee’s joy at work.
✔ Not sure your employees understand the impact of their role and its criticality to the
business? Ask them.
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.” –Harvey S. Firestone
Understanding the importance of your role
and its impact on the company’s success

11. Acknowledgment
Celebrating success and acknowledging each
person’s contributions; recognition
A study by Bersin & Associates revealed that feeling unappreciated is the biggest driver of
employee dissatisfaction. 71% of highly engaged employees work in organizations that recognize
employees at least once per month.
✔ Have varied tools for recognition: Public, private, monetary, and non-monetary. Peer-nominated or
manager-nominated and tied to exhibiting values-aligned behaviors and actions that drive business
outcomes. Not all recognition is expensive! I love “Cheers for Peers” each month. Be specific.
✔ Remember that recognition should be timely. Contributions and acknowledgement should happen
in quick succession.
✔ Recognize courageous acts, not just successes. Normalizing mistake-making and learning are
also worthy of praise and recognition. Humor helps.
✔ Diversify those receiving recognition, and include all workers, even those who are remote
and/or in hybrid arrangements. Recognition programs can unify dispersed organizations, so select
winners objectively and ensure recipients are varied. Mailed notes and personalized gifts have been
great!
✔ Ask for feedback on your recognition program and iterate. Adopt a growth mindset and evolve as
the organization changes. Pulse surveys are helpful here.
✔ Foster moments of magic between people and teams. Also useful in moments of difficulty.

12. Recognition
Matters and
Leads to Good
Business
Recognition helps retain
top talent, increase
employee engagement,
and encourages high
performance

13. Why does
attrition occur?
A McKinsey study
conducted in September
2021 found the following
top underlying reasons
behind turnover.
What executives think
matters
(very transactional)
1. Compensation
2. Work-life balance
3. Poor physical and emotional
health
What departing
employees said
(very relational)
1. Valued by their organization (54%)
2. Valued by their managers (52%)
3. A sense of belonging at work (51%)
Notably, employees classified as non-White or multiracial
were more likely than their White counterparts to say they
left because they didn’t feel they belonged at their
companies
Notice the disconnect. Leaders are focused on
transactional cause-and-effect relationships that may
lead to attrition, when the emphasis should be on
harmony, impact, and acknowledgement, all of which
create joy and reduce attrition.

14. Most workplaces lack joy, and it’s essential to
performance. HR and People teams have an
opportunity to create engaging, inspiring workplaces
with high levels of trust and psychological safety—
spaces where innovation and authentic conversations
happen!
• Joy doesn’t have to be expensive. Harmony,
impact, and acknowledgement are actions that don’t
have to involve money and focus on communication.
• Analyze, iterate, and continually refine. Ask
employees how they’re feeling and update your
programs accordingly. Embrace transformation.
• Invest in tools, especially analytics. Leverage
data to establish a baseline and measure success
through multiple intersectionalities.
• Have fun with this stuff!
Lessons Learned
Below are insights gleaned during
joy-making processes at work ☺

15. “If you care about someone, and you got a
little love in your heart, there ain’t nothing
you can’t get through together.
— Ted Lasso

16. Thank You!
Gianna Driver | CHRO, Exabeam