International Week of Happiness at Work

As some of you may already know, this week is International Week of Happiness at Work! We came up with some simple ideas to make our office a happier one.

Maintaining office happiness has many benefits in itself – making employees up to 12% more productive according to a study by the University of Warwick. But what can we do to make the workplace happier? We came up with some ideas running throughout the week, starting with:

Happy Monday: Bake Sale

Combining the spirit of the Bake Off and happiness at work, we challenged our staff to bring in their favourite bakes to raise money for of our Charity of the Year, St Michael’s Hospice.

Needless to say, there were no soggy bottoms in sight, and we had the pleasure of slice of cake and the warm fuzzy feeling of charitability. Off to a good start!

Happy Tuesday: Wellness Workshop

Our very own Tai Chi master, Chun, offered up a lunchtime workshop in aid of boosting the team with a few moves.

Tai Chi has a multitude of benefits – whether boosting cognitive function or improving balance, strength and flexibility, to improving a good night’s sleep! We are very fortunate to have an expert in our ranks willing to share his skills.

Happy Wednesday: ‘The Extra Bite’

It’s safe to say most of us suffer from email fatigue. Inboxes packed tightly with emails requiring our urgent attention – not to mention the obligatory housekeeping emails and the odd bit of spam.

We thought we’d take a different approach and put together a newsletter for all staff, including a reminder of Hireserve’s perks and benefits and how we support well-being in the workplace – along with healthy lunchtime recipes and a light-hearted quiz.

We hand delivered ‘The Extra Bite’  to our colleagues, and put a valuable message out without adding to that teetering stack of emails.

Happy Thursday: Office Bar

On Thursday, the plan was to host a 4pm bar from our relaxation area. In addition to this, we polished off the last couple of donuts. Not only was it great to get the team together away from our screens, but it gave us some long overdue socialising time.

The bar went down a storm and a good time was had by all!

Happy Friday: Plant drop!

As part of our foray into making people happier, we had finished the week off by offering plants out to anyone in the office that wanted one for their desks.

Apparently plants help in reducing stress and increasing productivity. Not to say we have any problems with either – but they do also help with cleaning the air, which is most valuable perhaps when our office dog Mabel is in!

Thus concludes our attempts to join in with Happiness at Work week – we’re pretty pleased with how it went! Chun has vowed to continue teaching Tai Chi and with any luck, it won’t be long until our next bake sale either.

Find out more:

Who are the humans behind Hireserve? Meet the team

Want to work with us? Submit a speculative application

Read more about office wellbeing in a blog from the archives