When you coordinate your marketing efforts, do you ever think to do any internal marketing? That is, do you consider that your team deserves to be reminded that you care about them, and that they work for a great company?
We’ve been thinking of this more lately because our average employee has been with us for over 15 years. While it’s true that we’ve been good to them – never bouncing a paycheck, always having a health and life plan, and refusing to accept lucrative offers to move outside the United States – the truth is that we felt we could do more.
And so, on Wednesday, Sept. 24 we broke for lunch at 11:15 and had two grills going with burgers and hotdogs. We also had bananas, apples, chips, and drinks.
It was a great event, and our only regret is that we hadn’t done it before.
Isn’t it Costly to Shut Down Production?
There are some managers who will think that it’s too expensive to shut down production, and that an event like this should be held on a Saturday or Sunday. 
While that’s great for some, we wanted to go the extra mile.
By shutting down for 90 minutes we spent thousands of dollars on payroll (everyone was still on the clock) and production, but when we thought of everything that our 100+ team members do for us each day, we took the same approach that we did when Hurricane Sandy had us shut down for a whole week – we thought, they give us their best, and they deserve our best.
Lou (40 years, president) with Stephanie (4 years, graphic designer)
In our opinion, this display of appreciation was not costly at all, but a great way to say thank you to everyone for their dedication, loyalty, and appreciation of us and everything we do.
Marvin (13 years, printer) reads something very funny on the side of a banana
Internal Marketing Ideas
We had originally gotten this idea from an episode of The Office called “Pretzel Day” where the owner of the office park hired a hot pretzel cart. It sounded like a great way to get some pretzels!
Dan (15 years, sales) serves a hotdog to our faithful mailman
However, we then considered what is more valuable than a free treat, and that’s time. With this we sent out an announcement to our production and warehouse managers, letting them know to tell everyone not to bring lunch on the 24th, and that our break would be extended to 90 minutes.
Among the highlights was that our USPS and UPS deliveries arrived during this window, so we were able to thank them, as well.
Other ideas you can consider are:
- Perfect Attendance Awards
- Anyone who has perfect attendance during the month gets put into a raffle
- Scholarship Essay Contest
- Employees’ dependents can win $250 in a contest you sponsor
- Supporting Community Service
- Letting employees take part in a set number of community service hours each year
- It can include volunteering in their child’s classroom, building a home for Habitat4Humanity, or, if they use their vacation time to go on a mission trip, apply community service hours to part of the good work they are doing.
Machine operators, Lillian (13 years) and Maria (23 years) kick back and relax
The Big Takeaway From our Picnic
Leading up to the event there was a great sense of anticipation in the factory. 
People were excited.
During the event people were able to really enjoy themselves. There were some periods of great laughter. Our people were having a good time and getting to know each other a little better.
While it’s true that we know each other fairly well after all these years, the truth is that this extra time afforded for more intimate conversations, enhancing the community we have.
Claudia (21 years, production supervisor) begrudgingly looks at the camera
What was most heartening, though, was that when it was over and we fired up our machines, set our assembly lines back into motion, and began getting boxes out the door again, our team couldn’t have been more thankful.
It was overwhelming and worth the cost.
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