International Week of Happiness at Work

Are you happy at work? We spend a lot of time there and all of the research points to the fact that a happy workforce is an engaged, resilient and productive workforce. What’s more, happy workers feel the benefit in their life outside of the office too, and often make a more positive contribution to their communities.

The International Week of Happiness at Work (23rd – 27th September) is a new initiative originating from the Netherlands, which was created to encourage employers to make happiness a priority.

The initiative is designed to help promote happy, healthy workplaces – something which chimes with our own purpose at Freshwalks.  A business clearly demonstrating its commitment to creating happy and healthy lifestyles is Freshwalks partner, Bruntwood Works. That’s why we asked Andrew Cooke for his take on International Week of Happiness at Work Week and what the business is doing to ensure making its people smile is top of the agenda.

Andrew Cooke, Regional Director for Bruntwood Works, said:

“A key aspect of our guiding purpose is to create healthier, happier lifestyles – for our own people and our customers. From partnering with organisations tackling health inequalities to offering fitness classes in our buildings, physical and mental wellbeing is hugely important to us.

Most recently, we’ve embraced the netwalking movement, Freshwalks to give our people the opportunity to get away from their screens and increase their activity levels and connections. As corporate members, our colleagues are offered the opportunity to participate in a regular programme of urban and rural walks. The urban walks are snappy, educational and quite typically fit around a lunch hour – reinvigorating people for the afternoon ahead. The rural walks are more involved, often meaning a half or full day out of the office, hiking across moors, along beaches or through forests. Routes come in all shapes and sizes from 5km strolls around local suburban parks to epic 30km treks in the hills.

What they all do is allow colleagues a chance to improve their social connections (something that makes us all happy!), get away from their desks (and ideally technology too) allowing them to switch off and defrag the brain for a while.

The outcomes are proved by science and evidence is overwhelming. Walking encourages your brain to release endorphins, a neurochemical that not only boost your mental health and reduces sensitivity to stress and pain but can also make you feel euphoric. It’s early days for our teams but we’re already seen marked improvements with people commenting on what a mood-booster the walks are, which makes for a happy team.”

Our partners at Bruntwood have been going to great efforts to make their business a happy place of work for their employees. How will you and your business contribute to the International Week of Happiness at Work this week?

Let us know how you’re celebrating by getting in touch on social media.