Search Results for: happiness

July 10, 2014

Holland beats Germany in workplace happiness and productivity

by Sara Bean • Flexible working, News, Workplace

Holland may have been knocked out of the World Cup but they do have something to be cheerful about. New research has found the Dutch are the happiest employees in Europe, spending 57.2 per cent of their time at work happy. The Danish and Norwegians rank just behind the Dutch at 48.5 per cent and 43.9 per cent, respectively. The Swiss (36.8%), Italians (37.2%) and Germans (37.4%) are some way off. The British fall somewhere in the middle at 42.4 per cent. Happiness at Work was measured by breaking the concept into key identifiable components: positive factors such as recognition, respect, and time on task; and negative indicators such as likelihood of leaving or sick days. The study from the iOpener Institute of People and Performance, also shows a clear relationship between happiness at work and personal productivity with the Dutch beating the Germans in achieving their tasks. More →

March 21, 2014

Why work should be a key focus in improving our happiness

by Jessica Pryce-Jones • Comment, Flexible working, Workplace

The iOpener Institute for People & Performance is an official partner of the UN International Day of Happiness, which took place this week. Here, iOpener’s Joint CEOs Jessica Pryce-Jones & Julia Lindsay explain why work should be a key focus of improving happiness. The UN International Day of Happiness is designed to recognize that ‘progress’ is about increasing human happiness and wellbeing as well as growing the economy. The UN’s focus this year is on ‘reclaiming happiness’. The origins of the day lie in the July 2011 UN General Assembly resolution which recognized happiness as a fundamental human goal. In April 2012 the first ever UN conference on Happiness took place. On the back of this, they designated 20th March as an annual worldwide focus on celebrating and growing happiness. More →

March 20, 2014

Happiness and wellbeing more important to people than economy

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Whatever their opinion on yesterday’s Budget, the vast majority of Britons think levels of happiness and wellbeing matter more than the size of the economy. In a YouGov poll commissioned to mark today’s United Nation’s International Day of Happiness, a majority (87%) of UK adults were found to prefer the “greatest overall happiness and wellbeing”, rather than the “greatest overall wealth” (8%), for the society they live in. And despite the Conservative Party’s much lampooned attempts to appeal to working class people who they presume enjoy bingo and beer, this majority was found to be broadly consistent across all regions, age groups and social classes. LSE economist and co-founder of Action for Happiness, Lord Richard Laya says the results show that more priority should be given to mental health and wellbeing. More →

January 20, 2014

Blue Monday hype obscures the real debate about workplace happiness

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Workplace, Workplace design

So here it is. Blue Monday. Officially the most depressing day of the year. We say ‘officially’, but like the idea of ‘Body Odour’ its common usage hides the fact that it was originally created as part of a 2005 PR campaign. For Sky’s travel channel. The whole idea of Blue Monday is couched in a pseudo-mathematical equation which includes factors like the weather, levels of debt, time since Christmas, low levels of motivation and, apparently, an unspecified variable known simply as ‘D’. Now, of course, none of this is either easy to define or measure and while we mock the idea, it’s not so far removed from Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempts to measure ‘happiness’ as an alternative to GDP.

November 25, 2013

How a 70 year old happiness model is still helping us to define wellness

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Workplace

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the model that still introduces most of us to notions of what makes people happy and fulfilled. Maslow first proposed the model in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review, developing his ideas throughout the rest of his life. His work has been parallelled and built upon by other researchers since, but few have had the influence and longevity. Maslow’s hierarchical characterisation of human needs by category is ingrained into the minds of students all over the world. In the first of two pieces to mark this anniversary, Cathie Sellars of Workspace argues that Maslow continues to offers us the ideal definition of wellness.

September 13, 2013

UK staff showing higher levels of happiness – except those in finance sector

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Fresh evidence that those working within the financial sector must be in it for the money as, following the news earlier this week that they get the least amount of sleep, they’re also the most unhappy with their work. A third (32%) describe themselves as unhappy at work compared to the 78 per cent of those working in sales, media, and marketing who class themselves as happy. Overall, the number of British workers who are happy at work has jumped by a fifth (20%) compared to this time last year according to Office Angels’ ‘Happiness at Work’ study. More than half (56%) of workers stated they were happy at work during quarter two 2013, compared to just a third (36%) during quarter two 2012. More →

January 24, 2013

Happiness levels in UK workplaces growing, says Government.

by Mark Eltringham • Knowledge, News, Public Sector, Workplace

The general level of satisfaction in the UK’s workplaces has increased significantly in spite of ongoing economic uncertainty according to a report from the Government published yesterday. The study of more than 21,000 employees, found that job satisfaction levels actually increased in 2012 with a fifth (20 per cent) of employees either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with all aspects of their job, compared to just 16 per cent in 2004 when the survey last appeared. The report also showed that levels of commitment to individual employers had also increased over the same period, with the proportion of employees who said they shared the values of their organisation up from 55 per cent to 65 per cent. More →

October 2, 2024

Finger on the pulse: Is biometrics the future of workplace wellbeing?

by Alex Dunham • Comment, Wellbeing, Workplace design

Around a third of companies already use wearables to track their team’s activity and better gauge their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, according to Deloitte’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends Report. Deloitte predicts that usage will increase to two thirds by 2027. Neurotechnology, which uses electronics to read brain activity and can contextualise employee behaviour and interactions, is also anticipated to ramp up dramatically in use in that timeframe, from 3 percent to 31 percent. More →

September 26, 2024

Small businesses are aware of benefits of using AI, but don’t know where to start

by Neil Franklin • AI, Business, News

According to a new poll from hiring platform Indeed, around a third of small businesses are scared to implement AI, despite acknowledging the many apparent benefits of doing so. According to Indeed’s survey of 1,000 business leaders at British small businesses, 41 percent of small firms want to integrate the technology into their business, but don’t know where to start. This paralysis means that small businesses – which make up over 99 percent of the nation’s total businesses – are missing out on improvements to costs, efficiency and overall work satisfaction that they themselves say it can bring about, the report argues. More →

September 2, 2024

Arts and crafts boost personal wellbeing more than work, study finds

by Marvin Gort • News, Wellbeing

A new study suggests that engaging in arts and crafts activities can significantly enhance personal wellbeing, offering greater benefits than traditional employment. The research, conducted by a team from Anglia Ruskin University and published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, found that activities like pottery, painting, knitting, and woodworking can increase life satisfaction, happiness, and the sense that life is worthwhile. These findings suggest that arts and crafts, often seen as mere hobbies, could be a powerful tool for improving mental health and wellbeing on a broad scale. More →

July 19, 2024

Book review: Workspace Made Easy

by Mark Eltringham • Comment, Facilities management, Property, Workplace design

There’s a dog-eared, yellowing paperback on my bookshelf called Understanding Offices. Written by Joanna Eley and Alexi Marmot, it dates from 1995. It is a handbook for everybody who needed to know how to develop a workplace strategy during the infant phase of the digital and cultural revolution of the late 20th Century. I used to refer to it all the time, but now it serves mainly as a reminder of how much has changed over the past thirty years, and also how little. More →

June 28, 2024

Majority of working parents say they would look for a new job if they were required to travel

by Jayne Smith • News

New research among working parents claims that three quarters (74 percent) would look for a new job if they were asked to travel to a central office five days a week. The study, undertaken by International Workplace Group among more than 1,000 parents in hybrid working roles, highlights that 83 percent said they were better parents as a result of the flexibility offered by hybrid working. 89 percent say they are closer to their children and are more present (92 percent), while 86 percent say their family’s quality of life has improved. More →