Cultivate Employee Creativity for Greater Loyalty

Want to keep your workers happy? Put some chalk in their hands!

A recent article from Nightclub & Bar highlighted how something as simple as allowing employees to express their creativity by designing outdoor chalkboard advertisements is enough to inspire greater loyalty.

“When people have an opportunity to contribute, they have pride in it and they take that with them,” Bryan Mattimore, co-founder of The Growth Engine Company, told Nightclub & Bar. “The turnover in this business is incredible. This is how you build culture and loyalty; it makes them feel part of your family.”

Martin Chen, an employee at Schoolyard Tavern & Grill in Chicago, began drawing on the business’ chalkboards out of the blue one day, and now his art has become part of the bar’s charm.

“It goes back to the DNA of the workplace,” Ryan Indovina, director of Four Corners Tavern Group, which owns Schoolyard, said. “In the world of hospitality, you become a family with these people, opening early or staying late, we go out together. So using their talents is about the organic nature of building a family.”

Of course, an added bonus is that if employees are the ones designing marketing materials, whether it be exterior chalkboards or photographs used in ads, it means businesses are not paying extra money to outsiders. Additionally, employee loyalty translates to less turnover, saving businesses time and money.

Read more here.