Recently, the Northwest Employee Engagement Group held a conference organised by Eleanor Smith and our very own Director of Fun, Sunny Sandwell, was delighted to be sitting on the panel at the event. The hosts for the day were Jason Kingston FRSA, Mike Wilson and Andrew Stirrup. Each of them are fantastic advocates for what the conference was all about - building a dynamic and thriving culture in the workplace and it was great to see over 100 businesses and HR professionals across the UK attending, who are interested in doing just that.
When Sunny arrived at the conference, she was greeted with an amazing selection of cakes (including bags to take some home in) and I think from there she knew the day was going to be a good one! Sunny had the pleasure of sitting alongside Andrea Challis from Partington’s Holiday Parks, Jane Buck MCIPD from Silent Night, Amy Stokes from Forbes Solicitors and Anna Taylor FCIPD from Tensar International and said it was "Great to hear each of them enthusiastically share how they've implemented fun into their workplaces and the significant impact it has had in creating truly happy workplaces." With mental health and wellness within the workplace becoming more of a challenge than ever before, everyone agreed that having fun is an important factor for any business wanting to create an environment that employees look forward to being in.
When it was Sunny's turn to share her thoughts, she spoke on the importance of creating the perfect balance of fun, so that both the business and its people are actually benefitted. This includes making sure that all fun has a purpose e.g., improving teamwork skills or mental wellbeing, and is part of a company's core values as opposed to being forced or just a box that gets ticked off. She went on to explain that fun doesn't mean placing a pool table in reception that is used once or twice before the novelty wears off and should instead be structurally implemented into the culture of the organisation, so that the whole team is engaged.
In the afternoon, the panel were split off into groups, joining the audience to explore the '4 Enablers of Engagement' and the Culture Design Canvas to build a framework of what great culture looks like and how to achieve it and this was an extremely valuable activity for everyone who attended (even expert in fun, Sunny, was able to learn lots!).
Building a positive dynamic and thriving culture should be something that every business owner strives towards and being The Fun Experts, we want to help where we can. To start implementing fun into your organisation, check out our Range of Equipment Targeting Employee Engagement.
