We’ve put together a list of 10 things we’ve done to promote our team happiness level
At Brightec, one of our core values is Happy & Profitable. To celebrate this week’s International Day of Happiness, we’ve put together a list of 10 things we’ve done to help team happiness. These have been tried and tested, but can be adapted to suit your team culture and style.
Click here to read more about how we created company values that accurately reflect who we are and how we work.
Kick off your week with a team breakfast. It helps transition from weekend mode to work mode and starts the week on a high. Eating together is also a great way to build friendship and connection.
Take time to publicly honour and encourage different team members for specific things they’ve done in the last week. At Brightec we have a Kudos Board that we look at weekly, where anyone can give anyone Kudos for anything. Receiving Kudos publicly creates a culture of encouragement, motivation and appreciation. Read more about how we use kudos to encourage our team.
Pair each team member with a Mentor for professional growth to progress in their job role. Feeling like you’re moving forward in your job role, with a clear pathway for progression, is a surefire way to increase job satisfaction.
We also give each person a Coach, someone to focus on the individual, their life and their wellbeing. Ensuring the team feel known, seen and understood really helps their day-to-day happiness.
Junior Product Manager, Ben, commented; ‘Knowing Brightec has my best interests at heart, makes me want to give my best.
Take time away from regular client work for R&D. Use that time for collaborative training, but also give complete freedom to your staff to use these days how they want; whether that be to research something, develop a new skill, learn a new technology or even just take some space away from the studio to think about their goals.
Learn something fun! Go be inspired. Find something that sparks joy. Click here for more ways to to be intentional about the time spent on ‘staying hungry’ at work.
Arrange team training days away, with industry experts to upskill and inspire the team. We’ve found StrengthHouse to be a huge benefit for our team, so we do regular training days with them.
We plan and budget for team socials too – ranging from escape rooms to go-karting, pub lunches to seaside walks. The team love these occasions and it’s worth the investment.
Invest in your physical workspace and create an environment your team wants to be in. Use open plan hot-desks and multiple breakout rooms and build a space that encourages human connection and relationship building.
We designed our studio specifically for our team’s needs so it benefits the business and serves the people in it. Even on our work-from-home days, we still have members of the team who choose to come into the studio. Read more about why our studio is more than a great view from your desk and close proximity to good ice cream and coffee.
Glitching software and equipment that needs to be turned off and on again three times a day doesn’t bring anyone joy.
Ensure each team member has the very best tech available to do their job. We plan and budget to give our team the best available laptop at that time, so they can do their job efficiently and well, but also enjoy their tech in the process.
We structure our agency to ensure each team member only does a max of 85% billable hours. This way, each team member has space in their week for their own growth and time to connect with others in the team. We plan our sprints to a reasonable pace, so the team aren’t overstretched or burdened meaning we don’t have to ask anyone to do overtime.
Surprise individuals in your team with gifts; a food package, flowers or a voucher etc. to say well done, we see you. A small gift now and then goes a long way to show appreciation.
This is a simple app we built that plugs into your Slack. At 11 am, your team will get a private notification asking how’s your day going 1–10? The results go to the Directors and HR. When people are not doing well, check in, follow up and show care. Click here to learn more about HappyTrack for your team.
Like every other team, ours has experienced considerable upheaval over the years. We don’t know the magic ingredient to a happy team, but we make sure we keep exploring ways to reward our team and how these benefit our business.
What are your favourite ways to make your team happy? We’d love to know.
Click here for more about how we take care of team wellbeing at Brightec.
Search over 400 blog posts from our team
Subscribe to our monthly digest of blogs to stay in the loop and come with us on our journey to make things better!