Positive affirmation in the workplace goes beyond just saying nice things. The affirmation activities leave your team feeling supported, heard, and recognized. Constructive words are an important part of affirmation, but not the whole story. When employees feel truly encouraged, they are more likely to be loyal, engaged, and excited - which are all great for your bottom line. In fact, there is a measurable difference in companies that have highly engaged staff.
So, what can you do to help your employees to feel seen? Let’s dive into our favorite positive affirmation activities for workplace groups.
13 Positive affirmation activities
1. Affirmation Circle
This is a great game for not only applauding each others’ accomplishments, but getting to know each other better. It’s an ideal activity for recognizing new team members while sharing inspirational milestones. To start, have everyone stand facing each other in a large circle. Then, a moderator will read out various accomplishments - anything from “speaks another language” to “ran a marathon” to “got praise from our most difficult client”. When the item applies to someone, they’ll stand in the middle of the circle, and everyone else applauds. Many items will have more than one person standing in the center, and that’s great for finding commonality with other employees. It also shows an appreciation for the person as a whole, and not just what they bring to the workplace.
2. Team Question and Answer
Some of the most powerful affirmation comes from peers, not higher-ups. Facilitate this by coming up with a list of questions that everyone is comfortable asking. For example, “What is your hometown?” or “What hobbies do you enjoy after work?” Have everyone in the room take turns answering the questions for the group. Then, put everyone’s name into a bowl, and go around the room having everyone draw one name. Ideally, they will remember something about one of the people in the room, and they can “affirm” them by proving they remember the fact. For example, “Ann said her favorite holiday is Christmas, so I’ll be sure to look for decorations on her desk during the season!” or “Tom said he loves to run, so a great gift for him would be a book on running routes in the city.” In this activity, the goal isn’t necessarily to compliment the other person, but to show that you were actively listening and truly comprehend that bit of information about who they are - you really see them! And feeling seen is crucial when it comes to affirmation. If you just want to learn more about your coworkers, try a personality test or special icebreaker.
3. Regular Health Checks
What better way to show your employees how much you value them than by helping them to stay healthy? Managing stress and mental health isn’t easy these days, so any steps you take toward that goal will be appreciated by your staff. Take the initiative to schedule wellness sessions a couple times a year. You can have a workshop with resources, a speaker on mental health, and even a yoga or deep breathing class. If you are in the United States, you may want to have a representative from your insurance provider come in to help people talk about employee assistance plans and how to make use of the mental health resources available to them. If you don’t have the time or budget to arrange all of that, simply gather your team together once a month and ask how they’re doing. Make sure they feel comfortable sharing, and talk about ways you can help to increase their work-life balance and manage stress.
4. Achievement Celebrations
One of the easiest and most natural ways to make people in your company feel appreciated is to celebrate their accomplishments. Consider goals, milestones, and deadlines, and how you can make a big deal out of these events. Some simple ideas are a team lunch or happy hour when a big milestone is reached, gift baskets at the end of difficult projects, or gift cards when people go above and beyond. Don’t be afraid to take this outside of work too. If someone reached an important personal goal like a bucket-list hike, or if someone is getting married or had a baby, it’s nice to recognize that with personalized gifts that will be meaningful to the individual. These ideas are also ideal for virtual employee appreciation or employee recognition.
5. “Praise it Forward”
Simple, handwritten notes from management or peers are a great way to make employees feel appreciated. Make this a regular part of a positive culture and employees will not only enjoy getting recognition, but be excited to share it with others. Have a stack of small note cards available, in a location where everyone can access them (like a break room). When someone wants to recognize someone, they can grab two of the notes. They give them both to the person they want to honor. One will have a handwritten note about how they went above and beyond, while the other remains blank so that the receiver can pass on their own note to someone else. In this way, they get to experience not only being recognized for their own contributions, but also the joy that comes from “passing along” recognition to others. Make sure to follow our blog for more employee appreciation ideas and gratitude exercises.
6. Employee of the Month Program
Many companies already have such a system in place, but you might be surprised how effective it can be. This way, you can publicly affirm and appreciate stand-out employees. You can either have management choose the individual or conduct a vote each month where the winner is chosen by consensus. To up the ante, implement a reward system that makes it a bigger deal to win. For example, the winner could receive a half day of PTO, lunch with the CEO, a gift, or even a better parking spot. The “bigger deal” that you make of the EOM, the more people will be excited (and motivated) to win it.
7. Affirmation Fold-Ups
This is a group activity that also works as a team-building event. To begin, have everyone sit in a circle facing each other. Hand each person a sheet of paper and instruct them to write their name at the top. Then fold each sheet up and place them all in the middle of the circle. Throughout several rounds, each person will reach forward and grab one of the papers. Their job is to write something nice about the person whose name is at the top, then refold it and put it back in the circle. Do this for as many rounds as there are people, and everyone will end up with a sheet that has a list of compliments bound to make them feel amazing.
8. “My Team Rocks”
For this exercise, you’ll need a small amount of rocks. Have everyone sit in a circle, and give a few people in the circle (not everyone) a rock. The person who has a rock must say something nice about the person to their left, and then pass the rock. They can say “Name rocks because…” This is a quick and easy activity where everyone will get a nice compliment from someone on their team. Tip: have managers or other leaders kick things off by being the first to speak. This will set the tone for everyone else and help them to open up.
9. Live “Pat on the Back”
This fun game is great for getting people moving as well as thinking about the great things happening on their team. It does require some prep, but it’s a lot of fun. You’ll need sturdy 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper or card stock, string, a hole punch, and markers. To prepare, punch two holes in each piece of cardstock. Then thread the string through so that it lays like a necklace. Each person should place this around their neck, with the card at their back (not in front of them where they can see). Then, people should spend a few minutes mingling, and each time two people chat with each other, they should write something nice on the back of their partner. This goes on until everyone has had the option to write on at least 5 other peoples’ sheets. If you want to enhance the experience, bring everyone together at the end and ask them to read their sheets and talk about how it makes them feel.
10. Paper High Five Program
Similar to the praise it forward idea, this is a simple thing that management can do to encourage people to recognize each other. Have a stack of small papers shaped like a hand, and keep them somewhere that is easy to access. You also need a bulletin board and pins nearby. Then, when people want to share recognition for someone that went above and beyond, they can write about it on the hand paper and pin it to the board for all to see. In this way, they are giving a visual “high five” to their team members, which will likely lead to even more recognition as other people read it and learn about their accomplishment.
11. Ongoing Affirmation Frames
This activity requires a small investment but can be really fun. It almost has a “secret Santa” effect, in that there’s an element of surprise. To start, buy a bunch of 8.5 x 11 frames and dry erase markers. Give one to each person and have them place them somewhere accessible in their seating area (so, right outside their cubicle or on their office door, for example). Then, when they aren’t looking, people can write a message on the frame. When they return and see it, they are sure to be delighted! How fun would it be to return from a meeting to find a note saying “Great job on yesterday’s presentation - the slides were beautiful!”?
12. Gratitude Hot Seat
At your next large meeting or team-building retreat, place a chair in the front of the room. Throughout the event, each person will get a turn in the “hot seat”, where people can compliment them or share their latest accomplishments. A couple caveats: this can be hard to do with employees who don’t know each other well. They simply might not know enough about the individual to share positive affirmation. Additionally, some people really do not like the spotlight and may be uncomfortable. This is a good one for long-standing, close-knit teams who have a high degree of comfort with each other.
13. Community Break
Few things show appreciation to the degree that time off does. It’s not very realistic to give people a full day off, but to celebrate your team’s next major accomplishment, consider letting them cut out early on a Friday or take an extra long lunch. For example, tell everyone that in celebration of their great work, the office is closing at 3 pm on that Friday. Or, you might order lunch and let everyone know that they have two hours to socialize and enjoy a leisurely lunch with their colleagues.
The perfect opportunity for affirmation
It’s not always easy to fit activities like this into a busy daily schedule, but events designed to bring your team together are perfect. Your next department meeting or team-building retreat is the perfect chance to insert some fun and gratitude at the same time, by choosing a few of these activities.
The ideal team retreat has learning, updates from leadership, time to socialize, and positive affirmation activities. Some of these exercises also double as a sort of ice-breaker or “getting to know you” game, which adds another important layer.
If you are struggling to plan an engaging team retreat, reach out to Surf Office for some innovative ideas and logistics support.
