Tech Giants Embrace Women’s History Month: Insights on Appreciation and Corporate Culture

By Vladimir Polo

History

United States, 1911 the Socialist Party of America organized International Women’s Day to honor the women’s labor movement. 

California, 1978, the first Women’s History Week took place. The week-long celebration was so successful that other states began to observe Women’s History Week, and eventually, it was expanded to Women’s History Month at the national level.

However, only in 1987 Congress established Women’s History Month to recognize women’s contributions to American history. 

Nowadays, Women’s History Month is celebrated worldwide, including in Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. It highlights women’s achievements in various fields, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM), politics, art, and literature. Many museums, libraries, and schools host events and exhibits to honor women’s contributions to society.

Women’s History Month is just one more reason to show appreciation to employees and strengthen corporate culture to help people feel connected to their coworkers and workplace. 

Here are a couple of lessons from tech giants on how employers can connect the employees to the company’s values, show appreciation for their hard work, and unite them, even if they work remotely. 

Google

Women’s History Month with Google

Google creates a video highlighting women’s achievements in various fields throughout history. They also host a series of events and workshops that celebrate women’s contributions to technology.

Charity with Google

Google shows the best appreciation to employees by giving to those in need. For example, Google commits millions towards charity and encourages employees to donate to non-profit organizations for holidays.

This will help employees to feel important and fulfilled. When we help others, we feel a much better mentality and grow as individuals.

Airbnb

Women’s History Month with Airbnb

Airbnb creates a blog post featuring stories of female hosts who have overcome obstacles to build successful businesses. They also share resources for women entrepreneurs and hosted a virtual panel discussion on women’s leadership.

Airbnb travel scholarship

For me personally, one of the most memorable perks is the “Travel Scholarship” from Airbnb. Each employee receives 2000 virtual dollars for travel annually. They can be used to rent any Airbnb listing.

The scholarship is issued quarterly at $500. This way, the company develops its service and encourages employees to rest more often.

Canva

Canvaversary

For each employee’s next year in Canva, the company celebrates and congratulates the employee with gift kits and other cute bonuses.

For example, employees who have worked for five years celebrate  “Canvaversary” by bringing their caricatures made and hung on the wall with the others who have reached that landmark. 

Canva holiday gift kit 

To show appreciation to employees, Canva conducts various raffles. For example, a holiday kit contains a notebook, a thermal mug, and an eco bag. One can notice that Canva cares for its employees and the environment.

This is a vivid example of how corporate culture combines with the company’s social position and values.

Meta

Meta’s corporate culture focuses on diversity, inclusiveness, and a personalized approach to flexibility.

Metaverse swag

Employees who work on the metaverse development receive boxes congratulating them on the company development’s new chapters. Also, it showcases the importance of their daily work.

The box contains a meta badge, an eco bag, stickers, a pen, and a notebook to write down all the beautiful ideas.

Mother’s Day with Meta

On Mother’s Day, the company gives out boxes of chocolates, flowers, and other gifts to show appreciation for its employees, who are also mothers.

Giving Week with Meta

In 2021 Meta promoted among employees the “Giving Week” program to sensitize non-profit organizations and their work and support them with donating. 

Key takeaways:

1. Creating socially responsible gifts for employees will be the prior trend in 2023.
2. Writing a touching card and putting it into the gift kit is a must if you want to show care and support to the employees.
3. Compliance with core company values and gift kits satisfies employees and helps them understand what kind of business they work for and what the company expects from them.
4. Add something to help employees meet goals in their personal lives (books, fitness tracker, etc.).
5. Tell the story of your company and convey its mission. You can create written content (maybe in a book) or interactive content (such as an academy) so employees can return to the material you share whenever they want.

About the Author

Vladimir Polo is CEO & founder of AcademyOcean, a platform for corporate training with 400 000 users in 30 countries. Vladimir has 15 years of experience developing corporate culture and training employees, partners and clients.