happy blogs

How to Stay Focused and Maintain Work/Life Balance When Working From Home

Working from home was often perceived by cynical bosses as a way for employees to take an unofficial day off. However, the Covid-19 pandemic saw many workers forced into home working and this displayed to employers and their staff that it was a feasible alternative. Now more workers are seeking flexible working options and bosses are no longer suspicious of remote working. In this blog, written by our Digital Marketing Assistant Dolly Osborne, we give you some tips on how to make working from home work for you.

4 Fundamental Components for Effective Conflict Resolution

Conflict can arise in many situations, both in life and in business. Though tempting to avoid, a minor dispute can soon become oppressive for everyone if ignored. Learning effective conflict resolution is a vital skill for maintaining a happy workplace. In this blog, written by our Digital Marketing Assistant Dolly Osborne, we have some tips to help you become an accomplished peacemaker.

3 Ways to Improve Your Active Listening Skills

Empathetic listening requires humility. It calls for us to set aside our own vanity and judgements to create space in our minds for the perspectives of others. Too often we listen to what feels comfortable and dispute what is unfamiliar or inconvenient. In this blog, Nicole Martins gives some advice to improve your listening skills, so you can listen and understand others better — whether it's in a meeting, on a phone call or chatting with friends and family.

Becoming a First Time Manager: What Kind of Skills are Needed?

It can be confusing knowing where to begin when thrust into a management role. Our Managing for the First Time workshop is a perfect way to hone the people skills necessary for anyone taking on a role of a manager, at whatever experience level. In this blog, Happy's Senior Facilitator Paul Gapper takes us through some of his most insightful experiences on this workshop, as well as a few simple but effective management skills.

The 4 Day Week on The Office: Re-Defined Documentary

Happy was recently featured in The Office: Re-Defined documentary, created by Inês Santos, Noopur Jambhekar and Anagha Raghunath. In this short extract, The Office: Re-Defined explores the four-day working week. Inês interviewed Happy's founder and Chief Happiness Officer, Henry Stewart, about the four-day week and our experiences so far. In our 'new normal' following the pandemic, is this the future of the office?

Happy Recognised as One of the Top 15 Workplaces in Europe

Happy is very proud to have been rated one of the best 15 workplaces in Europe, in the small company category. It is based 70% on a survey of staff and 30% on the submission we send to back this up. Everybody at Happy was involved and this blog is based on that submission, brought together by Claire Lickman and Lucy Blake. In this blog, find out more about Happy's culture that influenced the judges' decision.

How to Recruit Smarter: Stop Asking Questions and Watch People in Action

We all know how to recruit, right? Shortlist then go through our routine interview questions and choose who answers best? But is this the smartest way to recruit? Or are we just hiring the people who are good at interviews but may not be right for the role?

How to Create a Poll in Your Next MS Teams Meeting

You can add Polls to your meetings in MS Teams, either before or during the event. Polls are a quick and easy way to gain insights from your meeting attendees. For example, you could use a Poll to reach a decision quickly, find out when people are available for a future event or to gain insights into people's preferences. It's also a great way to improve engagement and assess learning for training sessions. In this blog, find out how to create a Poll in Microsoft Teams — why not create a Poll for your next meeting?

Happy’s 4 Day Week: How is Our Progress? (A 3 Month Update)

How is Happy's 4 Day Week going 3 months into the trial? Happy's Founder and Chief Happiness Officer Henry Stewart looks back at how things have progressed and the impact it has had so far.

Happy Workplaces are More Productive and More Profitable

New research has backed up one of the core principles at Happy. A happy workplace – where employees feel valued and satisfied, leads to better performance and better results. This blog highlights this research and explains what the results show us about creating a successful working environment.