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?

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.

Five Good News Stories From the Last Month (July 2020 Edition)

We’re currently enduring the worst public health pandemic in 100 years. Life has already undergone dramatic change and a return to “normal” is still a long way off. But despite seeming to move from one cataclysm to another in recent months and years, we live in profoundly progressive times. Modern humans are capable of amazing things. Here are five good news stories to provide respite from the doom and gloom of a regular news bulletin.

How to Delegate Tasks Successfully

Many leaders and managers will continually delegate tasks to the person they know will get it right every time, or else give things to a new recruit who’s full of beans and eager to please. But Happy's Cathy Busani knows this practice is flawed and has instead started delegating to the team and allowing them to decide who does what. In this two-minute video from the 2018 Happy Workplaces Conference, Cathy explains how to delegate tasks successfully.

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.

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 is 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.

Set Regular Goals, Not New Year's Resolutions

We often put a lot of pressure on the new year, setting New Year’s Resolutions to force ourselves to achieve more or change our behaviour. But can you even remember what Resolutions you set for yourself last year?

Mister Happiness: Arnaud Collery from Tech X Happiness

Arnaud Collery is the Tech X Happiness speaker and Chief Happiness Officer is known as ‘Mister Happiness’. In this talk from the 2023 Happy Workplaces Conference, Arnaud explains the currency of personal authenticity. Using examples from his own life and the experiences of those he coaches around the world, he describes how a process of continual self-evaluation and reinvention can bring you to your ‘authentic self’ – a person that is recognised and valued both within and outside of the workplace.

After ten years working as a registered NHS nurse, Liz Mouland decided to change her path and begin a journey through community nursing. Now, as the Chief Nurse and Director of Clinical Standards, at First Community Health and Care, she is making a major impact through Happy principles and a team-led feedback hierarchy.

Four steps to improved company performance: it’s about talented managers and happy employees

Guest blogger Elinor Jansen updates us with a summary of Gallup’s latest (2015) study on the relationship between firm performance, organisational structures and employee engagement.

At Happy we have been developing e-learning for over 12 years. More recently we have got excited about Live Online Learning, where you learn from your desk but with a real live trainer in a virtual classroom. But some of the most effective learning we deliver still takes place in the classroom.

How to Speed up Using Autosum in Excel

Did you know that there is a shortcut for the Autosum formula in Excel? In this short video, Nicky shows you how to use this great timesaver, both for simple and more complex spreadsheets. You can even use Autosum on the whole table at once!

Marion Janner - Changing systems within your company

Marion Janner, the Director of Star Wards, spoke at the recent Creating Happy Workplaces Conference about how she helped develop mental health wards through small, low-cost changes.https://www.happy.co.uk/umbraco/#tab69

Giving Your Employees Freedom is the Key to Success, Says Isaac Getz

"In every aspect of our lives — in politics, in economics, in entertainment, and in family life — we demand the freedom to decide matters for ourselves. And yet when it comes to our work lives, far too many people are stifled, constrained, hemmed in, and tied down by bureaucracy and rules that have nothing to do with allowing them to do the best they can in their jobs. These constraints leave people feeling out of control of their work lives, which, in turn, leads to stress, fatigue, and disengagement from work."