Things to actually improve morale?

[Royalbloo]

So, I've just started a new job and am responsible for a significant amount of people. Not showing off - I'm incredibly lucky to have found this role, and take my responsibility to these people very seriously.

Does anyone have any long-lasting ideas to improve morale as they are all a bit fed up? I've held meetings with them all to hear them out as I felt they needed a vent, but there's WAY more to do.

I'm considering things like:

Increasing their lunch break from 30 mins to an hour, so they can actually do something meaningful/have a break and eat lunch in a proper time frame

We have fruit delivered on a Wednesday but it's a bit of a gimmick and we have billions of apples left over ALL the time...

I don't want to put in a pool table or have some forced fun quiz on a Friday, but do any of you lovely women (or people) have any examples of things that weren't massively costly, but made a real different to peoples lives?

Thank you!

However one of the best perks I ever had was at a pharmaceutical company and we work an extra half hour mondayTo Thursday and then finished at 12 on Fridays. That half day was the best.

How old are they? Mostly young singles or parents? Do they live close by or commute?

Good basics are:

• Cake/doughnuts on Friday mornings.


• Run a rota whereby 4% of your workforce leave an hour early on Fridays. That means everyone gets two early finish weekends a year without it hitting your productivity


• Monday mention - encourage people to say thank you to any colleague who has gone above and beyond.


• Are there shared interests you could turn into a works football team or cycling club or whatever?


• Organise a car share scheme or a school uniform swap. Anything that helps with money can work.


• Run a family day in August - run a barbecue lunch with games etc on the local rec. Get people involved and pick up the tab for sausages, drumsticks and beer.


• What skills does your company have? We have mechanics and we ran a summer offer to service people's kids bikes at cost.

They all take a bit of organising. Find someone who's good at logistics, been there long enough that they understand the politics, and won't take any crap.

I agree completely.

My manager loves all of this bullshit. She still infuriates everyone with her micro management and refusal to accept any opinions other than her own. People have left because of that despite good pay, flexi time, agile working and being ridiculously flexible. To the point that they allow everyone to be on leave at the same time. And then the three members of staff who aren't in France are trying to do the work of 15 people.

Involving them in a very thorough process review and improving their barriers to easier working. Lots of blue sky thinking and following through to see would actually could be changed. Anyone who wants to help is allowed to.

Being ignored by management for years is a killer.

We get unlimited biscuits no matter what and currently have an ice cream machine it’s amazing and many post work drinks/ evenings with wine and Prosecco paid for xxx

I would resist the urge to rush in with lots of small, quick changes that will make you popular in the short term but will not lead to sustained improvement in workload, communication or relationships. Meaningful changes that genuinely boost morale on a long term basis take longer, but help you retain staff. For example, our Boss did an anonymous whole staff survey asking "what would make your job easier?", picked out common themes and addressed them. One common response was more admin support, so more admin staff are being recruited. Another common frustration was around equipment so they're now looking into some upgrades. These things take time and are not immediately visible but knowing they have been heard and action is being taken has had a significant impact on morale.

The things that I've done to help morale at my workplace:

• listen, actually listen, to the issues at play: take them up the chain and do something about it: sometimes nothing can be done, but making the team feel heard is priceless
• spot bonuses of £100 to those going above and beyond... we can't give in cash because of tax implications but I always ask what the team want with their £100 before I buy it so they're getting a treat they wouldn't otherwise get for themselves
• encouraging them to take time off in lieu as they won't often do it unless forced!
• public praise/appreciation - in slack and on team meetings
• an all-company meeting on a Monday AM where everyone is encourage to have their say and therefore feels heard by the wider business
• we do early finishes at 4pm Friday but again people don't tend to stop work unless they're reminded - so actually telling them to down tools and have a break

It really is very small things that make a job for me - being allowed to have a drink as necessary not just at breaks (unless it’s. Health and safety factor). Having sensible breaks, not the legal bare minimum, especially if it take 10 mins of that precious 20 min break to get from workstation to the break room. Not being timed for toilet breaks. Being paid in full, on time. Having the right equipment to do the job, at the right time. Saying please when requesting something and saying thank you for a job well done.
bonus is flexible working even if just not having to worry about 5 min here and there (but made up later) due to things such as traffic delays.

We do Star of the month but employees have to be nominated for a reason , because of something they’ve done, gone the extra mile etc. Not because you’re friends with them.

Some work flexibility.

I’m not sure you can just extend lunch breaks as those 30 minutes will have to be made up somewhere.

This is exactly what I was coming along to say.

Thank you to each and every one of you for your comments - I'm not looking for plasters, I'm looking to change the entire culture and make them feel valued and certainly won't be doing anything rash on day 4!

Some brilliant idea here! Thank you all

This is the best of AIBU ❤️

So I’m an MD of part of a business with about 150 staff across 3 countries and took over 2 countries with low morale about 18 months ago and it’s transformed. We started doing an anonymous employee satisfaction survey that focuses on different areas. Then we set up a team to review feedback, with representatives from each location and most importantly acted on the feedback and suggestions. We communicate openly, employee of month gets £100 voucher, we have very clear criteria to hit promotion now and transparency of pay bandings. Very flexible. Focus on outputs not hours worked or where someone chooses to work from. Consistency is key. You can’t turn the tide overnight. It’s lots of little actions you take that will create a truly safe and supportive workplace where people feel valued and recognised. We now score super high (external audit) on employee satisfaction and engagement and in particular were recognised as a great place to work for women.

The biggest thing for me in my job is red tape and antiquated systems, which seems to be what you are up against. I don't feel like I can do my job well because nothing else works properly! I spend a lot of my time chasing people because SOPs and systems aren't embedded in the workplace properly and people are resistant to change. It'll be much harder work than an ice cream van or a free massage but supporting staff to get things moving makes a much bigger difference to me. I've had 3 free ice creams and a BBQ this year. All eaten while chasing HR/estates/IT/finance and getting thoroughly frustrated that there is money to hire an ice cream van for 1500 people to have ice cream for the third time that year but not enough money to get some very basic stuff right.

I'm not interested in being popular or making a stamp - it's more about morale, retention of skilled and knowledgeable staff, them feeling listened to and a culture change where they feel heard and empowered.

Thank you FruitToast very valid

Florabelle brilliant - well done and some excellent tips here

Make sure issues are sorted as they arise . Nothing worse than problems being ignored.

Read up on: Fish! Philosophy
It's great for managers and if you can get the team on board then all the better. The hook isn't dear online.

That, and, seasonal/one off events don’t feed the morale in our team. It has to be every single day.

Examples of contributions to morale are:

Weekly team meetings which include an agenda item to just chat

Team objectives and targets, not just personal.

SETTING targets. Something oddly rewarding to have something to aim for instead of just turning up and doing the work mindlessly every day.

A conscious and continuous effort to celebrate great work (not with rewards, but with recognition)

Regular planned exposure to wider parts of the business. So, say we’re in finance/accounts payable/credit control, we’ll have a talk/presentation from the marketing team. We’ll go on a tour of the factory. We’ll do a pub quiz with HR. (Straying into forced fun, I know).

Oh god, not team building!

For me it's actual flexibility. At my workplace officially it's flexible but it's actually very much at the whim of your manager.

I do not respond well to group activities but the ability to work from home when needed and have flexible hours means I have stayed in my job for years.

Regular one to ones that aren’t cancelled.

Why is their morale low.

How is their low morale impacting on their productivity/communication/other sections of the company?

Why do you want to increase their morale?

If they are intelligent adults, they won't be seduced by donuts or strawberries. Just don't. I think employee of the month is very divisive (as it should always be me).

What are the toilets like? I find you can usually tell how valued the staff are by the quality and cleanliness of their toilet provision.

Instead of you tackling the red tape, why not empower your staff to come up with ideas on which processes could be streamlined and improved. Offer the top 3 ideas gold, silver and bronze prizes based on votes by the staff and management as to which improvements add the greatest value to the business, saves money, reduces processing time etc.

I mean you're already half way there by actually wanting to improve things rather than expect staff to feel lucky they work for you as per half of my previous jobs! I would focus on acknowledgement and thanks as the main (and tbf, easiest) thing - whether that's from you, other management or from staff. I was a union rep on my staff council and every year people would say they wanted more feedback (positive and negative!) on their work, and every year some idiot management would suggest rewarding people with a badge to pin to their uniform or a laminated certificate or a bar of chocolate....these were adults in professional jobs, they didn't want a flipping certificate and could afford to buy themselves a bar of chocolate, they just wanted appraisals to actually take place and the occasional 'well done' when they achieved something particularly good or 'thanks' when they covered a shift or whatever. That was all that was needed yet every year I sat there listening to the senior leadership team throw out different ridiculous initiatives....

That said some of the things suggested would be nice to haves - as long as they were secondary to the actual working improvements. I would go with 'one offs' rather than regular things as people soon get used to things like nice free coffee and stop seeing it as a perk - until they leave and go somewhere that doesn't have it!

Also don't get discouraged - there is at least one grump in every office that no matter what you do they will find something to complain about (e.g. everyone else appreciates a free icecream on a hot day, they complain "If they've got money to waste why can't they give us a pay rise?" ignoring the fact it would be the equivalent of about 50p in their pay....) Ignore them and get feedback from the majority.

Grr, typed out a long msg and navigated away.
Are you in London @Royalbloo ?
Have a look at this: Good Employer Validation
Even if you’re not it’s worth looking through the criterion and whether you’d qualify.
Turn the Ship around is a good and relevant read.