It's the little things.

Stampie said:

This too,  I remember causing a E36 M3 show once when we had a mandatory group lunch. Ok so my lunch hour is unpaid time off. If you're making me attend then that's on your dime. Don't be offended if I take my unpaid hour lunch off right after that. Some of us are there to collect a paycheck for work done. Don't expect me to always want to join your feel good party. 

Meh, if they're buying lunch and it's social rather than business, that didn't bother me much.  Attendance wasn't mandatory, either.  My last bosses would take us out to lunch like that once in a while, and it was nice.

Now, my previous boss would schedule regular staff meetings at lunch time because he thought he was saving himself however many person-hours of overhead doing that.  Sorry, your cheap sandwich tray doesn't make up for that E36 M3.  You can bet I'm going to berk around or run an errand for at least an hour and a half after that "lunch break" is over.

Duke said:

Stampie said:

This too,  I remember causing a E36 M3 show once when we had a mandatory group lunch. Ok so my lunch hour is unpaid time off. If you're making me attend then that's on your dime. Don't be offended if I take my unpaid hour lunch off right after that. Some of us are there to collect a paycheck for work done. Don't expect me to always want to join your feel good party. 

Meh, if they're buying lunch and it's social rather than business, that didn't bother me much.  Attendance wasn't mandatory, either.  My last bosses would take us out to lunch like that once in a while, and it was nice.

Now, my previous boss would schedule regular staff meetings at lunch time because he thought he was saving himself however many person-hours of overhead doing that.  Sorry, your cheap sandwich tray doesn't make up for that E36 M3.  You can bet I'm going to berk around or run an errand for at least an hour and a half after that "lunch break" is over.

 

I mentioned my experience at TWG, those outings weren't "mandatory" but I heard through the grapevine later that they weren't "mandatory".........wink. And essentially you were looked at as "not a team" player if you didn't want to give up after hours work time for the events. 

Our work hours are 8-4 and they get paid for 8 so they are paid through lunch. They always appreciate free food. 

In reply to Duke :

Some of my customers hold required "Lunch & Learns" for Vendors and company salespeople.  I bring in lunch and talk about my product.  You burn an hour getting a free lunch and hear about my crap. 

Most eat the food, show no interest with a big FU on their face and strategically figure out how to turn their back and go on their phone.

I avoid these lunch and learns for the most part.

It really sounds like you are already doing pretty well in the employee satisfaction department.

I like donuts. I like breakfast burritos even more. Homemade cookies or whatever are never unwelcome. None of those things are a substitute for being treated with respect and knowing that my boss, and his boss, and everyone at the company of ~50 are all generally decent people.

My boss will occasionally take me out for an impromptu lunch. Sometimes it's just to catch up or to commiserate about a project we're suffering through. Occasionally it has been to discuss how to handle a problem employee. That shows me that he trusts me and values my input.

We also have company events. I tend not to attend those for various logistical reasons. Sometimes they feel more obligations than rewards. Mandatory fun really isn't fun. It's also never a substitute for good wages or good relationships. 

The fact that you have seven employees, rather than 700, means you probably know them all pretty well and probably consider them friends to one degree or another. You are in a really good position to offer help if their kids are sick or their roof is leaking or whatever. That could be in the form of flexible hours, or showing up at their place on a Saturday to help replace a water pump, or taking up a collection for a medical bill, etc.. That is the kind of stuff that engenders real loyalty.

Toyman! said:

Our work hours are 8-4 and they get paid for 8 so they are paid through lunch. They always appreciate free food. 

I would be a totally different employee working for you than I was working for large corp people.  I can tell you treat your guys right and go above even the good norm in how you treat them.  Wanna open a branch office in Florida?

Sorry to post so much recently, not able to do much recovering from surgery. 

One thing I really miss about my current gig, no getting my hands dirty and I can tell it's made me soft. Software tech writing in general, is typically, far more lucrative than being in manufacturing or defense. But there is no going on to the floor and shooting the E36 M3 with guys, helping build prototypes I would document how to install, calibrate, operate, repair.........of course after helping with testing the units. Which was always a lot of fun.

Although sometimes I wish I got a heads up, so I wasn't in steel toe boots, button up shirt, slacks, and steel toed boots, are brutal in Oklahoma summer's in an un-airconditioned shop. But still really liked it. 

Things that I appreciated at jobs through the years:

• On the spot bonuses. Sometimes they were cash.
• Turkey on Thanksgiving (one of 3 good things about the job, everything else about the job and that manager sucked)
• Boss handed us his credit card and told us to go get breakfast/lunch
• If we were working past 5:30pm, he'd break out the wine glasses. I'd have rather been at home, but there was work to be done and I appreciated the wine - and it was very good wine. 
• Clothes - branded, but name brand, nice stuff.
• Tickets to a game. It wasn't a work event, it was just tickets.
• Team lunches... they were always at 1pm, lasted 1-2 hours, and then we were told to go home (normal time to take off was 5pm)

Also, I can't read this thread title without thinking of this: It’s the little things

Manager celebrated a guys 25th anniversary by getting a jacket and embroidering his name and company name on it.  I told boss to go buy a nice Carhardt jacket as I knew the guy would appreciate it.  

Except he cheaps out with an off brand - I'm sitting next to him at our Christmas dinner when it was presented to him and his wife asks what it was since she didn't know. 

Guy tells his wife; it's LIKE a Carhardt jacket......you screwed up Mr. Manager - saved that $50.........

^ Good point. There are lots if ways to show your employees how much you value them, and many more to show how much you value your own bottom line.

Branded stuff is really more for the business than for the employee. We were issued jackets and hardhats a couple years ago. Then we paid a "branding" consultant to come up with a new logo (also to ask us what makes us special, and then tell us it's those very things that make us special - but that's a different story). Anyway, after the rebrand, we were issued new hardhats and new jackets. Plus rain jackets. Plus hats. Plus courier bags. Plus binders. Plus coffee mugs. Plus water bottles. Plus plus plus.

I've never used most of it. It's of no real value to me. They spent good money to see their own name on merchandise, most of which is now gathering dust, and almost none of which makes my day any easier.

Don't do that.

I worked for a company for almost 25 years that regularly handed out hats, jackets, beach towels, all kinds of stuff I rarely if ever used and usually threw in the garbage. I eventually told them, these trinkets are doing the opposite of what you think they're doing, nobody likes this E36 M3. It never stopped and I concluded that they were probably doing it for themselves, not for us. It made them feel good after treating us like E36 M3 the rest of the year. 
 

The one I mentioned earlier, the gift cards, should be accompanied by a pat on the back, and a thanks for your effort type statement. 

I supply 6 polo shirts per year in the company color and with the company name embroidered on it. I also supply 6 T-shirts they can wear on hot days when working outside on an installation. 

I supply 1 winter jacket and one rain jacket per year. Also logoed and in the company colors. I have one guy who loves hoodies and prefers them over a jacket. I supply him with 2 logoed hoodies.

I also supply one pair of boots per year up to $350. The boots are their choice with some requirements.  

All total i spend about $3500/year on company attire. I don't consider these gifts or perks. These are uniforms I want worn so we present a professional appearance to customers. I wear the exact same shirts and jackets. 

Looking and acting professional goes a long way with customers. This was all hands on deck replacing two sets of sliding doors in a bank on a Saturday.

The only other logoed item I buy are pens and flashlights. They are inexpensive and get given to customers. I also sticker every automatic door we work on with the company logo, a QR code for the web site, and the office phone number.

In reply to Toyman! :

It really sounds like you're doing it right, and for the right reasons.

That's a very generous boot allowance. Depending on your requirements, they could be wearing some really nice, handmade Pacific Northwest work boots and getting them rebuilt periodically rather than buying new and breaking them in over and over.

When I owned a practice, I would keep $50 grocery store gift cards on hand for saying thank you for good work. I paid a bit more than the average for the area, and everyone got health insurance after six months, unheard of in a small private practice at the time. I also paid for scrubs for them. They got an additional allowance for care of their own pets (a taxable benefit, the IRS decision, not mine). There's more that I can't remember.

I still had a significant amount of theft from multiple people, but that's a different topic.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Most of them are wearing Red Wings.