What Happened When We Made Gratitude Mandatory
By John Oliver, Director of Client Services, Risk Management
Leaders love to say we should measure what matters. Performance metrics, turnaround times, service levels. All important. But in many organizations, the behaviors that actually sustain strong working relationships are treated as optional, assumed, or personality-driven.
Gratitude is one of those behaviors.
At Hausmann Group, our Claims team spends its days advocating for clients in moments that are often stressful and adversarial. It often sounds like: “What do you mean their doctor hasn’t returned them to full duty yet?” or “Why are the reserves so high on this open workers’ compensation claim?” or “Our client is still waiting on a response from the employment practices liability adjuster.”
Like most teams, we're very good at responding when something goes wrong. We've traditionally been far less consistent about pausing to acknowledge exceptional work when things go right.
This adversarial posture started to feel like a legitimate enterprise risk, so we made a deliberate decision: we were going to strengthen our external partnerships by expressing more gratitude...and it wasn't going to be optional.
We did not ask our team to be more appreciative. We required them to practice it. Each team member was expected to formally recognize exceptional external partners a set number of times each year, and that expectation was tracked and tied to performance. Only after we made gratitude mandatory did it start to show up consistently.
How we operationalized expressions of gratitude
Where do you even begin when you want to implement change built around soft skills and something as nebulous as gratitude? Obviously, you write an SOP!
Jokes aside, in our Claims team we created a simple Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for what we call “Gift Cards of Gratitude.” When an external partner goes above and beyond, our team sends a short thank-you email (often with leadership from the insurance company and our agency included) which includes a link to a $5 Starbucks gift card.
We took great strides to ensure the process was as frictionless as possible for our team. Gift cards are purchased in bulk at the beginning of the year, the links are readily accessible in a shared spreadsheet, and the entire act of recognition takes no more than a minute. Grab a link, send the email, enter a few details in a spreadsheet, and move on. Gratitude expressed.
Every gift card link is tracked in that spreadsheet to ensure consistency, transparency, and follow-through. Starbucks was chosen because it is easy to distribute digitally, widely usable across geographies, and avoids ethical gray areas. The SOP also includes guardrails around frequency, who is copied on the email, and when recognition is appropriate.
In other words, we treated gratitude the same way we treat any other professional process: clearly defined, easy to execute, and auditable.
From encouragement to expectation
In the first year we introduced this practice, we explained why it mattered and encouraged participation. Some people leaned in immediately. Others participated sporadically. The intent was there, but the results were uneven.
The following year, we made a change. Distributing a defined number of gift cards over the course of the year became a tracked expectation and was explicitly tied to annual bonuses.
Participation increased almost immediately. But just as importantly, people started taking the requirement seriously. That seriousness showed up as real questions and, at times, real frustration: When is something actually worthy of a gift card? What counts as going above and beyond?
Those moments turned out to be a feature, not a bug. The goal forced better conversations in one‑on‑ones about what we expect from our partners, what great service actually looks like in practice, and when it deserves to be called out. Over time, that calibration made expressions of gratitude more consistent, more confident, and more meaningful. The behavior normalized and the impact became visible.
We began consistently receiving replies from partners like:
- “This absolutely made my day. Thank you for taking the time to send this.”
- “I appreciate the recognition more than the coffee. It means a lot to hear this.”
- “Please know I’m always happy to help your team and your clients.”
Those responses were not one-offs. They became routine.
Why this works (and why it scales)
Most professionals do not struggle with valuing good work. They struggle with remembering to acknowledge it, especially under pressure.
Left to our natural tendencies, we are all far more likely to notice:
- Delays
- Mistakes
- Missed expectations
This is not a character flaw. It is a cognitive one. Psychologists refer to this as negativity bias: negative events simply carry more weight than positive ones.
By formalizing the recognition of gratitude, we counteracted that bias. We didn't lower our standards or stop holding others accountable, we just also forced attention toward great work that would otherwise pass without comment.
Recognition vs. Gratitude
Most organizations already have recognition programs. Employee of the Month awards. Spot bonuses. Shout-outs in meetings. Those programs are typically designed to reward outcomes or performance.
Gratitude is different. Gratitude focuses on behavior and effort, not just results. It acknowledges how work is done, not only what gets delivered. Recognition often flows inward within an organization. Gratitude is just as powerful laterally and outward, especially with partners and vendors who sit outside formal reporting lines.
In practice, recognition tends to show up occasionally, when someone really stands out. Gratitude shows up more often, and it shows up closer to the moment. One celebrates excellence after the fact. The other reinforces the behaviors that make working together easier tomorrow.
Our program borrows some mechanics from traditional recognition systems, but the intent is different. We are not trying to incentivize adjusters or vendors. In fact, our SOP very explicitly aims to avoid this for ethical reasons. Instead, we are training our own team to consistently notice and acknowledge great work in real time.
Gratitude is a skill, not a personality trait
Not everyone finds it natural to express appreciation at work, especially in fast-paced, transactional, or conflict-heavy environments. That doesn't mean people don't value relationships. It means the behavior needs support.
Sometimes gratitude starts small. A quick follow-up email. Taking a second look after an initial stumble. Acknowledging effort even when the outcome was not perfect. For many teams, especially HR teams, this is exactly the kind of behavior that gets crowded out when everything feels urgent.
If we agree that strong relationships matter, then leaving gratitude to chance is a leadership failure. Measuring what matters is only half the job. The other half is building systems that make the right behaviors unavoidable.
At Hausmann Group, we did not magically make our team feel more grateful. We made gratitude part of the job. And it worked.
Who are you grateful for, and, more importantly, do they know it?
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