idea
NaeNae55
3,243 Posts
Once in a while we do a silly game or contest to help enliven the place. The last one was a few years ago and everyone brought in baby pictures and we had to guess who was who.
I had an idea for something to liven things up around here, but am concerned it might backfire. I thought I would run it by you guys to get your input, before I present it to the boss for approval.
I thought we might ask everyone to bring in their best economy recipe. I would collect them all (keeping identities secret) and then post one or two a week (we only have 14 employees so it won't take too long to go through them). The employees could try them out and then vote for the best one.
This idea came from a conversation I had with an employee who was struggling to feed her visiting grandchildren. Between the long visit (6 weeks) and the price of gas, she was having a hard time coming up with filling and healthy meals.
On the other hand, I am concerned about putting an official employer face to our employees on something like the economy. I don't want any feedback like, "Even HR knows the prices are too high. Why don't they pay us more?" or, "How dare anyone imply that we can't afford to feed ourselves!"
Am I worrying about nothing, or do I have cause for concern? Any suggestions for how it might go better?
Input! Input!
I had an idea for something to liven things up around here, but am concerned it might backfire. I thought I would run it by you guys to get your input, before I present it to the boss for approval.
I thought we might ask everyone to bring in their best economy recipe. I would collect them all (keeping identities secret) and then post one or two a week (we only have 14 employees so it won't take too long to go through them). The employees could try them out and then vote for the best one.
This idea came from a conversation I had with an employee who was struggling to feed her visiting grandchildren. Between the long visit (6 weeks) and the price of gas, she was having a hard time coming up with filling and healthy meals.
On the other hand, I am concerned about putting an official employer face to our employees on something like the economy. I don't want any feedback like, "Even HR knows the prices are too high. Why don't they pay us more?" or, "How dare anyone imply that we can't afford to feed ourselves!"
Am I worrying about nothing, or do I have cause for concern? Any suggestions for how it might go better?
Input! Input!
Comments
Maybe you could just steer clear of budget or economy words and simply set a price limit. "Best dish under $20, 15, and 10"
And don't forget the category "Best Use of Spam"
Everyone who participates will submit a recipe with its cost to me. We are asking that employees try to feed a family of 4 for $10. Nothing is being said about the economy or anything. Just a price limit which happens to be the same limit we use for holiday gift exchanges.
A week after the recipe deadline, we will have a potluck where everyone makes their recipe and brings it in. Employees will vote on the best by considering taste, cost, and ease of making the recipe. The winner will receive 2 movie tickets. Not a lot, but we are small and this is just for fun.
I will have cards made up for each dish that show ingredients and cost of the dish. I will also take all the recipes and put them in one document for distribution to all who participate.
If an employee can't do a recipe for under $10, that is ok. We just want them to shoot for it and as long as the price is on the recipe, everyone plays fair.
I will let you know how it all turned out.
We have 14 employees. Excluding the boss and myself, we had 3 people turn in recipes and 5 people tell me they couldn't participate. 4 didn't bother to respond.
I have cancelled the pot luck this Friday where we were to bring our dishes. I also told everyone that we would give out the recipes submitted to those who submitted one, and that if others wished copies they should contact me.
I am very disappointed at the response. Now I will have to put my thinking cap back on and try to think of something else. Bummer.
Not sure what kind of working environment you have - but if it is like mine it could just be that most people have to be available for customers which makes it difficult to participate in set time activities (like pot lucks). Here the lenders will go in and clean out all the good stuff before the retail side can even make it to the kitchen!
Hope your next idea goes over better, and I'm sure it will. - x:D
We used to have "birthday parties" for staff in our snack shop. They were held at 3 pm on the day of a staff member's birthday. We usually had a small cake or something. These events were horribly awkward for some reason. Lots of staff would show up (for the cake) but for whatever reason, whoever was having the birthday was treated like a leper. AWKWARD! Everyone just sat there. We ended those thankfully a few years ago.
Just dont let yourself get discouraged or worse, bitter. Keep trying. You may find the secret or maybe you will find that your staff are just fine without these events. Or you may discover someone on your team who is really gifted at this stuff and you can pass the baton on to them.
Here is a decent discussion of how to pull of an effective "morale builder" and what to avoid. I think I agree with most of the info.
[url]http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2006/how-to-avoid-lame-morale-events/[/url]
And when all else fails, you could consider this option:
[url]http://www.technogecko.com/images/b-thebe_solo.gif[/url]
1. Be free
2. Occur during regular work hours
3. Not disrupt, interrupt, or impede productivity
4. Appeal to every employee equally
5. Produce immediate and measureable results to morale and the income statement
6. Not provide so much enjoyment that employees want or expect to do it again
I know, I know... it sounds easy, but you'd be suprised how tough it is to meet all 6, much less the bonus "7th Criteria" that won't be revealed until I actually hold an event that meets the first 6.
Frank,
Actually, "beatings" meets all 6 of your criteria. Were you aware of that?
1. Beatings are free. Sure you can buy fancy equipment but a stick or pipe will work just as well.
2. Beatings can be conveniently scheduled during work hours.
3. Beatings can be a slight disruption but generally productivity increases shortly afterwards.
4. Beatings appeal to every employee equally.
5. Beatings produce immediate and measurable results
6. Generally, employees rarely want or expect beatings again in the future.
So there we have it, the perfect morale booster (according to Frank's criteria).
Ok, so what is the 7th criteria? Must be "pants optional"? Beatings meets that one too.
Low morale is definitely safer.