How you can show kindness and appreciation in your workplace

It’s World Kindness Day on 13th November – yay! Who doesn’t love an excuse to be kind to those around them?

Introduced in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement, there are now over 28 member nations with the collective mission to inspire individuals towards greater kindness by connecting nations to create a kinder world.

For inspiration, here are some examples of previous events:

• Kindness UK spread the message by giving out 10,000 free chocolate bars at train stations in London, yum!
• Singapore Kindness movement gave out 30,000 gerberas.
• World Kindness Australia gave out free hugs on Bondi Beach.

However, big gestures of kindness aren’t the only way to show appreciation and promote humanity. We can all incorporate acts of kindness into our day-to-day interactions at work and why not use World Kindness Day as an excuse to get the ball rolling?

Here are some ideas of how to squeeze a little kindness into your day, which will in turn increase happiness and motivation within your team:

• Bring in cake for the team! (Of course this was going to be first on the list!!)
  Raise money for a charity – perhaps by arranging a cake sale (I promise not all suggestions will revolve around cake…)
• Place positive messages or inspirational quotes on your colleagues’ desks.
  Organise team thanks.
• Offer to help a co-worker with a project.
• Clean the office fridge/microwave (but don’t eat the cake… oh sorry, I got distracted again!)
• Organise interdepartmental random acts of kindness – e.g. get Marketing to organise a lunch for Finance and ask IT to run an errand for the Admin team.
• Everyone likes to be recognised – take a moment to tell a manager, supervisor or leader how much you appreciate their leadership as this is often forgotten or taken for granted.
• Offer to mentor a new employee.

Whilst I love the idea of designating a particular day per year to kindness, why leave it there? Keep kindness at the forefront of your mind and your work activities to integrate it into your organisation’s culture and values.

For a refresh of your corporate values or for more ideas on how to encourage kindness at work, contact HR180 today!