26 April 2002
Taken from The Sunday Times “100 Best Companies to Work for” ( March 31st 2002), Real Business magazine “20 Ways to Motivate Your Staff “ (March 2002), Ricardo Semler’s book “Maverick” and Ken Lewis’s book “How to transform your Company and Enjoy it”
1. Recognise Good Work – say it verbally, with medals and badges or with cards …Thank you….That was a great job…..Well done. Some companies have monthly peer awards for “MAD” employees – Making A Difference or “GEM” Going the Extra Mile.
2. Celebrate Learning (from mistakes) – if there are no mistakes then maybe you aren’t trying hard enough, not trying anything new, not embracing change, taking the easy route and if you never have a bad debt then your credit rating system is too strict and you are excluding some potential customer.
3. Leaders must have a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) about everything – everyone takes the cue from above and remember about 10% will be copied if its good and 100% if its bad….clear and timely communication; fair, open and quick decisions; visible presence; transparent honesty are just a start
4. Provide preferential treatment for existing employees in recruitment over external candidates.
5. Support “working from home” to reduce mileage, pollution, wasted hours, increase effectiveness, help mothers and fathers with children especially during the school holidays.
6. Don’t allow organisations to grow too big. There is something comfortable about knowing the names of your co-workers, whether they are shop floor or admin.
7. Choose professionals with care and be very clear what they will be doing and don’t forget to communicate this to everyone. This includes consultants, accountants, and solicitors. They have huge authority, are invariably very expensive but very little or no responsibility
8. Install democracy. Take a leaf from Ricardo Semler’s excellent book “Maverick” and treat employees as adults, trust them and ask for their opinions and ideas.
9. Make employees owners. As salary is a given, one way to get passion is to allow employee shareholding, a sort of long-term set of handcuffs.
10. Demonstrate the transparency of board decision making by inviting visitors and representatives to meetings.
11. Foster “Life Long Learning” for everyone at all levels, with grants, time off and prizes for passing certain grades.
12. As redundancy is part and parcel of business, due to endemic change never promise a job for life and when it does happen be open, communicate the facts and help with re-employment in whatever way the people involved need.
13. Offer Pamper days for female staff with make-up parties, massages and health farm days.
14. Provide a pleasant, up to date, clean, airy working environment.
15. Remove “them and us” antagonism. Demonstrate that managers and directors are human, with fears and dreams like everyone else. Remove car parking spaces, special dining rooms, allow people to set their own salaries, etc…see “Maverick” chapter 25
16. Have a range of perks for benefits, as different things will appeal to everyone each one with a point’s value. People can “buy” what they want for their particular life style. As volume is involved the company can get a better deal than individuals on their own – medical insurance, life insurance, critical life insurance, animal insurance, gym membership, non-work (hobby) courses, variable pension contributions, days off, use of pool cars and vans, subscription to magazines/CD libraries, cleaning tokens, “white goods” maintenance insurance, long weekends, use of company holiday home/flat, car valet subscription, weight reducing programmes, holiday discounts, AA/RAC/Green Flag membership, gardening service, low interest loans, etc.
17. Flexi Hours have been around for a long time but despite this they are not offered as much as they could be. see “Maverick” above chapter 30 for some good feedback on how Semco handled it.
18. Form cross functional teams so that some competitive aspect is created in development, cost reduction, production efficiency and admin savings. See “Maverick” chapter 16 and all of Ken Lewis’s book “How to transform your company and enjoy it”
19. Have instant rewards for ideas, even if they are not adopted – £10, £25, £50, £100, tickets to the theatre, cinema, football matches, concerts, basketball games, restaurant meals. This way the family also gets rewarded and the company is seen to honour the parent(s).
20. Foster entrance into industry competitions for groups and departments to allow public recognition and a form of external “natural” benchmarking
21. If cars are offered, maybe a cash option or the equivalent value for a higher quality second hand car could hit more hot buttons. Also offer a wider range of cars – sports cars, MPV’s for larger families, motor homes.
22. Celebrate birthdays – a day off, champagne, flowers and/or a birthday cake from the company, a birthday card from the directors and maybe a limousine drive from home.
23. Involve the family with the company socially as well as work and education – corporate Sports Days, use of training departments, day trips for children during the school holidays, offers of work experience, involvement and mentoring at local schools.
24. Provide and support opportunities for employees to have closer links with the local community, paid for in company time – environmental landscaping, improvement of vandalised areas, reading in schools, supporting local Guide and Scout troops, working with local charities and volunteer groups.
25. Sponsor local sport teams that have sons and daughters of employees and feature photographs of them in the company newsletter.
26. Assist with weddings by lending the MD’s car for transport.
27. Involve the canteen with catering for buffets and employee parties at cost.
28. Support the Arts at all levels, whether it be instruments for a local orchestra, some of the costs of a school art department or prizes for a pottery competition.
29. Use 360-degree feedback for managers, supervisors and directors from their staff and peers. This stops people from building empires, hiding in large organisations and flushes out the ineffective people… see “Maverick” chapter 22.
30. Initiate a “9 – 5.30” standard work hours club to demonstrate that nowadays “work smart not hard” is the name of the game. Microsoft gives 10p to the NSPCC every time these hours are worked.
31. Provide a Personal Development library of books and tapes – the more the individual reads the more points they accrue for future promotion within the company.
32. Encourage Job Rotation with a maximum time in any particular place. This allows for change to be a natural process, gets people trained in different skills, have a supply of people who can step in and do other jobs at a moments notice or during holidays or sickness.
33. Include sabbaticals as part of Personal Development.
William Barron
Creating Insight
April 2002
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