Confessions Beyond the Food
Confessions Beyond the Food is a podcast about working in the Food Industry. People who work in the Food Industry have grit and lots of stories to tell. W3 Sales, a sales & marketing company, will host this podcast with their confessions on how they have a new, fresh approach and invite guests to confess their secrets to their sauce.
Confessions Beyond the Food
Work Hard, Laugh Harder: Real Strategies for Workplace Joy
10 Real Things to Make the Job Fun
So let’s be honest, work is work. But, that doesn’t mean it has to be boring, stressful, or something you just ‘get through’. At W3 Sales we believe that fun isn’t just a perk, it’s a part of the process. From inside jokes to team banter to real vacation and Think Tanks that spark some really crazy ideas we found that building a connected, energized culture makes everything better. So today we are sharing 10 real things we do to make the job fun. And spoiler alert, none of them involve a ping pong table!
This episode is about creating a team that people actually want to be a part of and celebrating the little things that make a huge difference.
Let’s go have some FUN!
Welcome to Confessions Beyond the Food. I'm your host, nancy Redland. Let's dig in and get inspired. Hi, welcome back to Confessions Beyond the Food. So let's be honest, work is work, but that doesn't mean it has to be boring, stressful or something you just get through to be boring, stressful or something you just get through. At W3, we believe that fun isn't just a perk, it's part of the process, from inside jokes and team banter to real vacation and think tanks that spark some really crazy and wild ideas. We found that building a connected, energized culture makes everything better. So today we're sharing 10 real things we do to make the job fun and, spoiler alert, none of them involve ping pong tables.
Speaker 1:This episode is about creating a team people actually want to be a part of and celebrating the little things that make a huge difference. So the first thing is building a strong team culture. It all starts here. Culture isn't something you just hang on a wall. It's how you show up for each other, and when the culture is strong, everything really gets easier. So and as a salesperson, I think we enter a lot of organizations, organizations where they pit us against each other and while competition, healthy competition is good and again I said, healthy is good. It's also really important to make sure your whole team knows it's a team, it's a team deal. The real competition is your competitor outside of the business and I'm super competitive. So I've had to really adapt with W3 and just making it a team culture and so that your wins are my wins and it's not just about me posting wins on the board. So that was an adjustment, but it has been so fun knowing that we're all a team and we're all here to work together.
Speaker 1:And the second thing is celebrating wins with shout outs. So, whether it's closing a deal or you got through some crazy situation, we love to post it to celebrate those wins. And a quick shout out can really turn somebody's day around. And also, while it's fun for the person getting awarded, it's also really good for the team to see like, oh my gosh, they're being successful. And also, if you have a team culture and you really promote it from the top down, they will be happy for each other. So, while it might spark some healthy competitiveness, it also we want others to be happy for each other, because when they win, we all win.
Speaker 1:The third thing is to keep the chat open, literally. So we have a chat, a text thread in W3 and it's called the W3 Hustlers and it's super fun because we just keep connected throughout the whole week. Super fun because we just keep connected throughout the whole week and that chat literally saves my day sometimes because I'll be in the middle of something and then somebody will put something in the chat and it just brightens my day of something that happened in their day-to-day or something that happened with a customer that we're all like oh my gosh. But there's just lots of that. Team chat just really is keeping it upbeat and positive and it's just a great thing to have and really helps with the fun side of our culture.
Speaker 1:And so also number four is inside jokes and team banter. So nothing bonds you more like a ridiculous inside joke. I mean, I'm an easy, easy target on this. We I like to tell stories on myself of the crazy things that I've done, because there's a lot of things that I wasn't so smart about. Like one time I actually picked up the wrong person from the hotel is the first time I was meeting that person and we like drove away and I didn't realize I picked up the wrong person for like 10 minutes and that is a real story. So, like sharing these stories and laughing I mean, I know that our team has probably heard that story 1 million times, but it's something that we all still like die laughing at and um, but we also have you know jokes about like me I'm just going to pick on me, like they, for we had an award and I got the water burger float because they always catch me driving through Waterburger and so those little team jokes and you know things that they associate each other with. It's super fun and again, you want to keep it. You know PC and also you know PG and everything, but this is just a really fun outlet for your team members.
Speaker 1:The other thing that is really fun is number five is think tanks. These are my favorite. I love to get the team together and whether it be like a social like, for example, a social media idea, so we have a social media idea that we want to tell a story with, social media idea that we want to tell a story with, and I love to invite the whole team because they get to give their input and they see things way differently than maybe the marketing people see things and it really brings out some really crazy things and we don't do all those things, but we have done a lot of them and so coming up with ideas on how to do presentations and but also, you know, tackling problems together as a team, that's number six. That's another thing we'll think take. I think the greatest thing is when not to have problems. But when there is a problem I know as a business owner, you know it's not just me I get to bring in my leadership team and we sit down and we tackle the problem as a team and we joke like okay, get the whiteboard out, like let's, you know, start playing chess on how this is all going to work out, because what we do is literally a chess game. And I don't play chess, but in work I do. But it really is fun to sit down and really talk it through your team and it takes not only the pressure off but it usually leads to really good conversations and again, walking away. I'm part of a team, I'm not alone.
Speaker 1:The seventh thing that I think is really important in a fun culture is encouraging real time off. So one thing we did when we first started W3 was we called vacation PTO for paid time off. And honestly, you know, through the years and I'm the worst. Everybody knows this. I'm preaching to the choir, but you know we really did encourage people to take time off, and I never do. I always have my phone, you know, I'm always checking my phone, I'm always kind of staying in it and then I come back and I'm just cranky because I worked my my phone. I'm always checking my phone, I'm always kind of staying in it, and then I come back and I'm just cranky because I worked my whole vacation and I'm bitter and I know it's not anyone else's fault but mine and the pressure I put on myself. So we've changed PTO because it just sounds like you're just not in the office. We've changed that to vacation and I think it's really important for people to have days to just shut down and have a you know for, as an employer, to have a plan in place and people that can cover for that person while they're gone. So they don't, they're not having the Sunday scaries or like, oh, I don't want to go back to work, there's going to be so much, and just to know that your team has got your back, you get to enjoy your vacation, have fun, you know, melt all the stress or whatever is happening on in your life and come back and you could be really excited and energized and have a positive attitude. And so we really we don't say PTO anymore, we say vacation, and it's really important to allow your team to have that vacation and to encourage it.
Speaker 1:The eighth thing that you can do to create a fun culture is celebrate birthdays. We make birthdays a really big deal around here. So what we like to do is we post something on social media acknowledging their birthday to the world, sharing things that we love about that person, and so they get all the shout outs from all their community on social. We also give a birthday holiday and they get to use this holiday one day that week and this is just a really great perk. You know, sometimes I'm not able to do big bonuses and I'm just limited by our income, and but I love this perk because it really is something that people look forward to and taking that extra day maybe just to just do something fun for them or something fun with their friends or family, but this is a really fun perk that just doesn't cost a lot.
Speaker 1:So the ninth thing is creating space for personal connections. So knowing your coworkers beyond their job title makes collaboration more human and way way more fun, right? So I mean to just talk about work all the time when you're with your team is I don't know. I don't think I would like that environment. To me that's not fun. I mean I love my job, but I think what I love about my job is the people, and people like connecting, I mean whether they like it or not. And the other thing is I have to say this is that you know they don't have to share personal stuff about them. They don't have to become your friend. That's okay. But you want to create a space that if people want community and want to know other people on their team, that they get that. And that's really where fun begins.
Speaker 1:I mean, I have to say that a lot of people are really shocked about how well our team gets along. We are there's, I think, eight or nine women and one guy. So how Kevin survives I don't know, but I mean he plays like he's um beyond us, but he really, I think he really enjoys um being with the girls, but um, but no, but the females in our group. We all get along really, really well and I think it's because we do allow every week on our call. We have a, a personal something where something great that happened personally, something great that happened professionally, but it just all keeps us connected together and we realize we're real people and we have real lives behind all of this job thing and then that helps us establish connections based on common interests. It's really, really fun and I don't ever. Also, we have a multi-gen um team, um, so people in their twenties all the way up. I won't go to what that up number is, but uh, we have, our team is very multi-gen and I love and maybe that's just because I want to be trapped in my twenties I love connecting with with my younger staff and we connect on books, we connect on reality TV, whatever it is, but it makes it really fun and definitely they feel more comfortable the more fun and friendly environment you're in and they're going to talk to you more. They're going to talk to you more. They might stay longer.
Speaker 1:In this day and age we really have people moving and they get in a job and they leave. They get in a job and leave. But if you can attract people by your culture, that's going to keep them a little bit. By your culture, that's going to keep them a little bit. Maybe not forever, but it will keep them longer. And if they are exposed to that soon and you know you keep it not just again, not just words, not just once a year, but you really keep that fun going throughout the year, that really is attractive to this upcoming generation.
Speaker 1:For us me and my generation we had to adapt to their culture. So that's their culture and that's what it is. And while you do establish your culture, you need to understand what's important to the younger generation and what they think is fun. I know it's shocking, but what I think is fun as a 47-year-old is not necessarily fun for a 29-year-old. So really understanding what they like and knowing them beyond just the surface level is just so rewarding and it just makes everything fun. And I genuinely consider these people my friends and I mean I don't know if they would say that back, but I care about. They're like part of my family and it's just so fun to know on Sundays, when I get the scaries, that I at least get to see my you know my friends and because we spend a lot of life together. And so why not make it fun?
Speaker 1:Um, the 10th thing that I think is really great that we are fun that we do is we implemented. Implemented this a couple of years ago was um planning a retreat, um, and so today actually, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see my T-shirt. This is one of the T-shirts we have for our retreat that we made. There's a theme we do. The whole retreat is basically this Two days away from the environment, we go into a remote location and we just hang out together. There's no sales training, there's no strategy about what we're going to do, planning for the year. It's all about our culture. We do games around our culture. We use the words and live them out in what we do. We serve each other. You know different teams will make dinners, we do cocktails of the day, certain people clean up, so all like. It's all about serving each other and all about living out our. You know our words and it's super fun.
Speaker 1:I think you know, as a business owner and you know and time is very important and valuable. While that is super important that we're out in the field and we're selling, sell, sell, sell, I get it and we do that, we work really hard, but the investment of taking two days out to just really connect with your team in shirts and t-shirts and, you know, casual, just get getting to know each other is just invaluable. You can I cannot put a price tag on it and I'm really thankful that our clients um, the people that contract us, you know support us in this and because it really helps our culture, it helps the team, we know each other, we can have fun together and, again, team is everything and it just really reinforces that. So in all of this, I hope you've found maybe one or two things you could do. This could be as a business owner. I know I've talked as a business owner, but if you are a sales manager, you can definitely implement some of these ideas as an employee. Like, hey, I really like this idea. Maybe I should suggest it to my manager or ask to incorporate it into something that know, something that doesn't cost anything.
Speaker 1:One thing that we do sometimes and I know it's popular, but the virtual happy hours we do dressing up on Halloween and we have a contest and we all go black and then we go, we turn on the cameras and everyone's in crazy costumes and someone gets an award.
Speaker 1:So those are all fun things, easy things that you can implement and it doesn't cost much but people really enjoy it. You know and again, knowing that not everybody wants you know this. Sometimes it is just a job to them and that's okay, that's okay. But for the people that are wanting that, that's okay, that's okay. But for the people that are wanting that community and work, really just take initiative to make space for that. You will not regret it. And there's so many ideas here that just don't cost anything and so that can mean everything to each employee. So thank you so much for tuning into this and I hope you have some nuggets that you walked out with and I'm really looking forward to seeing you on the next episode of Confessions Beyond the Food. For more inspiration, follow our social media at W3Sales. Please like, comment and subscribe. You know all the things we would love to connect with you.