Appreciation all-star

Gifted enabled Vita to democratize employee recognition, increasing appreciation and consistency across the organization.

Item: Gifted
Author: Erik Hansen

As Vita became a distributed workforce, employee recognition at scale was a major challenge. Gifted enabled Vita to democratize employee recognition, increasing appreciation and consistency across the organization.

His point

Recognition should not need a gatekeeper

When a company spreads out, appreciation tends to bottleneck. It waits for the one person with the budget code, the one approver who knows the process, the one office where the cake still gets cut. Everyone else notices good work and has no way to act on it.

Democratizing recognition means handing that ability to the whole organization rather than to a department. At Vita it made appreciation more frequent and more consistent, which are the two things distance usually takes away first.

The interview

Fourteen questions, answered fast

Every appreciation all-star gets the same fourteen. Here are Erik's.

When you walk into the room, what song would be playing?: Parcels by Overnight
How would you explain your job to a 5 year old in 10 words?: I help people get the card they need to see a doctor.
What was your first paying job?: YMCA Youth Basketball Coach and Referee
What is your favorite curse word?: Dodgers
What is the best compliment you can give?: Actual, genuine appreciation
What is the best compliment you can receive?: When some can tell that I truly cared about the thing that I’ve done
What is your favorite Gift Card brand?: Amazon, because of the flexibility
What book / podcast can you recommend?: Mindset by Carol Dweck
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?: Working with a great team of people at Vita and our extended family as clients
Where do you want to go on your next vacation?: My daughter would love to go to Japan, but probably a road trip to Yellowstone.
What was the last gift that you gave someone?: A Gifted gift card last week for our weekly appreciation
What is your favorite word?: Acuity
What is your least favorite word?: Good
Do you have a motto, spoken or unspoken?: Life’s long, walk slow.