Buck Stops Here November 2009 - Energize Your Staff

“Like many other businesses, my company felt the crushing blow of the recession, resulting in layoffs, temporary furloughs, and spiraling employee morale as the fear of the unknown took over. Given the mindset of my staff, we launched a year of morale boosting programs to encourage camaraderie and bring joy back to the office. Traditionally, we rewarded staff with financial rewards as incentives, but with the company struggling, that wasn’t an option. We got creative.

One unique, fun, and low cost way we rallied the troops in some healthy competition and teambuilding was to launch a company wide Wii bowling tournament. To make the tournament more interesting, we ordered brightly-colored bowling shirts for each team, and held contests for best team name, best team avatar, and highest score. I would throw curve balls at everyone weekly; for example, having star bowlers play left handed every other frame. The employees even created a website and posted pictures of the tournament. The winners of the different contests got small cash prizes and big bragging rights.”

—John Brown, president and owner, Primary Freight Services, Union, NJ

“While we haven’t been able to give our employees a raise in two years and have streamlined the various positions in the company, which unfortunately resulted in eliminating other positions, we’ve managed to hold on to our long-term employees by implementing the following:

• Cross train all employees on all machines and duties
• Treat them to lunch twice a month

• Allow them input on decisions, website content, and morning meetings

• Allow more flex time and vacation scheduling

While the perks aren’t a substitute for more money, they all feel as though they have job security and are valued.”

—Marian H. Gordon, vice president, Yipee Print & Marketing Co., Edgewater, NJ

“I hope that malaise is not setting in here. But there are several things we do to keep staff energized and excited about the company. One of them is a program we developed called “Quarterly Company Open Spaces.” Open Space is a specific meeting structure whereby the agenda starts out as a big blank grid posted to a wall that designates meeting spaces within our office. We start the day with people voicing issues and topics they'd like to discuss, and those are added to the agenda. Topics range from time off to current project issues to public relations. Just about any work topic is game and employees can float between any discussion they are interested in and voice an opinion. Afterward, all of the ideas are presented to the management team, and we not only respond to them, but find a way to implement nearly all of them.

We also host game night. We're a bunch of tech heads and love all sorts of board games; mostly German-style strategy games. We host an evening with food and drinks once or twice a month. It's been a nice way to get the company together and just have some fun.”

—Bruce Eckfeldt, managing director and CEO, Cyrus Innovation LLC, NYC

“We’re enduring the same turbulence as most small agencies, including slow sales cycles where clients say they’ll sign, but wait until the bitter end to actually ink the contract, and a staff that’s asked to do more and more. The way that we energize the staff is quite simple: Whenever we sign a new client, everyone on our small staff enjoys a modest raise. This way, Propheta staffers realize that the rising tide will raise all boats.”

—Kevin A. Mercuri, president, Propheta Communications NYC