[Jackeline]

Here's another idea I just read in a newsletter:

Celebrate (and motivate) your co-workers by coping this idea from the American Red Cross: Create an electronic traveling peer-to-peer trophy that any team member may use to congratulate another for a job well done. Red Cross employees usually see three to five a week.

Taken from Administrative Professional April 2008 Issue

[stollison]

Originally Posted by LysaDell

Hi All!

Like everyone else, my company is going through hard times, budget cuts, no overtime, workforce reduction, etc.

Yes, we are being dumped upon at all angles with work - same pay, thankfully we have a job.

In our Admin Staff meeting last night, we concluded we need to look for low/no cost ideas to help boost the our morale (not sure if there is any). Jeans on Friday was not approved, even continuing our summer hours was not approved. Professional development (although no budget) we could teach each other a skill - that got "laughed" at.

Help? Any ideas???
Thank you.
Lysa

Here are a few things that I have done in the past:

Photo contest
Pick a theme (such as Spirit of America) and ask employees to submit photos. I requested that all photos be of similar size and then I mounted on different colored card stock with removable double-sided tape. I then hung on the outside of cubicles (like in an art gallery). I had to hang a few of my own to get things going, but I didn't include mine in the judging. After all the submissions were received and hung, I numbered them and asked the everyone in the department to judge by listing their top 5. From those votes, the top 3 were taken to lunch by my boss (I went too, of course). This costs almost nothing. The cost of a package of multi-colored card stock and the removable double-sided tape, plus lunch for 5 (the boss, the 3 winners, and me)

Have Fun at Work Day
This was a huge hit and cost about $4 per person.

I brought in party food (chips, cheese and crackers, veggie and fruit plates, etc.) and hit the dollar stores to get all the dollar toys I could find. There are all kinds of fun things at the dollar store and they just cost $1!

I laid out all the food and put the toys in bins so everyone could pick something. I got extra and it was a good thing because everyone really got into it, including some people from other departments).

Apple Harvest
A good one for fall. I purchased a few bushels of different types of apples and invited everyone to take some home and make their favorite apple recipe that weekend. On Monday, everyone brought their food in. We got a large variety of great food, with apples left over for snacking.

[Jackeline]

Hi Lysa,

Here are other ideas to build up morale at your work. These were taken from HR Daily Advisor (8/06/08).

*HAVE A FAMILY DAY AT WORK-This will allow families to see where their spouse, parent, or child works.

*SPONSOR A HEALTH FAIR FOR EMPLOYEES-Speak with local health agencies and organizations to see if they would be willing to provide free or minimal cost for health screening tests and other services.

*ALLOW EMPLOYEES TO WORK FLEXIBLE HOURS-This will help employees balance both work and home responsibilities.

*OFFER CPR CLASSES-This is a very valuable training benefit.

*REDECORATE BREAK ROOMS AND CAFETERIAS-By doing this, employees will feel the company cares about what the breakroom of their employees looks like.

[lsoutar]

I like to have opportunities to learn about others on the team so I recruit everyone to help me decorate our cubes for the holidays. I started at Christmas by buying 3x5 foam Christmas Trees and we had everyone decorate their own tree and hang it in their cube. For Valentines I printed some 3x3 cardstock hearts in different colors for "Conversation Hearts" to hang in our cubes. I made some preprinted ones like: Be Mine, Sweet, Wild Thing, Geek, Techie, etc. I also gave everyone the option to get a blank heart and write their own conversational message. We had some VERY interesting messages! It's a great way to get to know others and starts the conversation going amoung team members.

I've also done lunch time tournaments with ping pong and Blokus. These take a few weeks depending on the number of participants, however it's a great mixer and provides some stress relief.

Good luck & thanks for all the other tips!

[mzimmerm]

My organization holds a Staff Appreciation Week each November. It usually involves lots of less-than-healthy food and raffles. The raffle prizes were freebies we get from our office supplies vendor; we get everything from DVDs and DVD players to tote bags and lotions. This past year, our theme was "Appreciating Each Other". HR hung a piece of posterboard for each department along a central corridor. Then staff wrote words of praise, appreciation, acknowledgment on the posterboard for their fellow staff members. It was really heartwarming to see people who work at locations across the region recognizing each other's hard work.