'The team' is one of the most important ingredients to a sucessful business. But one question that loads of business entrepreneurs ask is ‘how do I keep my team motivated?’

Here at The Feel Good Drinks Company we are committed to spreading feelgoodness – both in and out of the office. We are always developing new ways to keep our team happy and motivated about the work they do, after all it’s their talent and hard work that has led us to our success so far, so we like to make sure that they are feeling good!

So how do we motivate our team and spread feelgoodness?

One way is by giving each team members five days a year paid leave in addition to holidays to be spent volunteering at a charity or community event of their choice.  The team has been spending their 'feelgoodness days' getting involved in all sorts of projects up and down the country from cleaning the River Thames and planting allotments to helping at Riding for the Disabled.  Six of us spent an afternoon at the end of last year at our local Age Concern centre putting up some Christmas decorations which was lots of fun and then 10 of us on Leap Day this year spent the day at a local nature reserve bramble bashing, litter picking and generally getting it ready for the spring. It does mean that as a business we have to support quite a bit of extra time off, but we find t he gesture more than reaps its benefits by the motivation and commitment generated within the team who are delighted to have a chance to make a difference.

We also provide a pot of money every year, which we call our ‘Feelgoodness Fund’. It matches pound for pound any money any of the team raises for charity, whether running a marathon or taking part in an Underwater Dinner Party, it’s our way of supporting the team to do their bit for charities that mean the most to them and so far this year, we’ve donated over £3000 to various team members’ fund raising efforts.

We also like to go on holiday together! Whether it’s a couple of days at Centre Parks, a weekend in Biarritz or a picnic in Hyde Park on a lazy summer’s day with everyone’s friends and family, it’s a great way to raise morale and have some creative time together in a feel good environment.

Our trendy new home is another great way to make sure our team is always feeling good. We all spend a large part of our lives in the office so it’s important that we feel comfortable and ‘at home’ even though we are at work. In a funky part of north London , the Feel Good Drinks office is light, airy and full of colour, there’s even a juice bar for when the guys what to chill out. It’s somewhere that the team feels really proud of and we hope they enjoy coming to each day.

On a more individual level, we’ve found it’s really important that each team member feels valued and supported and that their role is fulfilling and challenging. As such, we tailor personal development plans for each person, with clear key performance measures, which we review twice a year. This is an opportunity for each individual to feedback on their role, what they enjoy, what they find challenging and how they want to develop their career. As part of this activity, we also tailor training plans for everyone. Training is something we do get external support on from time to time, however we also have a ‘share and learn scheme’ set up internally that encourages team members to share their knowledge & experience, at all levels – we’ve got a lot of very talented people working for us, so this is a great way to share those skills.

In the end, all our success is down to having a great team which is motivated and happy. Making sure that our team feels good is our number one priority. And it’s easy! Recruit the right people, keep it simple, do fun things together – it seems to work!