Giving out gratitude with a 25$ envelope
Kristin lives in Austin, TX and has been working at InVision for the past 3 years. This company doesn’t work like most companies: its 400 employees all work remotely, usually from home. And unlike most distributed companies, there is no annual retreat where employees can meet in person. As you can imagine, it wasn’t an easy start for Kristin… How can InVision make sure its teams are motivated and maintain a sense of belonging?
Remote company
Web design
400 employees
invision.com
• About Work met Kristin in Texas... let's read their article right here
InVision isn’t your average company: in addition to operating without offices, it has decided to maintain motivation and gratitude at work without organizing annual retreats, which are usually crucial for distributed companies. Instead, InVision has implemented a very simple system.
Each employee gets 25$ every month, that are to be handed out to coworkers. The cash can be used to thank someone for their help. Or to congratulate them on a project. Or just to introduce each other.
You’re not entitled to a good work culture, you’re responsible for it
This is far from being a system that works halfway or leads to abuses. Kristin says it is a habit that values her, motivates her and, above all, strengthens her sense of belonging to InVision. Of course, these small amounts of dollars are symbolic and the money is often given away with a joke. It’s a pretext.
And it works. Dollars circulate, good work is rewarded by peers. It is also often a good excuse to start a conversation and break the ice.
Kristin for instance is used to distributing her envelope in 5 instalments of $5, congratulating 5 (usually) different colleagues every month.
As a result, thanks to this system which adds up to daily team communication on Slack and by video conference, Kristin now recognizes that she feels part of a unified team. She had just met one of her colleagues for the first time, and she felt she had known him for a long time: “it turned out that we were just talking in real life.”
Keep exploring companies that have found ways to engage their employees right here. Or, find out more stories about management innovation!
Key takeaways
• Appreciation, motivation and recognition through a Peer To Peer approach
• Useful tool to fight against the feeling of isolation in a company without offices and without annual teambuilding
Contributors
Sarah Spitz co-founded About Work. She traveled across the USA in 2017 with Adèle Boinnot to explore companies with alternative management practices. She currently works at ANEO and is part of the Humanage team. Hit her up with a message about management innovation and rock music: sspitz@aneo.fr
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