According to science, randomly congratulating new employees - whether they deserve it or not - can dramatically improve their overall performance.

You probably know that praising people for their hard work can motivate them to work even harder. Praising people for their creativity can encourage them to try new things and take smart risks. Praising people for their interpersonal skills can inspire them to become better teammates and leaders.

But what you might not know is that arbitrarily praising a new employee, whether they deserve it or not, is also likely to dramatically improve their performance.

I know, that sounds weird. If I'm a new hire and you randomly tell me I'm doing a great job, especially when I'm not, I may think my (poor) performance level is more than enough.

That's not the case, however, according to a series of studies published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Researchers donated money to randomly selected Kickstarter projects . They rated the randomly selected Epinions reviews as "very helpful". They gave status awards to randomly selected Wikipedia editors. They randomly signed a number of Change.org petitions.

What happened? As the researchers write:

Results show that different types of success (money, quality ratings, rewards, and endorsements) when granted to arbitrarily selected recipients all produced significant improvements in subsequent success rates compared to the control group of no -beneficiaries.

Early success, whether real or not, leads to future success. I don't necessarily need to have passed; I just need to think that I was.

This is especially true for disgruntled employees

Ask the average leader what they do to improve employee performance and you'll tend to hear the usual suspects. Provide the right tools and resources. Define and measure progress towards meaningful goals. Provide development opportunities. Cultivate a great culture.

What you'll rarely hear is making sure employees are happy, even though the 2021 study published in the Journal of Happiness Studies shows that well-being and employee happiness accurately predict employee performance. Researchers who spent seven years studying more than 900,000 soldiers found that happy people performed better. The most positive and optimistic soldiers were four times more likely to receive rewards than the least positive and least optimistic soldiers.

But here is the kicker. While going from happy to super happy is awesome, going from unhappy to pretty happy is even more powerful. As the researchers write:

There was a greater increase in the likelihood of getting a reward between low and moderate positive affect, compared to moderate and high positive affect. Affect is more strongly related to getting the prize when it goes from unfavorable to moderate rather than moderate to favorable.

...Moderate happiness was enough in our study to produce most of the benefits.

And that's where early congratulations come in, even random early congratulations. How many disgruntled employees magically take the performance turn on their own? In my experience, very little. They need help turning that corner. Encouragement. Opportunity.

They need someone who believes in them, maybe even before they believe in themselves.