Issue link: https://nbm.uberflip.com/i/1479467
6 8 G R A P H I C S P R O • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M B U S I N E S S S T R A T E G I E S MAKING MOVES, BUILDING MORALE KEEPING YOUR WORK FAMILY ENGAGED AND PRODUCTIVE M A K I N G S H O P M O V E S | H O W A R D P O T T E R H ow many business owners actually think about the morale of their business or how it can play a serious role within their work environment? I know working for others and grow- ing up the way I did, I never paid much attention to it, nor did it really bother me. In those days, it was do what your boss asked and get the job done or help stay until it is. When you look at it from the outside, it can seem silly, but in reality, we are with our employees or coworkers more in a day than we are home with our families, so why not make the best of it? I have been a business owner for 19 years with my wife. e earlier years when my wife was not working in the business full time just yet, it was all on my shoulders to hire, train, and run the overall company when we were much smaller, but you feel the pressure all the same. I remember I always would take the time to train someone properly, but have very little toler- ance for someone being lazy, not making it to work on time, not paying attention, etc. I think many of us, when we are building something from the ground up and all the risk is on our shoulders, we have those moments of weakness where we can tend to be very direct with people more than we would if we did not carry the financial risk. Many people from the outside will judge you as mean or not caring at all no matter how nice of an employer you are. So, over the years learning from past staff, my wife, paying attention to social media, and just listening to others in and out of our company, we have really worked to do a 180 in our company with morale. As you get older in business and make mistakes or employees in your company make mistakes, they are all learning lessons that can help you both grow whether you know it at the time or not. EMPLOYEE HEALTHCARE Over 11 years ago, one of the most important things we wanted for our team was healthcare and a retirement plan. With healthcare, our company covers up to 50% of the monthly cost. It normally costs our employees around $1.25 an hour to have medical and prescription coverage. We also cover one free eye exam, and we worked out a deal with a cus- tomer who is an eye doctor – 25% discount on glasses. On the dental side, if they bring us their receipt, we will cover one free cleaning per year. We as a company want our team healthy not only for us, but for their family members. e other part of that is the retirement plan. We offer a simple IR A plan where we match up to 3% dollar for dollar. Making sure our crew had a way to invest in them- selves and us help with that is import- ant to us. It allows them to double their money out the gate. VACATION & PERSONAL TIME From there, we worked on setting up paid vacation time. Since we are a smaller company, we had to really look at how we could offer this. After one year, you get three vacation days. I know three does not sound like a lot, but many of our staff work four ten-hour days and they get three-day weekends, so between holidays/using the vacation time they can get a decent amount of time off per year to recoup. At two years, they get a week, and at five years they get two We are with our employees or coworkers more in a day than we are home with our families, so why not make the best of it? (All images courtesy Howard Potter)