During the 30 day free trial, there are a few simple things you can do to encourage your teammates to give tacos and see whether HeyTaco is a fit for your team.
If you are looking to increase connectedness and cohesiveness of your team, as well as visibility into the awesome work everyone is doing, using HeyTaco in one channel is the way to go. That will allow everyone to see the tacos being given and celebrate each other even though they might not be in the same physical space. If you already have a channel where you have been giving shoutouts, you can add HeyTaco there. If not, we suggest creating a new channel, such as #tacos, #gratitude or something fun like #taqueria, and add HeyTaco to it following the setup from our website.
Once you add HeyTaco to a channel, it will send a welcome message introducing itself and how you use it. One thing that can make or break your trial is if no one does anything after that welcome message. The key in getting the taco party started, literally, is for you and a person or two you work with who is introducing HeyTaco to give your tacos away (even a couple!) to different people for a few days in a row. People will follow your lead and the Taco Economy will grow. If no one gives tacos, HeyTaco will die on the vine.
To ensure that recognition becomes a sustained habit, consider creating ongoing rituals. Here are a couple examples of rituals that are very popular amongst HeyTaco customers:
Taco Shoutouts in Meetings: Add an agenda item to your regular company meetings where you bring up some meaningful and fun taco messages shared in the channel. Maybe even invite the person who shared the taco to tell a story about what happened. Moments like these inspire people to do great work modeled by the person who received the taco and keep taco giving top of mind.
Celebrate the Top Givers: Every week throughout the trial or at the end of the trial, celebrate the top taco giver(s) publicly. Mention their name in meetings and consider a small prize (like a T-shirt, cup of coffee, or a custom meme) to highlight their generosity. Research shows that celebrating givers helps improve helping behavior, leading to greater collaboration. Plus, giving a taco is an action everyone can take, and recognizing it encourages more participation.
Once taco giving is embedded in your culture, consider introducing rewards after the trial to sustain motivation:
Custom-Tailored Rewards: Offer rewards that reflect your team's culture and interests. This could be anything from team outings to personalized gifts that represent shared values.
Collaborative Rewards: Foster teamwork by setting collective goals where accumulated tacos contribute to a shared reward, like a team lunch or a charitable donation. This approach strengthens team cohesion and aligns individual efforts with collective objectives.
Repeat the first three steps for 30 days, and you will know very quickly whether HeyTaco is right for your team (and we hope it is 😎). If you continue with HeyTaco after the trial, introducing rewards can be a great way to keep recognition fun and motivating over the long term. By embedding rituals and rewards into your experience, you lay a strong foundation for a lasting culture of gratitude and appreciation.