What I Do Well + What is Useful + What I Love = Happiness at Work
When Laurence Vanhee joined Belgium’s Ministry of Social Security, the department was struggling to recruit Belgian citizens to the civil service and simultaneously losing 40% of staff to retirement. Social Security is essential, especially in a country comprising two very distinct groups. So Laurence and her colleagues set out to change the laws in order to gain more flexibility, attract newbies and retain people.
In this two minute clip from the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Laurence outlines how the Ministry circumvented traditional HR practices to focus on what staff did well, what was useful to the organisation and what they love to do.
What Do a Manager and an Underwater Photographer Have in Common?
The focus of Donna Reeves’ work is internal communication and engagement challenges. Although currently head of engagement at Fenwick, Donna previously worked at British multinational retailing company, Kingfisher, directing internal communication and engagement development.
Donna refers back to her time at Kingfisher in her talk at the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference. In this two-minute excerpt, Donna reflects on an expression that she used with the managers: “calm the fish.” Just like an underwater photographer has to move in a way that doesn’t scare the fish, when a manager enters a room, they shouldn’t cause anxiety or stress for their team.
How John Lewis Puts the Happiness of its Staff at the Core of its Business
John Lewis Partnership has been experimenting with how to make people happy for a century. Its founder, John Spedan Lewis, was driven to create a workplace that functioned so that all parts of the ecosystem were in balance and worked to improve the whole.
Sarah Gillard joined the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership in 2010 as Head of Merchandising for John Lewis Furniture. She then worked as Head of Strategy before taking on the role of Director, Insight and Assurance within the Personnel function in 2017. Speaking at the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Sarah explains how the Partnership goes about achieving its ultimate purpose: securing the happiness of all its members.
How to Make 85,000 People Happy, According to John Lewis
Keeping 85,000 people happy at work is an imposing task. After experimenting with how to make people happy for 100 years, John Lewis has learnt that not everyone finds happiness in the same places. Sarah Gillard discovered how to navigate this challenge in her role as the Director, Insight and Assurance within the Personnel function at the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership.
In this two-minute video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces conference, Sarah offers three tips derived from the company’s decades of experimentation.
Creating More Inclusive Workplaces: Men & Women Working Together
Dr. Jill Armstrong and Jason Ghaboos are working together to create a more gender inclusive workplace. The simplest step is getting men and women to work together more often. The bigger picture is their Collaborating With Men project – a name Jill has reservations about – that aims to tackle everyday sexism in the workplace, partly by showing everyone their contribution is valued.
Speaking at the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Jill and Jason, from the Murray Edwards College at Cambridge, explore some of our deep seated assumptions about men and women and how we apply those filters to our workplaces.
Employee Engagement: Transforming Culture
Nita Clarke is director of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA), Britain’s leading organisation delivering workplace support for good employment and industrial relations.
David MacLeod is co-chair of the Employee Engagement Task Force launched by the Prime Minister in 2011. He is a visiting Professor of the Cass Business School, a Fellow of the Ashridge Business School, the Institute of Marketing and of the RSA.
Speaking at the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference, Nita and David look at the increasing external pressures bearing down on organisations and the increasing demands employees have of their workplaces.
Watch Nita and David’s full talk below.
Helping Men and Women Get to Know Each Other Better at Work
Dr Jill Armstrong’s Collaborating With Men project aims to tackle everyday sexism in the workplace and lay the foundation for a more gender inclusive workplace. She believes men and women need to be working together more often if we’re ever going to see gender equality in the workplace.
In this 90-second video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Jill offers some ideas for getting men and women to form more relaxed social interactions in the workplace.
Well-Being Check-Ins: How To Prevent Staff Burnout
Burnout is a real issue in the creative media industry. To help prevent this, Nikki Gatenby introduced well-being check-ins. Nikki is the co-owner and managing director of Propellernet, a digital marketing agency that’s been named as one of the top 10 Best Places to Work in the UK for six years running.
In this two-minute video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Nikki shares the four questions used to prevent burnout – are you taking your holiday? Are you taking your Propel days (their day a month to innovate)? Are you working with our resident coach? And do you know about our health plan?
How People and Purpose are Your Route to Profit
Nikki Gatenby is the owner and managing director of Propellernet, which was named one of the top 10 Best Places to Work in the UK for six years running. Digital marketing has always been their focus, but over the last decade they’ve gone from an unremarkable and locally-based company to a super-engaged, global player.
Speaking at the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Nikki explains how the decision to start putting people before profit has not only brought about greater workplace happiness, but also boosted profits.
What is the Purpose of Appraisals in Your Organisation?
After 16 years of working in HR, Sophie Bryan has found that appraisals are often used to keep evidence in case things go wrong, rather than to really improve staff performance and develop them as a person.
In this two-minute video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Sophie asks, what would happen if your focus was to give feedback to your team in real time, and dig deeper with your questions – or if you scrapped the appraisals process altogether?
