Here you can find all of Happy’s blog posts, covering our Excel hints and tips, ideas for creating happy workplaces, and ways to be more productive at work — and more.
People with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be motivated and productive – and yet only 42% of people in the UK say they have a friend at work. Find out the importance of connection in this talk from the 2016 Happy Workplaces Conference by Shannon Banks, coach and consultant at Be Leadership.
How important is it that you make friends in your workplace? Find out in this talk by Shannon Banks, with results from the Harvard Grant Study.
UNIT9 has had the best ever staff survey we’ve ever seen – and Valentina Culatti, Managing Director, explained how she achieved it using the principles from the Happy Manifesto in this inspiring talk from the 2016 Happy Workplaces Conference in May. Watch the full video of her talk (20 minutes).
As Commander of a nuclear submarine, David Marquet determined to make no decisions and instead to coach his staff to be their best. The Sante Fe became the best performing submarine in US navy history. He talks about how he did it in his book Turn This Ship Around. At the 2021 Happy Workplaces Conference, David joined us for an Ask Me Anything session. Questions were crowd sourced from the audience at the event, with David answering the best ones. Watch David's video and read the transcript here.
Simon Fowler, a Board Member of the John Lewis Partnership, talks about their unique culture that aligns very closely with The Happy Manifesto principles in this video from the 2015 Happy Workplaces Conference.
Gallup has found that in the UK, only 17% of employees get to do what they are best at everyday at work. But when they do get to do what they are best at, they are 30-40% more productive. At Happy, we get every member of staff to take the Gallup StrengthsFinder survey to find out their strengths, and have team job descriptions so that teams can delegate tasks to who it best suits. In this short video, taken from the Happy Workplace Round Table on 23rd October 2024, Henry gives examples about how Happy and other organisations have gotten people to work to their strengths. How can you implement these ideas at your workplace?
How are decisions made in your organisation? Are they made by the frontline staff, or by the managers? Henry Stewart explains how you can get rid of outdated hierarchical decision-making processes in this Happy Workplace Round Table, recorded on Wednesday 6th November 2024.
Giving your staff more autonomy means they don’t require as much oversight, freeing up the time of managers. It allows people to take ownership of their work, feel trusted and confident, and creates more joy at work. Implementing it, however, can be tricky. Alun Pomfrett, HR Manager at Leicester-based Cocoa Amore and graduate of Happy’s Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme has developed a very simple way to make autonomy work for your staff, as he explains at the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference.
How much money would you trust your employees to spend, without checking with their manager first? £50? £100? How about £50,000? Helen Taylor from the London Borough of Hounslow, who is currently enrolled on the Level 7 Senior Leadership Apprenticeship Programme, explains in this talk from the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference how she has implemented a system where her staff are Pre-Approved to spend £100,000.
In this video, recorded from his live session on Wednesday 9th October, Henry Stewart highlights the importance of coaching in the workplace - and asks, does your organisation have a coaching culture?