Ask HN: How can I improve my team happiness?

[victorcase]

I'm thinking about how kind of initiatives companies offer to improve team happiness without a necessarily salary raise;

I will really appreciate suggestions cause I need to "improve" the culture of my current company.

The hard part is that I have a low budget to do it right now;

Context: The good part is we are more than coworkers; we are friends before work in the same company; 4 nerds here :)

Then..

I'm thinking about things like:

Implementing a 80-20% Google like strategy;

Offer free-days after some "points" acquired by "some" metric;

Flexible schedule;

Clear goals?;

Pay Training in websites like Coursera|udacity;

Choose a day to work remotely?

Happy Hour as Gaming day with the team;

Weekend with the team at the Beach House;

Snacks?

That's stuffs really works?

[brudgers]

If you're the boss of the company, not having the budget for raises is a problem that none of these ideas address. None of them will paper over that issue or solve it. It's not that they're not nice perks, it's that coming up with these ideas looks like a way of avoiding work on the hard problem which is making money.

If you're not the boss, then not having money for raises is still an issue and working at an unprofitable company or a profitable company that does not value your team is less likely to be a long term solution (and if you are the boss, this is how some of your team will probably look at the world sooner or later if not already).

Good luck.

[mathattack]

Find the 1 or 2 things that each person on your team wants to do in 2-3 years, and find a way to give it to them. Follow up with weekly 1 on 1 meetings, where they control 70% of the agenda.

This is free.

[victorcase]

Nice, it is a good idea to plan the long run;

I don't know if weekly 1 on 1 meetings will be effective, cause in practice I will need to fit my time to "fight" for this goals and show progress; maybe troubling my sprint schedules and projects releases..

But, that's a try :) Thanks!

[mathattack]

30 mins per direct report per week pays for itself. You'll get 30 minutes less interuptions over the course of the week, and your people will improve over time with dedicated coaching periods in the calendar.