Happiness is great for business: it lowers mistakes, increases sales, motivates employees, and makes clients happy — but how can you make your employees happy? Holiday celebrations are a great start, but what can you do year-round to increase happiness at your company? 

Incentive campaigns are one of our favorite tools to help inspire our staff and achieve our goals while having a little fun in the process! Sometimes we have individual prizes; other times employees earn points toward a big group goal, like a catered breakfast. And sometimes we focus on tangible things like accuracy and big picture metrics, but other times we look for more abstract results the lead to the greater good, such as happiness.

I’ve written in the past about our annual Random Acts of Happiness campaign (or “RAH”) where our team hands out scratch tickets to their coworkers for a job well done or to recognize a peer for doing something special – holding a door for someone, a thumbs up through the glass partition of your cubicle, anything that makes your day brighter can be an opportunity for a RAH ticket. There are instant wins sprinkled throughout, and a few grand prizes for those who collect a word or phrase.

But there’s more going on than just physical rewards. An instant win can definitely give an immediate boost in mood – and the next customer they talk to after their lucky streak will certainly feel the effects of that happiness. The simple act of giving a RAH ticket and expressing gratitude to a coworker can foster happiness, too. And many times during the campaign, Rubys will stick around to see what their coworker has won and take an extra few minutes to chat and make a connection, yet another mood booster. After a few weeks of practicing gratitude, it’s hard to stop! After the campaign itself is over, Rubys often recognize their peers with a personal note or public shoutout on our Intranet!

People who feel appreciated and those who take time to express their thanks are happier people. And that in turn can help your business by fostering trust between team members and creating a habit of looking for opportunities to be thankful. Gratitude is a powerful tool to help foster happiness, and holding an incentive campaign is a fantastic way to inspire and empower employees to share!