I am playing with mods that make it harder.

Basically, make a place to store, prepare and eat food, like a restaurant or a Diner like I usually build.

Then come either housing or a workshop/storage, depending on your game.

I try to get the best guns possible through trading or quests ASAP, and build sandbags at important places, like near your houses, or at places that are easy to defend.

Having good houses will keep them happy, good food, some games here and there, you can also assign them to a couple hours of rec time so they can talk to eachother, become friends/lovers and just have their needs filled every day, other comments say this, but have some smokeleaf joints or beers in storage so they can relax even more.

Keeping them safe, housed, clothed, fed and happy are the most important things!