Yvonne Agyei, Head of Benefits, Google
Yvonne Agyei, of Google, took time while at the recent Happy Workplaces conference to tell us about the benefits structure within Google, and how Google creates happy, healthy staff.
SouthWest Airlines – putting your people first makes good business sense
Put your employees first “Your employees come first. There’s no question about that. If your employees are satisfied and happy and inspired by what they are doing, then they make your customers happy and they come back.” “We tell our people, ‘Don’t worry about profit. Think about customer service.’ Profit is a by-product of customer service.” A philosophy like this is tested in hard times and SouthWest was notable for being the only US airline not to lay off staff after 9/11. They sold off planes instead. Most profitable and one of the most unionised In the UK, BA has often faced confrontation with its staff and Ryanair is hostile to the very concept of trade unions. Yet SouthWest Airlines is 82% unionised, one of the highest levels of any airline in the US. Herb’s people-based philosophy extended to treating the unions as partners. A US trade union web site notes that SouthWest has “the best relationship with its unions, and the highest customer satisfaction ratings”. In 2008 the Transport Workers Union made Herb an honorary lifetime member “in grateful appreciation for [his] unparalleled Leadership in creating a magnificent airline and a generation of Employees who love coming to work.” That is a remarkable tribute to a remarkable businessman, and to the philosophy that lay behind his approach. Imagine how different large parts of British business would be if they had the same approach to their people and to the unions that represent them. How would your organisation be different if, like SouthWest, the key focus of management was on making sure your people were “satisfied and happy and inspired”? Note: My thanks to John Noble, the remarkable and dedicated organiser of the Greenleaf Centre in the UK, for his presentation, which included this information on SouthWest Airlines.
Paul is a Learning Professional of the Year Finalist
We are very excited to announce that Paul Gapper is a Finalist for the Learning Professional of the Year at the 2017 Learning Awards.
The 2017 Learning Awards is an annual event hosted by the Learning and Performance Institute, recognising outstanding examples of high standards, best practice, innovation and excellence in Learning and Development.
Get more great ideas – spend less time at work
Last week I was in Barcelona speaking to the international conference of the Dogs Trust, and exploring overwork. I asked a simple question of everybody there:
Think of a great idea you’ve had in the last year? Where did you get that idea?
Is it Time to Go Beyond Empowerment?
For years we’ve talked about empowering people to find their own route to an agreed goal. But is that enough? Does setting the goal itself limit the possibilities?
Given the three levels below, what can we do to move to self-management?
One Simple Step to Be More Productive – Today
Have you noticed how in some organisations people seem stressed and over-loaded and complain of too much work, but nothing much seems to get done? Yesterday I had a meeting at Google, which always appears to be the opposite. Everybody is relaxed, helpful and friendly and yet they are incredibly productive.
The Joy of Not Working
At Happy every member of staff is entitled to one month’s paid sabbatical for every six years of working here. As the founder I have to admit I’ve been a bit slow to take mine. But, no longer restricted by school holidays, this year I went for it: five weeks in Costa Rica and then three in Somerset.
Blog from Our Drupal Apprentices
Today we started the first Drupal pre-apprenticeship programme. The idea of the course is to find school leavers with an interest in and aptitude to coding/web development and help a young person get their foot on the ladder to employment. This intensive two week course will cover the basics of using Drupal, HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript.
Currently four organisations have committed to taking on an Apprentice, so we will prepare this group of school leavers and get them ready to go out to an interview.
Excel Hints & Tips – Producing Example Data
Ever needed to produce a large set of random numbers on your spread sheet quickly? This blog will tell you how.
About Happy’s Introduction to Emotional Intelligence Workshop
Are you finding it difficult to keep your cool in difficult situations?
Would you like to be able face pressure at work or at home without feeling overwhelmed, no matter what life throws at you?
If the answer is yes, our one-day
Emotional Intelligence
workshop may be the solution.
