Adecco Talks: Gratitude campaigns and competitive pay rates

If your employees aren’t feeling the love – start a gratitude campaign

With rising levels of burnout, high turnover rates, and a lack of connection between organizational leaders and employees, feeling underappreciated at work has become a common experience.

Surprisingly, one impactful solution is often overlooked: Gratitude.

A thoughtful gratitude campaign in the workplace can reduce burnout and stress, as well as increase morale, job satisfaction, trust, productivity, and retention.

However, just saying “thank you” probably won’t cut it. Employers need to create a culture where appreciation and recognition are embedded into their day-to-day work.

Launching a successful gratitude campaign takes thoughtful intention, careful planning, and ongoing effort. Here is how you can bring this initiative to life at your organization:

• Lead by example: Make a point of modeling gratitude in everyday interactions, publicly and privately
• Build in structure: Use team meetings, gratitude walls, or recurring events to spotlight employee contributions
• Make it personal: Tailor recognition to individual preferences, recognizing that while some workers value public praise, others prefer private notes
• Encourage peer recognition: Encourage gratitude letters between colleagues and other opportunities to share praise
• Celebrate milestones: Mark birthdays, anniversaries, and project wins with thoughtful gestures

As you begin your gratitude campaign, be sure to measure its impact on retention rates, productivity, and your employees’ overall feedback. This not only fosters motivation to continue the program, but it will also allow you to encourage other leaders to implement their own.

How much do wage rates really matter?

Finding the right pay rate can feel like a gamble. Go too high and risk putting yourself in a precarious financial position – or go too low and likely lose talented workers to better paying competitors.

Fortunately, guessing is not your only option. To start with, you can download our free 2025 Salary Guide, which breaks down pay rates by key industries and discusses the trends driving today’s major changes.

At Adecco, we use several strategies to address pay rate challenges, whether that’s deciding on the right increase or implementing a career growth program.

In the past, we’ve succeeded in:

• Using market research to find the optimal rates
• Running a pilot program with increased wage rates
• Providing upskilling opportunities for in-demand roles, such as forklift operators
• Offering temporary promotions during peak seasons

Additional trends we saw

• The US economy added 228,000 jobs in March
• The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.2%
• Healthcare and social assistance added a large share of total jobs, accounting for 34% of March’s gain
• The prime-age labor force participation rate and employment-population ratio both appear to have reached a ceiling, suggesting labor supply issues could soon become a challenge for the market
• Compared to the year before, layoffs rose 205% in March, the third highest ever recorded in a single month. According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, this is mostly a result of recent federal job cuts

Reach out today!

Whether you need help on employee recognition or wage rates, Adecco has the experience, the tools, and research to help. Contact us to learn how!