BOOST COMPANY MORALE

SHEILA

I am looking for suggestions to boost the morale of the factory workders. We recently have experienced a large turnover. We are looking for things that wont break the bank. I am thinking of monthly lunches with Burgers or Pizza. Another thought was having a "positive bulletin board".
I would appreciate any suggestions.

sonny

Before you can fix it, I'd found out what broke it. Pizza might bridge a "they never do anything fun for us" gap but will unlikely be helpful if the issue is managment "not listening" or " not following through". I would ask the employees.

Once you identify what the issues are, again ask the employees for input on solutions.

NaeNae55

I agree with Sonny. Did you have an exit interview with terminating employees? This is usually where you can find out what is breaking and fix it before it is too late.

If not, it won't hurt to call a few ex-employees (recently ex) and get their input. Employees who have already gone on to greener pastures are less afraid to offer an opinion. Of course, they are no longer interested in helping you fix it either, but many will give you pointers and at least you can begin to see the problem.

You can also put out a confidential suggestion/complaint box. However, it will backfire if you don't listen to what people have to say. It can also become useless over time if not handled well.

Another suggestion is to ask for employee input on how to improve things (without asking what is wrong with things now). I have found that anytime employees feel their opinions and viewpoints are valued you will improve the entire company. You might be amazed at what ideas they have to offer.

Good luck!

Nae

Paul in Cannon Beach

Like others have said, there is something deeper going on here that needs to be identified and possibly addressed.

Burger lunches will be fun but eventually they become entitlements.

Positive comments on a board can be encouraging to some but others will either mock them or feel like management is clueless if there are serious troubles that have led to the turnover.

My feeling is that alot of "motivation" efforts and "morale" improvements backfire or produce very little results.

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, as it were.

Its even possible that you are too nice to your employees. Perhaps they have an overinflated sense of their worth and value which is causing them to leave your company.

Somewhere in your company there is a rotten apple. Maybe its a person, maybe its an attitude, maybe its the leadership. Until you figure that out, all your effort will most likely lead to frustration.

stilldazed

Agree with previous posts. Find out what's wrong and work toward a real fix. Otherwise, you and your company are applying a bandaide, and employees are generally smart enough to see through superficial efforts.

We had similar problems just a few short years ago, and a committee that I referred to as the "rah rah" committee was establish to boost morale before I came onboard. With some encouragement by me, the committee was disbanded, and efforts were refocused as a senior management level to get consistent with things like wages, work hours, and benefits, and get serious with things like safety, quality, and customer focus. It always takes a team to make a change in fundamental mgmt, so I'll never say that I did it, but I am happy to say that the result in 3 years was improved morale, happier employees, and easier administration of most everything in my area of responsibility in HR.

A word of caution--get a grip on your intestinal fortitude. You may need it to help yourself weather the 'gripe phase.'