Earlier this year, one of my staff made the comment in a meeting that “Today is my five year anniversary of working here!” Caught off guard, I responded that “it seemed like only yesterday when we were interviewing you…” 

This person is an excellent employee who we hired shortly after she graduated from college.  Typical of her generation, she is good at multitasking, accustomed to change, and easily juggles multiple tasks and priorities. Untypical of her generation, she has stayed at her first job for 5 years.  I could not find any statistics to support my assumption, but I believe very few Gen X or Gen Y employees work five years at their first job.  

I could have responded in a much better way. Not only did I not realize that she was at a milestone, but I did not respond in a way that let her know how much I valued her contributions to our team. 

My daughter has worked for a fairly small (approximately 45 employees) company in Washington, DC for almost 4 years.  It is unique in many ways, but especially in the way it celebrates employee milestones.  On my daughter’s one year anniversary, everyone gathered for lunch and she was presented with a tape dispenser that looked like a frog. (She actually collects frogs!) Her second anniversary was also celebrated with a luncheon and a small present. When an employee has worked there five years, there is an office dinner and gift and at ten years, there is a luncheon and a donation to a charity of the person’s choice.  The CEO believes in the importance of celebrating her employees’ contributions to the success of the company.  The turnover at my daughter’s office is minimal. During the past few years, business has increased and the company has grown.  Salaries are not what hold the employees there – it is having challenging work and knowing they are valued and appreciated by their CEO. 

What a simple idea for retention!  Celebrate the employees’ contributions while they are actively engaged in the work of the organization, instead of waiting until they have chosen to go elsewhere.  I have since added staff anniversary dates to my calendar and this year I will do a better job of letting my employees know their contributions are valued. Though not everyone can afford lunches, dinners or gifts for their employees, we can all afford to say “thank you”.