Looking for ideas on boosting morale in the workplace and also ways to combat negative attitudes. I'm not in HR but as an officer/management of the bank I feel I should do something.....any ideas, advice?

Second question...again not in HR, what are thoughts on employees drinking at company outings? I'm ok with 1 or 2 but we've got some that become sloppy drunk at times and I feel is inappropriate. Do I stay out of it and say nothing?

Annually our bank has an employee appreciation week. They do small things for the employees each day. Each quarter our bank holds an employee luncheon, employees with service longer than 5 years are recognized.

For your second question, this could become a legal matter. If the company is paying for or having alcohol available for consumption and an employee has a wreck on the way home, the bank could become liable. Clearly this is a legal issue. Some companies allow this type of behavior and some will not.

You didn't mention the number of employees which will determine the types of activities you choose.

We have 24 in our group. I've brought in bagels, Chick-Fil-A biscuits, baked cakes, pies, cookies. Held summer indoor picnics with everyone contributing a picnic food item, complete with team activities and cheesy little trophies. We've had a round-robin cornhole tournament, and yes we completed the tournament in an hour, indoor lawn darts, that one was a little dangerous, and indoor bowling. During the holidays, we've held cubicle decorating competitions, played bingo in Spanish only, made Mardi Gras floats out of shoe boxes, and created Peeps Dioramas out of, you guessed, Peeps to celebrate the arrival of Spring. We've even celebrated PI day on 3/14 with pie!

No one is forced to participate, it's strictly voluntary. Yet, everyone usually takes part. Because it's fun.

Some of the activities are paid by the department and other activities I pay for. It's worth it, everyone has a good laugh, good food, and gets to know one another better. Just use your imagination. The possibilities are endless.

we do lunch once a month in the department, I coordinate. we do jeans every Friday, and every chance I get we do jeans for the entire week (nothing boosts morale like jeans, and it costs the bank nothing). we do random giveaways (i'll send an email with a couple of trivia questions and pull a winner from all correct responses). we've also done much of what Tally mentions above.

Not a fan of work functions that serve alcohol, I don't participate in those, not appropriate in my opinion. and if someone overindulges and does something stupid or gets in a wreck, yes, the bank has direct liability. Don't want to be party to that, thanks.

Bank does various things for employees including lunches and little gifts.
Christmas party everyone gets two drink tickets. I don't think you can byo either. Tea totalers like me seem to have a lot of friends at that party.

Have you asked the employees for their input? Sometimes it is simple things they appreciate.

Like osucpa - employee appreciation week - small gifts each day on desk, one larger gift near end of week, dept manager serves breakfast to employees one day, Exec management (at ops center) greeted each employee by name (w/ help of various others) first day (started with first shift at 5:30 AM). Ice cream social. Ads in all local papers for customers to come in and share employee appreciation cake.

They also showed appreciation in a huge way after hurricane struck so FL. Management cleaned out a small warehouse in the Ops Center and hired preK through 8th grade teachers and worked with the school board to create a temporary school during the rebuilding process. All parents from affected areas could bring their children to the school (on premise) and check in as often as needed. Meals served to kids. Closed down school after 1 year.

It's helpful to figure out where the negative attitudes are coming from before trying any method to boost morale. Do they not feel appreciated by management? Is there a toxic employee or two causing issues? Address the source and you will have a much better idea of which route to take.

if management is the one asking how to boost morale, chances are management does not realize they are the problem. I've yet to meet a bad manager who didn't think they were good...

Going to add my two cents even though I am not "management". Low morale brought on by being discounted and underappreciated professionally, can't be fixed with gifts and being served breakfast. Being valued and asked your opinion goes a long way to feeling that management cares about you and your contribution to the bank.

Agree with one deer. You need to know the cause of the negative attitudes and low morale to address it appropriately. Forced fun never works if being used to address these issues.

American Banker published an article in Aug 2018 that was "Best Banks to Work For". Google that and you'll see the article. Not only does it list the top banks but it also lists many, many things that those banks do for their employees. You'll see comments about Christmas Parties and team building exercises.... It's a good read. I saved it and pleasantly surprises to see how many of these things we've done or still do that are one the list.

Internally we have an appreciation and recognition committee as well as an employee activity committee and all levels of staff volunteer to participate on those so it's not just management making assumptions about what will make staff happy. Also new this year are employee roundtables where lower level staff are invited to lunch with the Pres and HR and anything goes in regards to topics discussed (benefits, what can we do differently, etc). All are popular and have provided valuable insight as to what makes for happy employees.

if your bank is doing this daily there is no need for it. If not a one time fix is not going to work.

Who are you referring to Ed?

Banks in general. I worked for a nameless large bank that showed daily that they did not really appreciate staff and one week a year had a staff appreciation week. It went over like a lead balloon.