Celebrating Diversity with the Olympics

In: BlogDate: Aug 07, 2012By: Henry Stewart

I hope you are still feeling the feel-good factor, from the triumphs of Team GB to the celebration of diversity that is central to the Olympic Games. Joining in the fun, we have sought to find the most diverse organisation among our clients (and beyond), with a free course for a group of your staff as the prize. The question is:

How many countries are represented in your staff (with separate prizes for small and medium/large organisations)?

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This idea was especially inspired by the World in London photography exhibition in Victoria Park, alongside the Olympics viewing area. This aims to show a picture of a Londoner from every country in the world. It is a great tribute to these people and to our amazing city. (They managed to find Londoners born in 204 different countries, only missing out on Palau and the Marshall Islands.)

And at Happy we’ve long sought to celebrate cultural diversity. We hope you have made use of our Cultural Planner, for instance.

The Most Diverse Organisations?

Trading company ED & F Man is so far the most diverse organisation to have responded, with no less than 63 nationalities working for it. Click here for their website.

Yogamatters, with just 20 staff, reports that it has 9 nationalities. Check them out here.

Are you more diverse than this? Do you have more than 63 nationalities or, for a small business, more than 9? Do let us know and let’s continue to celebrate the rich diversity of our organisations.

The competition will last until the end of the Paralympics on 9th September. So if you think you have a diverse workforce, please email henry@happy.co.uk with the name of your organisation, the number of staff, the number of countries represented and whether we can display this on our website.

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Henry Stewart, Founder and Chief Happiness Officer

Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.

Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. "He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business," explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.

His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.

You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.

More by Henry

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