Increasing staff morale?

[Carl]

What's the easiest way to do this? I'm trying to get the third star on Flottering but I can't get my staff morale to 75%, I've got it up to 65% but I can't seem to get it any higher without it coming straight back down

[Orion Invictus]

Increase their salaries until the face is green. Put items in the rooms they work in. Make sure they have tons of energy by changing your break policy.

[Fringehunter7719]

I didn't really pay attention, but making the rooms and corridors attractive, having food and drink vending machines around the hospital as well as toilets to make sure staff needs were met along with having prestige 5 rooms was enough to keep my staff way over 75% with just the bare minimum wages to meet the satisfied/yellow face.

Children's drawings in corridors and gold star awards in rooms covers most of that other than having vending machines/toilets.

You can see the components that go into staff happiness on this screen:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1501317986
that you can view by pressing 5 on your keyboard, or clicking the overview at the bottom left on the finance tab and then the staff tab once the screen opens.

[David_Dee]

I just got the same star by increasing the salary of my entire staff until a smile icon could be seen after each member. Then I sent the staff with the least energy on a break, and within a few minutes morale was at 75%.

[Mysticalmaid]

I don't understand how the break policy works at all to be honest.

[KiraKenny]

All i did for this is spam salary increment on all employee and i got it. haha. money sure get things work.

[Fringehunter7719]

Increasing the break slider makes the length of breaks longer, from 10 to 30 days, and increases the number of staff of that type who can be on break at the same time.

So if you set it at the far left 0 staff can be on the break at the same time (no staff will go on a break when they get tired) if you set it in the middle then ~50% of staff of that kind can be on break at the same time for 20 days, so when staff get tired they get a 20 day break unless there are already 50% of staff of that kind on a break, in which case they will wait until one returns to work (or you recruit more). If you set the slider to the right then staff will get 30 day breaks and they will always go on break when they get tired.

[sjet17]

This does not seem to apply to Janitors. No matter how I move the slider only 1 Janitor can go on break at the same time. I suspect this is why they are always unhappy.

[OldGamer]

Originally posted by sjet17:

This does not seem to apply to Janitors. No matter how I move the slider only 1 Janitor can go on break at the same time. I suspect this is why they are always unhappy.

This depends how many janitors you have

[OldGamer]

Increase Morale:

1. Needs
This is relatively easy. Just get into the habit of also putting "Needs" objects in every room. Thats a drink (coffee, hot chocolate, drinks fountain), a snack (sweet dispenser) and a chair (for rest)
This makes them happy and decrease their needs (hunger, thirst, energy)
Also make sure your staff room is fully prestiged and kitted out with drinks machine and snacks machine (I use the happy boosting ones in my staff room all the time). This also goes for in corridors. Make sure you have all needs in the corridors for your patients and staff alike.
And toilets, of course for that need.

2. Prestige & Boredom
On top of this, in each room, get into the routine of also putting in boredom items (the dog picture is one and various other objects like the trophy cabient etc)
Prestige is vital also, try and have a level 5 room this goes under enviroment as well.

3. Enviroment & Hygiene
Generally you need to toggle the Information tab on your screen and go to the flower icon (top left). This will open an overlay of your attractiveness. You can increase attractiveness to any area using pictures, plants and objects which increase prestige and attractiveness (such as fountains, skeletons, the body model etc)
If you are in a cold or hot enviroment, temperature also plays a key part, go to the information tab then to the heating icon to see how you fair via the overlay.
Hygiene also plays a big part, make sure you put hand sanitiser in every room at the very least.
Protip: try NOT to use plants. Unless for certain levels when missions pop up on watering plants and it actually matters (aka will give you a monetary reward). Don't worry too much about staff challenges but...

4. Staff Challenges
Do them and this will increase happiness for a short time. Often gets the threashold of a mission/level that needs x morale percentage.

5. Pay Rise
I stress, this is a be all end all. The staff will tell you what they want in their "mood" icon on their info tab. Usually, almost always it's something easy to solve with pressing the "break" icon on the bottom menu of this screen. However, if their top complaints is "underpaid", obviously, this means you have overlooked their wages for awhile. Often, staff expect a pay rise in three areas. Promotion, when trained in a new skill and annually. If after years you haven't done these minor pay rises they will feel underwhlemed and undervalued. Thus, they will probably seek resignation from your organisation.
Now there is an easier way to up every staff member wage by 1%. This is done by the staff tab in your overview info tab menu. Go to the $ sign and simply click pay rise 1% all button. You can see by the bottom right how well your increase made them feel. Do that until you hit satisfactory or continue until it goes full green if you like,.

Hope this helps
OG

[OldGamer]

Just a note: Break policy, only really affects their energy. Often anything higher than 12-15 days break will be overkill.

[edit] I am assuming here your staff are "covered" here. For example, if you have 2 GP offices, you have THREE GP doctors. This means the amount of staff on break can go up without increasing the days (often), and also covers the position on a rotation so you are always covered.

This also leads on you staff specialisation and staff management, just search my name in the forums, I explain it in nearly all my posts lol.

[Twelvefield]

You can also fire your malcontents. Fire anybody who has emotional issues, too. However, firing too many staff at once will lower your hospital rating.

I tried firing everybody but my happiest receptionist, and that boosted morale to 100% while cutting hospital value by two thirds. Still, I did get great morale.

[toy the hutt]

Remember that also only the Punching Bag and the Hot Chocolate Maker increase staff happiness when they interact with them, really useful to have around in staff rooms and where available.

[Nimir-Raj]

Originally posted by Mysticalmaid:

I don't understand how the break policy works at all to be honest.

Poorly.

It really needs to be done by skill/room type. It's all well and good having a X doctors for X days slider, but it's completely useless at getting a good balance.

If you have 4 Doctors, two GPs and two Diag/Treatment with the slider at 2 doctors for X days, there will inevitably be a day when both your GPs break at the same time. Sure in that situation you can just set it to 1 doctor can go on break at the same time, but it would be far better to have a more logical system.

How many GPs can go on a break at once.
How many diagnostic doctors etc.

Doing it that way means, if you have money and staff, you can litterally set it up to always have staff on break being covered.

To me it feels like they were running out of time and slapped on the break system last minute. It has a really unthought out, 'it'll do' feel to it.

It is what it is though, and some people might like the challenge of making the odd system work for them.

[OldGamer]

Originally posted by Mohegan Moh1336:

Originally posted by Mysticalmaid:

I don't understand how the break policy works at all to be honest.

Poorly.

It really needs to be done by skill/room type. It's all well and good having a X doctors for X days slider, but it's completely useless at getting a good balance.

If you have 4 Doctors, two GPs and two Diag/Treatment with the slider at 2 doctors for X days, there will inevitably be a day when both your GPs break at the same time. Sure in that situation you can just set it to 1 doctor can go on break at the same time, but it would be far better to have a more logical system.

How many GPs can go on a break at once.
How many diagnostic doctors etc.

Doing it that way means, if you have money and staff, you can litterally set it up to always have staff on break being covered.

To me it feels like they were running out of time and slapped on the break system last minute. It has a really unthought out, 'it'll do' feel to it.

It is what it is though, and some people might like the challenge of making the odd system work for them.

Easy solution to your problem there Jim. Is to have more doctors in those areas. You should really never have only 2 doctors for 2 rooms. You should always have one more covering.

ps I know your name isn't Jim, thats a Warren Zevon reference (Werewolves of London) which I am listening to now :P

[milkygirl]

Originally posted by Mohegan Moh1336:

Doing it that way means, if you have money and staff, you can litterally set it up to always have staff on break being covered.

To elaborate a little on what OldGamer posted, I never touch the break policy because I don't need to. All you need is someone to cover the breaks. For example, when there are 2 GP offices, I make sure to have 3 GP doctors. 3 GP offices, I have 5 GP doctors. After that, I hire an extra only when necessary to keep costs down.

I use specialized staff to rotate. Others raise pure "floaters", staff that have one rank of each trait a staff type can perform, but I find the lowered efficiency doesn't work for me.

As long as you don't hire 4* and 5* doctors (I've found they rarely ever recuperate their cost), the cost of the extra staff is negligible, even in the early stages.