Happiness doesn’t just happen – here’s how to create it!
August marked the 25th year of Happiness Happens Month and here at ThinkOTB we believe happiness in the workplace is something that should be celebrated all year long – not just in August. In this blog we look at how we’ve been creating happiness at our marketing agency.
Why is happiness so important in the workplace?
Happiness month is an annual celebration that inspires people to embrace happiness and spread it to others. This initiative serves as a reminder that happiness is not just a temporary feeling but a lasting mindset that can be developed and sustained.
Our founder Tina Catling uses psychology to shape much of her work in innovation and business change. She also uses it to shape how we create fun and happiness here at ThinkOTB… and it’s incredible how much impact such a simple thing can have on a workplace.
Forbes published the results from one study that revealed happy employees are 20% more productive in the workplace than unhappy employees. In another study, Management Science highlights that the effects on productivity are widespread. It states that ‘[e]ach one-unit increase in happiness (on a scale of 0-10) led to a 12% increase in productivity’. Lorman also shows that unhappy employees cost companies, with happy employees outperforming their competition by 20%.
Happiness at ThinkOTB
Over the last few months we’ve been working on our happiness boosting activities:
Team away days – We had an office sweepstake and headed into Headingley to celebrate the Euros semi-finals! This was a great team-building experience especially for Izzy and Sam to get to know the team better. In the next few weeks we’re also swapping the office for a lovely autumn walk around Harewood House.
Employee survey – We regularly share an anonymous survey with the team to help understand what they enjoy within our marketing agency. We’ve found there’s a lot of happy times linked to working together to win new clients and deliver creative work. It’s also important to have fun with the team outside of the office.
Positive culture – We’re a busy and relatively small team, but there’s a great atmosphere when we get our heads together and achieve strong results. Recently we all worked together on a large campaign and strategy piece for one of our clients. Not only did we have a brilliant outcome, we strengthened our team relationships too.
In fact we’ve been building on our happiness activities since Happiness Happens Month 2020. You can read what we were up to all that time ago, here.
If you need some ideas on boosting year-round happiness in your workplace, email jo.waddington@otbagency.co.uk. We’d love to help you develop a more positive workplace culture where everyone thrives.
