(From Chicago Business Journal) -- What do free food, corporate transparency and baseball have in common? Business leaders say those are three of the strategies they use to boost morale in the workplace. For last week's Strategies page, we asked executives to share the most successful ways they've been able to keep spirits high in the office.

Here were six of the best:

1. "At ProctorU we take employee morale very seriously and fun is one of our core pillars. We regularly have group outings to Birmingham Barons games or other team builders. We allow dogs in the office on Fridays, encourage social media engagement, host potlucks and have a friendly atmosphere at work." - Franklin Hayes, ProctorU

2. "Be authentic and transparent with your brand and culture. Keeping it real with your employees will go a long way these days and I think people overlook this simple fact. Also, keep people challenged and engaged. Thirdly, tell people what a great job they are doing on a regular basis. Tell people thank you and great job, simple stuff!" Chase Morrow, Moxy

3. “The way to increase morale in our company is through two ways, which is food and clothes. We bring in lunch for our team about every two weeks and the menu always changes. We also come up with new company T-shirts about five times a year that employees can wear to work. Cool clothes and great food goes a long way.” John Paul Strong, Strong LLC

Read more.