Finding a new app for your team can be fun. Saying "hello taco" to your HeyTaco journey and introducing it to your team is a beautiful moment.
As the founder, I want to help you get the most out of your HeyTaco adventure, whether you're just joining or have already built a thriving taco economy. HeyTaco is so much more than an employee recognition program. It's a fun way to show kindness and gratitude and make connections in the workplace.
After years of experience helping teams apply HeyTaco, here are my top tips for multiplying your taco economy:
Each taco is an opportunity to brighten someone's day. Giving tacos with a quick note of appreciation makes the taco meaningful. Tacos instantly make it easier to say kind things that would typically go unsaid. Creating structures to communicate kindness and gratitude in your workplace will create a stronger, happier, more engaged team.
There are plenty of reasons to give tacos. You can give tacos to celebrate a work anniversary, give one for finishing a big project, or give a couple of tacos to show appreciation to the person who always lifts the team with their positive attitude. It's a taco fact that successful teams have a higher taco-to-purpose ratio. Make your words purposeful and relevant. Then you'll be a taco superstar!
The first few tacos you give are essential for building a solid foundation for your taco economy. When you give someone a taco for the first time, it sets an example for all the tacos your team will give. If you give tacos without messages, others will likely follow suit. Make peer recognition a piece of your daily routine, and it will become a part of your giving workplace culture. HeyTaco can also be a unique way of reminding your team of your company values and annual vision daily with taco tags.
Start by giving five different people a taco on your first day. Then, let the tacos continue to grow organically throughout your team. Organic participation, simply giving tacos to others, will result in higher engagement.
Here's the truth…
It doesn't feel terrific when someone says you need to use a new app. On the other hand, when people choose their apps, it can be exciting to get started. They're more invested in them, leading to higher odds of long-term success. Let HeyTaco grow organically within your team. Start with a few people. Don't force your Taco Economy to grow too fast. You'll find that people will use HeyTaco because they want to. It feels good!
Initially, we aimed to build "feel-good" software people want to use. When people feel good about using something, they use it daily, and it's much more effective.
Starting a Taco Economy is much like starting a movement: all it takes is a couple of people to get the gratitude going.
There are several ways HeyTaco makes peer-to-peer recognition fun. For example, leaderboards offer exciting competition that drives engagement and encourages daily giving rituals that bring your team closer together.
But let's not take the leaderboard too seriously. Leaderboards are great for light-hearted fun and creating feel-good rituals to unite your team. Many teams use their leaderboard to give the top giver and receiver a taco trophy each month. The trophies get transferred to new winners each month and become a unique cultural icon and ceremony.
I often remind teams that HeyTaco is not for performance reviews or tracking individual performance. After all, we're counting taco emojis here 😉. Instead, HeyTaco is a way to say thanks without making it weird.
If you want to take HeyTaco to the next level and promote a culture of giving, you can enable Giver Mode. Enabling Giver Mode flips peer-to-peer recognition upside down and focuses on taco giving with only a giving leaderboard.
This is one of the most important parts of your team's success with HeyTaco and an insider secret to employee recognition. Companies with redeemable rewards send 60% more recognition messages than those without. That's a considerable boost in team appreciation! Setting up your rewards can add value to the tacos you give and improve your taco economy outcomes.
You don't need to spend lots of money to create valuable rewards. Some of the best I've seen are low-cost and no-cost rewards. Appreciating your team without money is a game-changer. So don't feel like you need to break the bank with your rewards. If you're stuck and want some interesting ideas, you can check out this list of reward ideas to get you started.
Teams often forget to celebrate. Redeeming your tacos for collaborative rewards – small wins or big victories – are all reasons to celebrate. Celebrating is a form of gratitude, and when we do it together, it's excellent for nurturing our relationships. Building interconnected relationships with your work team is an important part of communicating value to each team member. In fact, there are entire studies about the importance of employee recognition and appreciation and the positive impact on a team's work environment.
The key is in building a habit of gratitude first and adding rewards as a celebration, cherry on top, versus as an incentive.
Last but not least, remember to have fun! It's tacos after all 🌮😀.
I encourage you to use your tacos every day and lead your team in recognition. Then, when these tacos change your workplace, we will be in fiesta mode alongside you.
If you're not yet using HeyTaco, you can start your free 30-day trial anytime. I guarantee you will see the value daily as you engage with your team through kindness and gratitude.