How can we improve morale?

[Higgledee]

DH runs a small business; he’s had it for years. Some staff have been with him for decades, some are newer.
I work there part time.

Morale seems quite low at the moment.

Everyone has had a pay rise in the last 12 months; either because of promotion or as a pay review/cost of living adjustment.

Perks are good; holidays, flexible working, on site facilities etc.

We had a bash this summer, all paid for, that was moderately well attended.

Will a Christmas party do the trick do you think?
Or are there other perks /morale boosters that you have found work well?

If you are an employee, what would you like to happen at your place of work?

What would give you a boost? Other than a pay rise 😊

TIA

Ah - I was writing my post and didn't see your update. Maybe you need to find out more from this department manager then.

Talk to these members of staff?

If I've given that impression that we just want to placate then that's my mistake.
We definitely want to get to the root cause and deal with it.

Have you talked to your staff?

It does feel like there is something going on what you might be unaware off - feedback surveys are needed. It could be a simple fix or they might be upset with a collegue. No point hoping you can guess and spending on parties that might make it worse. We used to dread Christmas parties because "the problem" in our office would do loads of coke and be angry and pervy all night ...

I wouldnt do a feedback survey. No one trusts them, especially in a SME.

Firstly you need to speak to the manager who is giving you this feedback. People openly critical of each other could be due to many reasons, one thats cropped up a lot IME is unclear job remits or people competing with each other (bad management ultimately)

I’m not the wife, I’m the other husband, but I get your drift 😁

Extra days annual leave

An Xmas party won't help. Dragging staff out on a dark, cold evening, is not appreciated.

Bloody hell some of these responses ... running a small business these days takes an enormous amount of time and effort/hours ... if my staff resented me taking a nice holiday or getting a new car I'd be livid!

A party won’t fix it but a christmas bonus might be welcome. Look at whether you really need people ‘in’ to do their job or if it could be at home. If you have departments and managers the business doesn’t sound that small to me so a survey could also work.
Where I work there’s been fairly constant restructuring and redundancies which obviously doesn’t help, but people also questioned spending money on parties and new offices (only a few people really want to work in the office, but they are all the directors).

Apologies! There's me making assumptions again, I should know better after all these years!😂

Half day Fridays on same pay.

What kind of flexible working do you offer? Can people work from home?
Are staff treated and trusted like the adults they are?

If one-to-ones are done by bosses/managers/owners themselves then they're a terrible idea. Bring in an external company for an objective voice.

But if the answer is that your DH is the problem (Or the company. Or the work. Or DH's mate who works there. Or whatever.) then DH needs to actually take that seriously and address it.

At the company my DH set up staff morale is absolutely on the floor because of the CEO. The board ran an anonymous survey. 100% of responses came back naming the CEO as the reason the staff all hate it. The board didn't remove him. They told him but he didn't change. So morale just got even worse.

Yes a Christmas bonus sounds a good idea with some acknowledgment that the staff have worked so hard this year/appreciated etc

I think you have (at least) one troublemaker in your midst.

Short term, give them all Christmas Eve off on full pay, or defer their return date by a day.

Longer term, you probably have a supervisor or junior manager problem. Someone who has favourites, is moody, or is very negative or overly demanding.

If neither you nor DH knows who that person might be, you need to keep a closer eye on things.

some staff are critical of each other

I'd start with this. Who and why.

Also sometimes it is the small things. Free bog standard tea and coffee. Free fruit.

Say thank you to your staff when they do things for you, and make sure any people managers do the same. Lift each other up, don’t beat each other down.

Ensure there is not a culture of nitpicking.

Have there been any new hires recently, can one of them be causing a problem?

Who are the leadership/managers and are they good leaders? This makes a huge difference to morale. Any unfairness, micromanaging or favoritism will soon have a bad impact.

Depending on your financial situation, parties aren’t always the best idea. My husband’s firm did not pay a bonus but put on a big party. A lot of people remarked they’d rather have had their bonus (bonuses were hundreds rather than thousands, the party was clearly multi-six-figure affair so this did actually compute.)

Are all staff pulling their weight or is there one or two stragglers in the mix who is causing the others to do more or correct their mistakes, etc?

Sounds like you have a lot of perks in place already. Could be simply one or 2 bad apples amongst the staff.

Are there any shit stirrers? Managers who bully ?

Incompetent members of staff can also be a huge drain on morale , both for those being managed by them and those tasked with trying to get them to do their job properly.

My guess is you have an unreasonable or inconsistent manager.

The worst place I ever worked for morale was a place with two equally senior managers who would give conflicting instructions, and we were constantly getting told we were wrong by one for doing what we'd been asked to by the other.