flog, if you want good morale in your work place then I suggest the following, in addition to some of the above posts:
1) Pay slightly above the award,
Howard nailed that one. Employees that feel they are being ripped off WILL rip off the employer some way or another, not all are stupid enough to put their hand in the till but there are thousands of ways they can waste your money.
2) Talk to your employees. Employees are part of the business and like to be involved in the management of it. I don't mean that they should run rampant and get their hands on everything. Here's an example, I used to work in retail, selling high end luxury goods for outdoor living, our boss was very personable and used to ask our opinion about all aspects of his business when he needed some inspiration or simply to chat with someone. Don't limit yourself to talking shop with your employees, spend time with them over coffee, at smoko, lunch and after work. This leads me to my next point;
3) Put on a carton of light beer on Friday and make sure every employee knows it is for them. A more recent boss does this and he gets tangible benefits every week. a) Very, very high morale in that company. b) Employee loyalty. c) Although it is considered an after hours function, talk often turns to shop and good ideas/comments come out which helps the company. d) Just after the first beer had been cracked the boss would summarise the week, including the company turn over figures and how the company performs in meeting its targets, this kept everyone informed and if we didn't make target we knew we had to do a little better next week. One important point here: the Friday night beers never became a free for all, it usually lasted about an hour or so and was
only for employees. It wasn't a bash or a piss-up, it was a quiet beer or three with the boys and girls after work, if we wanted more we would go out.
The two bosses I have mentioned have happy and loyal employees, very low staff turn-over and run profitable businesses. (22 and 26 years each.)
4) As has been mentioned paying just above award is good. Overtime is excellent. Employees staying back or coming in on days off or extra days do it for the money, not for the love of the job. Previous bosses paid overtime at the award rates and then expressed their appreciation verbally as well. A little thanks goes a long way.
There is much more but I am running out of time, I might post later if you like my ideas.
Best of luck with it all.
ABX
Ps. Have you recently purchased this business? I saw one for sale in the Trader...