It is not uncommon for people to spend more time with the people they work with than with their families; in striving to establish healthy work/life balances, leaders can do a lot to help by making sure their “organizational culture” builds, supports, and energizes their associates.
These are a few ideas taken from staff suggestions, other stores and some things we have done; all of which are easy and simple to do.
Run a staff contest at least once per month. Contests can be work-related, or person centered:
- A free staff lunch for achieving a difficult business target;
- A staff weight loss contest can be popular with each participant putting $10 into a hat and then the “biggest loser” taking home half the proceeds with the other half donated to the local food bank.
Once a quarter have a staff outing after hours.
- some businesses will enter teams in a local trivia night contest,
- a staff bowling night or softball game,
- staff “potluck” supper nights can be a great way to bring people together outside of the work environment.
- Taking the “potluck” idea one step further might involve a “cookie crawl”, where each associate who would like to participate brings in two dozen cookies and then the cookies are divided amongst all of the associates who joined in.
- Some organizations invite spouses and partners, it is up to you there was benefits to both and perhaps consider a mix of the two.
Celebrating an associate’s birthday with a paid day off. In lieu of a day off, should an associate want a choice, perhaps a gift certificate to a local business would be just as rewarding.
Posting a daily inspirational quote. This was something I thought was an interesting idea and the original concept was to find a person-centered quotation for someone that might have needed a boost or to let someone know we were thinking about them.
The ironic thing, because the associate’s name was not listed, became that many associates would come to me saying “thank-you” and they were not the person I had in mind when I posted the quote. On many occasions people would ask me to use quotes that were their favorites, which is something that you might consider as well.
Staff music play lists. Many companies have quiet but uplifting music playing in the background, consider allowing associates to make playlists and let them choose the music. As long as the music is appropriate, you could have “Country day”, “Jazz day”, “80’s rock day”, as a way to make the work environment just that much more personal and enjoyable for everyone.
Celebrate staff anniversaries. Simple acknowledgements of people’s contribution to your organization should be a fundamental thing in all companies. For 5, 10, 15, etc. perhaps a more significant recognition is appropriate:
- a few words of thanks from the owner or senior manager,
- some donuts and coffee for the associates,
- and sincere appreciation for that associate’s contribution can be incredibility powerful.
Create an associate library of self-help books. There are many people who will take advantage of such a library and many great books are available for very little cost. Many second-hand book stores have excellent books available.
Help local charities and community organizations that are important to your associates.
- Incorporate suggestions into your company events, for example, at your Christmas party ask those attending to bring a non-perishable food item for donation to the food bank.
- Food drives can be done at any major holiday.
- Consider having providing a “paid day” for your associates to volunteer at a community meal program and/or to deliver meals.
- Asking for a “unwrapped toy” donations at Christmas to help support local toy drives.
- Associates who have children that are fund-raising for sports or schools should be encouraged to solicit the staff or to have a small display for customers or staff to contribute.
Sponsor local events and/or and sporting teams that associates are participating in.
- These groups are usually underfunded and their volunteers are overworked and your even small contributions are very welcome.
- If your associates volunteer to these groups, modify your schedules to allow them to leave early if necessary, even 5 or 10 minutes can make difference.
- Posting your support on social media will help publicize your associate’s event help your customers know that community involvement is very important to your company.
- Many companies post pictures of the children’s teams they support to build awareness.
Special Day Celebrations.
- Finding ways to celebrate the seasons and special days like Easter, Halloween, Ground Hog Day, the first day of spring, the first day of baseball or hockey season, the first day of school and decorating the stores.
- There are many ways of doing this from having a “sports jersey” day to handing out “tree seedlings” for earth day to having a draw for a “box of wine” for mothers on first day back to school.
- Have going away parties for departing associates. For most associates, leaving a job means leaving their social circle; having a staff get together is a nice send off and can be done as formally or informally.
If the person was not very nice, still have the party, just without them (lol).
Rewards program.
- recognizing associates for having perfect attendance for the year,
- for an achievement at work that may or may not be seen by everyone
- publicly recognizing someone to co-workers is a very powerful cultural exercise.
The reward doesn’t have to be huge, even small gift certificates are appreciated.
Encourage Healthy Lifestyles.
- Offering people fitness trackers like Fitbit is a fun way to encourage health and wellness. To encourage company-wide adoption, hold a competition on who could walk the most steps in a week.
- Offer assistance and encouragement for associates who want to quit smoking.
Embed the “right of first conversation” for employees thinking about leaving.
- A healthy associate relationship is an open one.
- Encourage everyone to speak to their manager if they are thinking of interviewing elsewhere.
- If the reason has to do with the company there may be something that could resolve the issue.
- A job isn’t a life sentence, if someone wants to leave, we understand, it happens and it is okay; and having a reference from your current employer always helps.
“Ideas and beers”. People have lots of awesome ideas that die in people’s minds. Often, we’re too busy with day-to-day tasks to explore all the new ideas we have, a good idea may be to have a regular dedicated time to discuss them over a few “pops”. Also called “Ideastorming”.
Performance Conversations at least once per quarter. Reviews should not only be once a year and they need to be interactive, great companies evaluate their associate’s performance, but also “open the door” to have the associate evaluate their manager’s performance and that of the company.
Have tennis balls by the door. Have a stack of tennis balls by the exit and each day ask your associates to throw the ball into one of two buckets. One bucket is for “I’ve had a good day today”, the other is for “I’ve had a bad day today”. By asking your associates to anonymously reflect daily helps them appreciate the good days and passively vent about the bad.
It is also a great way for your organization to realize you may have issues to deal with.
Send “1Ups”. Have a white board in the lunchroom and encourage a culture of associates sending a little thank you message to colleagues giving them thanks for doing something good.
Do walk and talks. In the past whenever I paged someone to my office for a discussion, they automatically thought they were in trouble, so I started having discussions away from my office just to remove the stigma, so instead of having one-to-ones in your office, go for a walk and talk instead. You’ll find the fresh air, movement and relaxed nature makes people open up more easily.
Have a great on-boarding program for new associates.
- You can have a meeting prior to their first day to tell them where to park,
- which door to use and what to expect;
- then on the first day, do a tour,
- introduce them to everyone,
- have them greeted by the owner or manager plus their trainer,
- have a starter kit for them:
- with helpful things like WIFI passwords,
- company swag,
- their name tag,
- their uniform if it is provided,
- their training manual,
- their locker or storage area should be ready,
- business cards,
- a list of who’s who
- perhaps even handmade gifts
- and advice on how to deal some of the more unique personalities.
“Dress up” Fridays. Instead of the typical dress down Fridays, why not throw in dress up Fridays once a month and encourage people to wear suits and ties, their Sunday best. Or if you always wear suits, go the extra mile: ballgowns, white tie, top hat, and tails.
Lunch and learns. Invite speakers into the office to teach life skills, inspire people and educate. This doesn’t have to cost much, why not ask your associates to talk about something they’re passionate about? Also, penalize managers for eating at their desk, I was guilty of this and it is easy to lose touch with your associates.
Introduce a ‘dare to try’ award.
- Creating a company culture where failure is acceptable is critical to letting people experiment and grow.
- Having an award to celebrate an idea that didn’t work out is a great way to let people know that new ideas are encouraged.
- As owners and managers, we should want to encourage a culture of ‘risk taking’, perseverance and sharing openly.
- Failure is never the goal of a company, but failing and learning is better than not trying in the first place.
Create an internal mentoring program.
- Mentoring has huge benefits in associate retention and training and development.
- Not only will your team learn from the best, your high performer experts will get even better.
- Your company holds so much knowledge, you should always want to make the most of it.
- Many associates find role-playing awkward and difficult; however, partnering just two associates makes the experience much more impactful.
- Just a note, always ask the junior associate who they would like to work with, every organization has interpersonal conflicts that as a manager you may not be aware of.
These are just a few ideas, all of them are easy and cost effective to do.
I wish I had done more of them in the past, but I hope to get a chance to remedy that and I hope that you use these and come up with even more. I would be very interested in hearing about them and sharing them.