If being a Green Belt has taught me one thing, its that employees perform better when they have a defined goal, know where they stand to reach the goal, and know what the reward is for reaching the goal.
Depending on what kind of employees you have - this can be something simple (like a hat) or something elaborate (employee needs a promotion but first needs to finish that master’s degree…)
The key is - you define the goal. I find that having a daily goal that rolls into a weekly goal that rolls into a monthly goal works best. This way you can have daily successes, but if a daily is not met you can still reach a weekly goal. If you are not meeting your weeklies - something is probably wrong and you can coach/encourage specific individuals before you get to the point where the whole team isn’t meeting the monthly goal.
Each goal should have a corresponding reward. The best rewards are inherent in the completion of the goal - aka the feeling of accomplishment and praise received for doing what was expected of you. There’s a really good article about this by the Harvard Business School.
As the article details, there’s three kinds of things a reward needs to have for it to be most effective. If you can’t have all three - then focusing on one, based on what your employee says they want is super important.
Autonomy - reward them with things like @vortal said, flexible hours, less micro-managing, leading small teams on their own, working a different shift without you watching them
Competence - Expressing gratitude for their skill, rewarding them with promotion, rewarding them by letting them teach others, asking them to share their knowledge with others in the company or even outside the company
Relatedness - Helping them feel part of a team. This often includes things like hats and t-shirts, but can also include things like planning parties for the team, doing community service together, and generally getting to make decisions as a group and being part of the group. Simple things, like choosing the music for the day OR deciding what the next group lunch will be.
I’ve spent quite a bit of my life in packaging one way or another. Something that always bolstered my spirits is that what I do is what the customer sees. What the patient sees. Everyone else does a lot of work getting things to me to be packaged, but I’m the finisher. I’m taking it that last yard for the touchdown with the customer.
As a servant leader - you know how important the work is to them. Doing it with them, showing that importance, making their jobs easier (better light, tools, working area, temperature, music, whatever!) that all builds into them having confidence in you as the leader, believing that their work will be rewarded (because you are rewarding them, and sometimes not even with $$$), and knowledge that every single unit walking out that door was done by them. That customers talking about how great those pre-rolls are or acknowledging how it easy it was to open your specific package - that’s all your team.
I don’t 100% agree with @Sasquatch statement on allowing venting in the workplace. When I hear venting I know something is wrong - its means that my employees basic needs are not being met. So I’m not preventing it from happening - but I am immediately acting upon it, because basic needs should always be met. If its physically impossible to meet their needs - then I should be looking to jump ship with them. But otherwise, all effort is expended to make sure that their basic needs are met, that their psychological needs (see above) are at the front of my mind.
Otherwise - I’m that asshole boss, who doesn’t understand the horror of the work and who constantly asks for more without making sure their needs are taken care of too. Its a balance. I don’t want to be that boss, ever.
I figure - whatever you decide to do, the fact that you are asking the question and looking for a solution means that you care. If we can see you care - they will see you care, and you are already heading in a more positive direction.
Good luck with this - I’d love to know how the team is looking 4 to 6 weeks from now and what you did that worked or didn’t work. 