Here you can find all of Happy’s blog posts, covering our Excel hints and tips, ideas for creating happy workplaces, and ways to be more productive at work — and more.
I often ask groups where they have found the best customer service. Two companies stand out and always come up: Apple and John Lewis. And when lists are published of the UK’s most admired businesses you can be sure that John Lewis is at or near the top. So I felt greatly honoured yesterday to be speaking alongside Charlie Mayfield, Chair of John Lewis (at Tomorrow’s Company “Tomorrow’s Value” event).
If you want to be happy at work, don’t go and work in the financial services industry. That is the message from the Career Happiness Index 2012, conducted by City and Guilds.
Last Saturday I got an outraged call from my daughter: “Dad, the bank is stealing my money”. She had accidentally gone £9 into overdraft, the first time she had ever been overdrawn. Within a short time the charges had racked up to £135. I tweeted @asknationwide. After an exchange of tweets and a single call, the charges had been refunded and all was well again.
If you have ever felt envy when you scan the Rich List or read about a millionaire (and, to be honest, who hasn’t?) then a recent discussion on Quora provides a useful antidote. Answering the question “Is getting rich worth it?” several very wealthy people described lives that do not sound enviable.
Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the end (for Jews) of ten days of reflection when we are to make amends to anybody we have wronged over the last year. In our tradition it is not enough to confess your wrong-doings to God. Instead you must seek out the person wronged and try to make it right.
I loved the Paralympics closing ceremony, with the weird machines, the manic dancing and the general craziness. Coldplay were great too. But the surprise highlight was the closing speeches, fitting ends to these truly inspirational games.
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)?
This week the Bank of England decided to pump an extra £50 billion of electronic money into the UK economy, bringing the total of quantitative easing to a huge £375 billion. Scanning the responses to this I retweeted this suggestion from @andyo: “Rather than pumping £50B into the banks, the BoE could give each household £2K. Surely that would have more effect?”
I have run Happy Ltd now for 22 years and employ around 30 people. Three years ago we employed 35 but, as staff have left, we have turned to using freelancers instead of recruiting a permanent replacement. However this has nothing to do with how easy it is to dismiss permanent staff. We are turning to freelancers because, in the current market, we cannot be sure of the level of demand. I have often been at events where fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners complain about red tape and employment law. Last time I asked the examples they gave were “the minimum wage”, “maternity pay” and even “holiday entitlement”. These are not unfair burdens. These are the basic requirements of running a decent business. I am delighted that we have regulations like this because it means decent businesses cannot be undercut by those prepared to do anything to make a buck.
The Happy Manifesto is Henry Stewart's call for change in the way we work. Find out his 10 steps to a great workplace in his new book and his latest blog.