How to Write an Appreciation Letter to an Employee

Organizational psychologists who study recognition, including Wharton's Adam Grant, have made the point that generic appreciation recognizes a role rather than a specific contribution, and that a letter which could apply to anyone on the team functions more like administration than genuine appreciation. [...] HR professionals like Liz Ryan have observed that the most powerful moment in an appreciation letter is often when it signals the manager noticed something specific the employee did not realize was seen, and that this kind of genuine observation is what people tend to remember years later. [...] Workplace advice writers such as Alison Green have argued that recognition works best when it reflects what the person actually did and comes from someone whose opinion they value, while generic recognition from a distant source tends to register as noise.