EMPLOYEE MORALE IN YOUR BUSINESS PROJECT

Ways of improving employee morale in the business project

 Ensuring better remuneration of the employees. i.e Adequate weekly wage payment of shs .20,000 was paid to cleaners.
 Ensuring timely payment of workers. i.e every day the business paid its cleaners shs 10,000 on spot whenever they could finish up their work.
 Paying Workers extra pay for overtime work done i.e after 4pm we paid shs 4,000 for extra per hour worked.
 Offering Workers fringe benefits or non-monetary rewards like free food for lunch.

 Promotions of the workers was based on merit, seniority, excellence at work. For example Kato was promoted to mobiliser since he was working hard for the success of the business.
 Giving rewards to employees for better work done. E.g certificates of appreciation were given out.
 Involving employees in decision making .This was done through weekly meetings chaired by the club president.
 Training or be trained periodically to acquire new skills every end of the term for example students acquired new skill such making liquid soap, candle making among others.
 Bonuses or rewards were given to workers who excel or for specific good performances like the club sales manager for achieving the sales target.
 Good / favourable working conditions shall be provided to the workers e.g providing good hygiene, providing required quality tools, machinery and equipment.
 Best performing workers were recognized and rewarded e.g best employee for the month, year, smartest employee etc.
 Duties and responsibilities of each member were appropriately delegated to each member for proper flow of activities in the club.
 All members were treated with respect at all levels in the organization irrespective of workers’ position/post.
 Members were assured/offered job security by the management since their membership could expire after 2 years of study.
 Products were sold by the business club to the members at reduced prices.

Here are more tips of motivating employees 

For example chapattis sold at shs 400 each than a market price of 500 shillings.
 Proper disciplinary procedures were followed in the business club in order to maintain proper discipline among the workers
Financial analysis. It involves analyzing the costs and the sales (price) to ensure that the business costs are lower than the revenue hence operating at a profit.
Cost control. This involves reducing the costs of production in order to operate at a profit

WAYS OF CONTROLLING COSTS
How production costs were minimized in the business;
 Employing few motivation strategies to workers like paying them in time, involving students in decision making among others.
 Employing part-time workers and were paid shs 1,000 per hour worked.
 Paying labour low wages ie shs 1,500 per day for each worker.
 Buying production materials from the cheapest/friendly sources e.g raw materials, packaging materials.
 Making labour work for longer hours for example from 10 am – 6 pm for three days a week.
 Carrying out activities /work by the club Members themselves.
 Avoiding unnecessary costs such drawings for personal use, paying for idle time among others.
 Reducing fringe benefits for labour for example the club patron reduced on the overtime allowance from shs 1,000 per hour to shs 700 per hour.
 Making use of free facilities offered by the school like idle former s.1 class room next to school canteen.
 Using cheaper alternative power and other utilities such as bio gas made by the science students and solar for lighting.
 Ensuring effective and efficient supervision and monitoring most especially during the production process.
 Encouraging specialization and division of labour.
 Fixing time standards for all business operations for example minimum (2hours) and maximum time (2 and ½ hours) this reduced on time wastage.
 Observing/following technical specifications.
 Providing proper storage facilities (and proper storage management system).
 Giving clear instructions to club members in line with their duties and responsibilities.
 Training club members periodically, this was done at the end of every term.
 Buying in large quantities to enjoy trade discounts

How did the business project members waste time?
 Talking with people about personal matters unconnected with work most business club Namata and Nakato were conversing about television plays on NBS and Bukedde TV.
 Having unnecessary or extra-long group meetings ie for more than 3 hours.
 Allowing too many interruptions at work like gossiping most especially on weekends.
 Being disorganized by having no specific goals and targets most especially during the production period.
 Engaging in little or no delegation since most of the work was done by the club president and his vice.
 Being indecisive ie failure to make decisions this was due to many members in the club since every member had a different point of view.
 Being late or absent for work or leaving early. E.g Some members could come 30 minutes late for production work.
 Role conflicts. For example male students never wanted to wash utensils
saying it’s meant for female members.

HOW TIME WAS MANAGED IN THE BUSINESS CLUB
 Periodical targets / goals were set for example the club patron set the sales targets per day of 100 chapattis.
 Most of the work was delegated to different members to perform all tasks at once to ensure effective time management
 Deadlines for achieving set targets were set.
 Club members started work at e.g 10:00am and stop at 5:00pm most especially on weekends.
 Preparing a to-do list daily. This acted as a bench mark to guide us daily activities
 Considered biological prime time ie work was to be carried during the day time when everyone is at his / her best.
 Designing work schedules / time tables e.g Weekly production and marketing schedules we’re designed and strictly followed during production and marketing respectively
 No private work was to be done during working hours or using club business property.
 Warning bells were used for the different programmes/activities ie the patron could sound the bell for breaks.
 Workers shall be strictly monitored and serviced during working hours to avoid time wastage.
 Avoid being perfectionists’ ie paying unnecessary detail to do things the perfect way wasted a lot of time.
 Partioning Offices to allow workers to concentrate.
 Eliminating unnecessary Personal visitors like fellow students during production to avoid interruptions.
 Giving penalties to members who could come late for production activities such as suspending them, sending to them warning letters etc.