The only class I ever got thrown out of at school was art. The teacher and I both knew I was no artist. Although I make my own Christmas cards and enjoy photography, I have always firmly believed that I can’t draw and I’m not creative.
Michelle Hill is the CEO of TLC: Talk Listen, Change, a charity that believes every adult and child needs to be surrounded by safe, healthy and happy relationships. They do work around counselling, therapy, domestic abuse prevention and more within that sector. In this video from the 2024 Happy Workplaces Conference, Michelle breaks down the strategy TLC has implemented to ensure that there is an ideal culture in place and how they've maintained that as the organisation has grown.
Susan Ronaldson is the NAO's Director for Engagement and Change. She was joined by Steve Mirfin, Head of Skills and Talent, at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference to speak about the measures the NAO has taken to get the best out of its people. Read the transcript and watch the full talk below.
When Donna Hall was the Chief Executive of Wigan Council it was facing the third worst austerity cuts in the country and yet, despite this, they won Council of the Year. The reason for this success was undoubtedly the Wigan Deal that Donna and her team created to transform the way the council worked and listened. At the 2022 Happy Workplaces Conference Donna told us about how the Wigan Deal took shape, the skills they learned in the process and how the deal not only changed Wigan but also influenced other councils to change their ways.
Peter Cheese, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, believes humans will maintain indispensable workplace significance even as technology continues to expand. View Peter's talk from the 2017 Happy Workplaces conference, in which he makes a compelling case for why the future of work is human.
Isabelle Trowler became the chief social worker for Children and Families in 2013. The title of her talk at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference—“3 versus 45”— refers to her general tendency to speak about 45 things. For this talk, Isabelle sought to condense the lessons she’s learned over a 25 year career into three main points she thinks everyone should take on board. Watch the full talk here.
In January 2016, Joost Minnaar and Pim de Morree quit their boring corporate jobs to travel the world and visit the world’s most radical and engaged workplaces.
"Thank you." These simple words are two of the most important in your vocabulary. But when was the last time that you said thank you to a colleague?
As Head of Children’s Services at Monmouthshire County Council, Tracy Jelfs faced the difficult task of improving KPIs, reining in spending and creating a happy, engaged workplace while also delivering quality services to vulnerable children and young people. Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Tracy details her experiences tackling these twin challenges.
Brendan O’Keefe was inspired by the Happy Manifesto and sought to implement its ideas at Epic CiC—an education support public mutual founded in response to the changing landscape of public sector funding. Speaking at the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference, Brendan explains how he took a more active role in stimulating great results and growing a happy workplace.
Webmart was founded 21 years ago by Simon Biltcliffe, based on the principles of Marxism within capitalism. They use capitalism to create profit and the Marxist principles of redistribution of wealth to share it out between their people. Webmart's key benchmarks for success are the Intellectual, Emotional and Financial returns of the business. In this talk from the 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO Conference, Simon explains how these three measurements ensure that the their people are happy and fulfilled.
Vivek Menon is a Senior Director of Sales at Danfoss Power Solutions. He works within the eSteering Department which Vivek describes as “the Tesla of farm equipment”. He recognised the benefits of self-managing teams and, when restructuring the department in 2017, Vivek committed to this model even though every other department at Danfoss was very traditional and hierarchical. In this video, from the 2022 Happy Workplaces Conference, Vivek talks to Happy’s Henry Stewart about how his team works, the benefits of a self-managing team and challenges you to see if your workforce really is empowered.
Pim de Morree is the Co-founder of Corporate Rebels. In 2016 Pim had grown weary of the corporate world and so quit his job and, alongside his friend Joost Minaar, founded Corporate Rebels in an effort to fight against the trudge and despair of outdated workplaces. Corporate Rebels started as a blog documenting Pim and Joost visiting radical workplaces and showing the world of business another way. Over time it has grown into much more than a blog, it’s a movement, a quest to make work fun. In this video, from the 2022 Happy Workplaces Conference, Pim spoke to us about the work done by Corporate Rebels and told us the vital ingredients needed for happy, inspired and motivated teams.
Brendan Martin of UK organisation Public World was serving as the principal carer for his mum when he noticed that UK home care organisations weren't just typically underfunded, but also managed in counterproductive ways. He's been working in collaboration with Dutch home care organisation Buurtzorg to improve home care in the UK. Madelon van Tilburg has been at Buurtzorg since 2011. Buurtzorg differs from her previous employers in that it lets nurses exercise freedom and responsibility in the job they’re trained for. Brendan and Madelon spoke at the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference about how Buurtzorg reinvented Dutch home care and how the same could be done in the UK.
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