How Organisations Can Show Appreciation for Their Teams

I don’t know if you know what the greatest relationship of all time is? It is, of course, Kate and Leo. They are the greatest relationship of all time and here they are.

I’m including them because there’s a moment in the film where they’re sat on the deck of the Titanic and they’re talking about Jack’s drawings. Rose turns to Jack and she says, ‘You have a gift Jack, you see people.’ And he turns back to her and he says, ‘I see you.’ What happens in that moment is they both see each other and it’s from that moment that their relationship really blossoms. But at work, too, we want to be seen. We want to be appreciated for what we’re bringing to the party and that in turn makes for better relationships.

We’re always trying to find fun ways to get people to connect at work. These are two of our London shop managers in a photo booth thing who clearly love each other a lot, which is great. As organisations we can act too by appreciating where our workforce is at and meeting the needs of those in our organisations.

In our kitchen and after speaking to people we ran lots of workshops. We have English workshops, we have an Eastern European workforce, we have run Brexit clinics, because that’s been a real challenge to some of them, the uncertainty that’s causing, we do financial wellbeing workshops, mental health, confidence workshops, because that’s where the need is and that’s what matters to people.

Likewise we have a hardship fund, because we definitely don’t want people going to the loan sharks elsewhere to support people. We have a holiday home, because when you’re on the Living Wage affording a family holiday can be a real stretch. We have something called the Dream Academy, which is a life-coaching programme, which is four months. A lot of people who come and work for us don’t have a lot of education, haven’t had a lot of input, and this is a programme to really help people identify what their life goals and dreams are and then to help them achieve it.

We’ve had some lovely stories. Having better relationships with their step-children was someone’s dream. Someone learned to drive. Better teeth, buying a first flat. I think the point is when we tune into the needs that exist in our teams and in our organisations, and then we go and meet that need, people feel appreciated and that fuels positive relationship.