The beginning of a new year often sees business owners reminiscing on the Christmas camaraderie they shared with their teams, and thinking about how they can bring that positive energy into the workplace long-term. After all, boosts to morale can help keep your employees motivated and engaged, supporting employee retention rates and ultimately also helping your business maintain a stronger customer base.
But it can’t be Christmas every day – or can it? Although Christmas is a time for giving and geniality, and generosity, you can still choose to carry these values with you throughout the year by strategising workplace culture investments for your team.
Whether you’re a franchisor looking to offer support for your franchise community or a franchisee looking to boost morale for your own team, this little guide should help get you brainstorming.
Beautify your Break Room
One of the simplest yet still high-impact ways to invest in your workplace for your team is to update your break room. This can be as easy as upgrading your fridge or even adding in new amenities like multi-setting toasters or office coffee machines that deliver barista-grade brews without coffee shop prices.
Alongside investing in better or new amenities, consider also updating the furniture or even renovating your break room if possible to make it a little more comfortable for your staff. If your staff can actually enjoy a little peace and comfort during their break times, they’ll be more likely to return to the shop floor post-break feeling motivated and ready for the latter half of their day, keeping not only their energy up but also promoting a positive mood for your wider team to match.
Implement Health & Wellness Initiatives
Speaking of positive moods, nobody wants to feel depressed or dejected in the workplace. But sadly, mental health metrics can skew negative without business owners and team leaders even being aware. The tell-tale signs of poor employee mental health can include metrics like higher staff turnover, but even other less dramatic signals like employees taking a higher number of sick days.
Maintaining staff one-on-one sessions and even employee workplace happiness surveys can help employers find gaps in health and wellness for their teams. From here, you can identify which services may be most in need, and then prioritise those services in your health and wellness initiative
developments.
For example, if you feel your team could benefit from access to counselling services via your organisation, consider implementing a health and wellness initiative in partnership with a reputable counselling group or local community health provider.
Invest in Staff Development Programs
Staff development programs are another strong workplace culture investment, as these initiatives demonstrate to staff that their employers feel passionately about accommodating their own professional goals.
Whether you have employees working part-time while they study or even working full-time to support themselves and their families, everyone accepts a job for select reasons. And every professional opportunity can provide learning opportunities. For some working professionals, this access to learning opportunities can mean the difference between a lower and higher happiness score in their role.
So if your one-on-ones with employees have helped you uncover some learning objectives you weren’t aware of, think about how you can support your staff in meeting these objectives. Are there leadership training programs you can implement for team leaders? Are there upskilling programs, seminars, or even day courses that you can offer to your team members? These development initiatives can help ensure your team gets more than just a paycheck from their dedication to your business.
Revamp your Company Calendar
If you had a ball at your work Christmas party a few weeks back, why not keep the good times rolling by scheduling more team events and celebrations throughout the year? Having a rich company calendar can help keep your team engaged all year round, alongside helping to cultivate a strong community surrounding your business that not only includes your staff members, but also their friends and loved ones.
Company events don’t just need to be limited to seasonal parties, however. Seminars and day programs can also help to provide your staff with a little variety and something to look forward to throughout the year. You can also use this calendar revamping exercise as an opportunity to look for events where you may be able to promote your franchise – think expos, conventions, and community events like festivals.
Implement Employee Recognition Programs
One of the best ways to boost staff morale is to simply recognise hard work and to give credit where credit is due. For instance, if a team member has not only been able to meet but also to exceed their KPIs over a prolonged period, then give them a shoutout or even some kind of award or even a salary bonus.
Employee recognition can also take the form of celebrating work anniversaries, and rewarding employees that have demonstrated loyalty of five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years. Putting a spotlight on these milestones can also help your staff recognise that your workplace is supportive of their growth and professional development over the long term. If their colleagues have been happy working here for so long, then surely they can be too. They just need to work with you to make sure their time with your business is as impactful for them as possible.
Secure Insights & Recommendations from your Team
Finally, employers are encouraged to keep in mind that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution for workplace culture planning. Every professional team and business culture is different, so you need to make sure your workplace culture investments are tailored to your team.
Again, the best way to be sure of this is to keep scheduling one-on-ones with your team members and gaining unique insights from them to help drive your culture strategising. Making sure your workplace culture investments align with the genuine wants and needs of your team will not only help you save time and money, but will also help you start building strong company morale from the get-go.
Start the New Year off with the Right Investments for your Team
With the tips and recommendations we’ve outlined above, you should already have a few ideas beginning to form for your own workplace culture investments. So get to implementing, and continue collaborating with your team to make sure the programs and initiatives that you have in mind are poised to deliver the strongest results. Culture is, after all, intrinsically collaborative in that it’s built by whole communities working together.
