Keeping staff happy good for business

Businesses are fast realising free tea and coffee are not enough to keep staff content. Many are resorting to offering free gym memberships, food, unique bonuses and flexible working hours.

When staff are happy, they are highly motivated, their work is a lot more detailed, they are faster and more efficient, says Theophany Loudspeakers Ltd general manager Josiah Murray.

It is for that reason he is ditching a traditional style and taking a new approach to managing the company's eight staff.

"It's really all about focusing on staff culture which in return reflects back on the quality of the work," he says.

Theophany designs and manufactures high-end loudspeakers, which have gained international accolades.

The company was started by Murray's father, Garth, who had to give up his day job as an air traffic controller after suffering a series of small strokes when he contracted septicaemia or blood poisoning.

Murray says he tries to get staff passionate about the product, so once they have worked for the firm for a certain length of time they get to make their own set of speakers, worth $7000, to take home.

"When they have the product themselves they are a lot more passionate about it. They use it every day and it becomes part of their everyday life."

They knock off work early on a Friday for a staff shout and also shout morning tea on a Monday because, Murray says, it is always hard to get back into things after the weekend.

Staff get taken away for a holiday every Christmas and the business is looking at instigating a regular social event.

Management at web development company Doubledot Media have also taken a novel approach to the way they treat staff and it must be working because no-one has left since it began in 2005.

Doubledot provides its nine staff with food to snack on all day, gives them free gym membership, organises staff balls, has an office football table and regularly takes them out to celebrate new products.

Co-owner Simon Slade says these things help the company to stand out when it comes to employing new staff in a sector which is facing a shortage of skilled workers.

He believes it is important companies have a good culture, because potential employees no longer only look at the salary when deciding where to work.

Some will accept a job paying $5000 less if they think the workplace will be a more enjoyable place to work, he says.

Slade admits there is a little pressure to provide those types of benefits because information technology companies are traditionally more innovative when it comes to their staff.

Doubledot, which develops tools for people who want to set up a business on the internet, is looking to employ another five staff.

It is so keen to keep the ones it has that when two people said they wanted to move overseas, it allowed them to work remotely. It now has staff in Melbourne and the United States.

Workplace flexibility is also a big feature at Anderson Lloyd law firm, and has been long before the Government legislated for it.

Anderson Lloyd, which has 150 people spread across three offices in Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown, set up a flexible workplace policy in December 2006.

Human resources general manager Sara Coop says the firm was at risk of losing good people.

Since it put the policy in place its retention figures have improved remarkably, Christchurch general manager Mark Beale says.

It has also helped the firm attract employees who are looking for more of a work-life balance.

There is a formal application process and staff have to present a business case for flexible working hours.

Staff at Anderson Lloyd can also take advantage of a parental leave grant. It encourages staff to come back after parental leave because if they don't they have to pay it back.

Staff can also leave work suddenly to deal with family emergencies or take time off for appointments and make it up later, Coop says.

Anderson Lloyd also reimburses staff $150 annually for any activity that promotes healthy living and provides fresh fruit in the staff cafe.

Retaining staff is something tool manufacturer Patience and Nicholson NZ Ltd does not have a problem with. Its staff stay on the payroll for an average of 13 1/2 years, so it must be doing something right.

Operations manager Rick Smith says the longest-serving staff member has been around for 45 years and was there before the company starting officially trading.

"We're not the sort of company that hires and fires."

Patience and Nicholson, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sutton Tools, a fourth-generation family-owned Australian company, makes 50,000 drill bits a day and employs 140 people, including 10 people at a distribution centre in Auckland.

It has 100 staff working in manufacturing at its Kaiapoi factory and 13 people in its engineering department, who design machines including grinding equipment.

Smith says making sure staff had some variety in their jobs is important, so it moved people from department to department to combat boredom.

It also has a skill-based pay system based on its own internal standards. As workers develop skills, pass standards and learn different machines their pay rises. Someone could jump $6 an hour in three or four years if they were diligent, Smith says.

Finalists in the 2008 Champion Canterbury awards:

Ambrosia Nurseries, Anderson Lloyd, Ardex New Zealand, Black Cat Cruises, Canterbury Charity Hospital Trust, Cholmondeley Children's Home, Christchurch City Mission, Christchurch Engine Centre, Christchurch Women's Refuge, Concentrate, Connetics, Continental, Cromptons Sheet Metal, Doubledot Media, Energy Mad, Farmside, G4M, George Henry & Co, Hands Ashford NZ, Holland's Suzuki Cars, Landcare Research The CarboNZero Programme, LifeLine Christchurch, Lincoln University, Meadow Mushrooms, Milk: Contemporary Baby Store, Motovated Design & Analysis. New Zealand Spinal Trust, Pacific Blue Airlines, Particle Systems, Patience & Nicholson NZ, Preston International New Zealand Cariboo, Redesign Interior Architecture, Sandihurst, Showbiz Christchurch, The Body Shop, The Classic Villa, The Court Theatre Trust, Theophany Loudspeakers, Westland Milk Products, Windflow Technology, Woodford Glen Speedway, Wyma Engineering (NZ).