happy Blogs

Radical Innovation In a Key Part of UK Government

Members of GCHQ discussed how they are bringing innovation into the department using a new crowdfunding-style system.

Brendan O’Keefe, Epic CIC – Advice For Re-Motivating Staff

Brendan was the last speaker of the day, and is Managing Director of Epic CIC. On 1st January 2014, Epic moved away from Royal Borough of Kensington’s Youth Support and Development Service, becoming the UK’s first youth service employee-led mutual. Brendan and his team worked with Happy to create an exciting and happy workplace. Brendan discussed the challenges involved in this new way of working – including giving staff pre-approval to make decisions, removing triangulation from the workplace, and recruiting for attitude.

Dom Monkhouse, iomart – Lessons From the Private Sector

Dom Monkhouse is CEO of iomart, and talked about several books that he had learnt from and how he’d used their ideas. His recommended reading included ‘Work Rules’ by Laszlo Bock, which stresses the importance of recruitment. He also discussed the way he recruits – rather than focusing on qualifications and experience, his common interview technique is to ask candidates to draw a picture of what motivates them, as it gives an interesting insight into who they are! He recruits for attitude, as you can train for skill – which is also one of the 10 core principles of Henry Stewart’s in the Happy Manifesto.

What Does ‘Digitisation’ Really Mean For an Organisation?

Dr Sally Howes is the Executive Leader responsible for innovation at the National Audit Office.

Henry Stewart, 5 Things You Can Do to Give Better Customer Service

Henry Stewart of Happy Ltd lists 5 ways you can improve customer service in this short video from the 2016 Transforming the Public Sector Conference.

June O’Sullivan MBE, LEYF - June O’Sullivan MBE, LEYF - How to Keep Your Staff Happy

June O'Sullivan of LEYF works hard to keep her staff happy, and reveals how she does it in this short video.

What is Mindfulness?

Paul Gapper of Happy Ltd explains about mindfulness and what it is, in this short video - with an excellent comparison to David Attenborough.

Rekha Mehr, MassChallenge UK – How are Large Organisations Like Ocean Liners?

Rekha Mehr of MassChallenge UK talks about creating change and innovation in the public sector in this short video.

4 Lessons From the 2016 Transforming the Public Sector Conference

Tuesday 9th February, Happy and Epic CIC hosted the 2016 Transforming the Public Sector conference at Kensington Town Hall in London. The conference focused on encouraging change within the public sector to improve staff engagement, happiness, and productivity, with real life examples from the speakers.

We’ve had an amazing start to 2016! We now have Drupal Apprenticeship groups running in Carlisle, Manchester and London. All groups will be completing the Drupal Web Developer Apprenticeship qualification.