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Finding joy in the work you pursue is among one of the most important factors to maintain a happy lifestyle. We typically spend 13 years at work throughout our lifetime, that being said, we should find a workplace we truly enjoy. Successful companies are happy companies. Meaning, they know the value of creating a positive work environment that keeps their employees engaged and happy.

Two of America’s Happiest Companies

We looked into America’s companies with the happiest employees and decided to further research two which we found time and time again on lists of companies highly rated for employee happiness. They are Keller Williams Realty and Nike. These companies seem to share positive core values that can be seen through the way they treat their employees. 

What Are Company Core Values?

Company core values are the fundamental beliefs of an organization. By creating an unwavering guide, core values help companies determine if they are on the right path and fulfilling their goals. Not only are these principles the guiding light behind your company’s ultimate direction, but they also guide its everyday decisions, such as:

• Evaluating & on-boarding new hires 
• Employee engagement & development 
• Gathering helpful evaluations from your team

Whether your business is in its infancy or well-established, creating clarity and a unified vision for every member of your organization is key. By establishing your values, you are better at defining your brand and bringing your team together under a unified banner. 

Keller Williams Core Values: Autonomy and Community 

The structure of Keller Williams provides a sense of autonomy and community for their employees. They promote their company as a stepping stone for their employees to be happy, successful and fulfill their greatest potential. This begins with employee training, where their goal is to train their employees to be independent, to be leaders, and to be prepared to face the trials they may encounter in their career confidently. Keller Williams also wants their office to feel like a family. Some office friendships stay within the confines of the office, but Keller Williams seeks to promote building strong friendships outside of their office walls. One way they do this is by hosting corporate social responsibility events, when internal employees, and sometimes external clients, gather to volunteer for a local cause. 

Nike Core Values: Respect and Corporate Social Responsibility

Nike shows respect for their employees and emphasizes corporate social responsibility through programs they implement. They display their respect for the personal lives and time of their employees through their Summer Fridays program. In this program, employees are able to leave work at noon on Fridays during the summer to encourage their employees to spend time with their family, especially if they have kids at home, or to spend time relaxing at the beach and enjoying the sun. Nike also likes to support causes financially that are important to their employees. This shows that they respect and value their employee’s opinions, and believe in causes that their employees believe in. As a large corporation, people like to see that they put some of their funds towards causes that improve communities, especially those that their own employees are a part of. 

How to Create Your Company Core Values

There are a lot of ways to define your company’s core values and develop principles for success. One proven way is a full-day program that focuses on establishing and defining your core values and developing principles for successful implementation. Through a series of activity-based discussions, the group will identify a maximum of six key core values that everyone can agree on and use to guide the decisions which are made on a daily basis.

How to Implement Core Values and Improve Company Happiness

Let’s take a look a closer look at what it means to implement Core Values like Keller Williams’ and Nike’s and how these lead to improved company happiness. 

Autonomy

When giving your employee's responsibilities stay away from micromanaging, and allow them to handle their tasks as they see fit. This allows them to become more innovative in the way they choose to handle their projects, leading to more personal investment and enjoyment of their work. 

Community

Promoting community within the workplace usually means hosting gatherings outside of the office. Some simple examples include; allowing employees to leave a little early for lunch so everyone can go to a restaurant together or taking an afternoon for offsite team building activities at a park. Corporate retreats are an excellent way to bring employees together as well, especially if in a relaxing or fun setting. People who feel a sense of community at work will be more excited to come to the office each day, knowing that there are people there who care about them and make them smile. 

Respect

Respect can be shown through treating your employee’s time, work, and ideas with value. It is important to treat them in a way that acknowledges that they are skilled, have a life outside of the office, and have intelligent, and creative ideas. This can be displayed more specifically by creating hours for employees with children that allow them to pick up their kids from school, verbally expressing appreciation for a job well-done, and often opening up the floor to hear what they have to say. These actions make a boss seem more human, like someone who understands them and appreciates what they do for the company.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Companies that participate in corporate social responsibility show that they care about more than just their profits. This can either be done financially or through volunteering. Employees will likely be happier when they know that their work is contributing to a greater cause, whether it is making more sales provides extra revenue to fund these programs, or just knowing that their company finds it important to be donating some of their resources towards a good cause. This will allow each employee to feel a higher sense of purpose in their daily jobs.

Having happy employees leads to a multitude of benefits, such as increased company loyalty, increased creativity, and higher quality work. Creating a happy workspace benefits everyone and can only lead to more positivity, find ways today to make your office space happier!

Contact us today to learn more about our corporate wellness programs & organizational development programs

To learn more about Onyx and our corporate wellness programs, visit www.onyxteams.com or email info@onyxoffsites.com. Connect with Onyx on Facebook @OnyxTeamsCA, Instagram @OnyxTeams, LinkedIn@PositiveAdventures-OnyxTeamsand Twitter @OnyxTeams. 

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Successful leaders know the power of strong company culture and morale. Many managers make it a priority by setting aside time every month for team bonding and team-building activities. If you don’t have much time or space, but you want to do something with your group to build up morale and communication, here are 3 activities from our bag o’ tricks that you can do in-house:

#1 – Hula Hoop Pass

Have your group stand in a circle holding hands and pass a hula hoop around the circle while you time them. They cannot let go of each other's hands, and cannot use their fingers to help pass it along. They should encourage each other and help each other while they are passing the hoop around!

See if they can improve their time each round. This initiative helps groups with goal setting and time management and gives your team a break with some shared laughter. 

#2 – Biggest Fan

Have your group get into pairs and play rock-paper scissors with their partner. The loser becomes the winner’s ‘Biggest Fan’, and follows the winner around cheering them on while facing off with a new opponent. Each time there is a face-off, the loser and their fans join the winner’s line of fans!

Eventually, there are only two people left and one becomes the overall winner. After they are done celebrating, ask your group how it felt to lose the face-off, how it felt to cheer on the winner, and how it felt to be cheered on by the group.

#3 – Helium Stick

With a hula hoop or a lightweight stick (a tent pole works great), have your group line up in two rows facing each other or around the hoop. Ask the group to point both index fingers (like guns) and hold their arms out. Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers so everyone’s index fingers are touching the stick. The challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground while every person’s fingers are in contact at all times.

Pinching or grabbing the pole is not allowed – it must rest on top of fingers. As the team lowers the stick, emphasize that the stick (or hoop) must stay level and that all index fingers must stay in contact. If a finger comes off or grabs the stick, give a 5-10 second penalty. The secret (keep it to yourself) is that the collective upwards pressure created by everyone’s fingers tends to be greater than the weight of the stick. As a result, the more a group tries, the more the stick tends to ‘float’ upwards. Eventually, the group needs to calm down, concentrate, and very slowly, patiently lower the Helium Stick – easier said than done!

Sometimes the simplest activities can reveal the most about your group, the strengths of the group, along with areas for improvement.

Looking for more team-building ideas? Check out our article on 8 Ridiculously Fun and Easy Team Building Activities for more!

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Corporate Social Responsibility Guide

As society continues to shift in both demographics and technological advancement, it’s no longer enough to offer good pay and steady work. Consumers and employees alike are asking, “What does the company do for its community and staff?” Corporate Social Responsibility, or CSR, is a type of self-regulation for businesses.

Also known as corporate citizenship, CSR is a way for companies to enhance their community, employees, and environment. Jen Boynton, Vice President of Member Engagement at 3BL Media summed it up best:

“Corporate responsibility is simply a way for companies to take responsibility for the social and environmental impacts of their business operations. A robust CSR program is an opportunity for companies to demonstrate their good corporate citizenship… and protect the company from outsized risk by looking at the whole social and environmental sphere that surrounds the company.”

The 4 Pillars of CSR

CSR efforts generally fall into 4 categories:

#1: Environmental: The environment is one of the core intentions of CSR programs. Businesses often leave a large carbon footprint and taking steps to reduce those footprints is good for the company and community. These might include sustainable business practices like recycling at the office, finding ways to eliminate single-use plastics, or purchasing recyclable paper. Utilizing renewable energy sources is also an effective way to reduce a company’s negative environmental impact.

#2: Philanthropy: Donating money, products, or services to the community or social causes is another type of CSR that is very direct. The more resources a company has, the higher the burden for philanthropic CSR. This could include direct donations, partnering with a charity, or even planning and implementing a service project. PLUS… most, if not all, of this type of giving back is tax-deductible.

#3: Ethical Employment: Companies can demonstrate CSR by treating employees fairly and ethically. This is especially true for businesses operating in multiple locations where labor laws vary. Corporate responsibility, especially when it comes to employees, should be determined by an ethical standard rather than a legalistic standard. Ethical treatment of employees should be equitable throughout the company, regardless of minimum legal standards.

#4: Volunteering: Volunteering shows what you’re really made of and allows opportunities for employees to become directly involved in service. In addition, you may choose to attend community volunteer events as a company or sponsor employee participation in charity events. This can be especially important as sponsoring employee volunteer time, either directly or through paid time off, benefits the community, employees, and public relations.

In addition to making a positive impact on your stakeholders, there are many benefits to CSR, including employee retention, positive company image, and personal and professional development. So how can CSR positively impact your business? 

Employee Retention

A 2016 study by Cone Communications found that 93% of employees want to work for a company that cares about them as individuals; 74% say their job is more fulfilling when they are provided with opportunities to make a positive impact on social and environmental issues. In this way, CSR leads to increased employee engagement, workplace happiness, and morale.

Happy employees are more productive employees and better ambassadors of your brand. You could argue that engaged and fulfilled employees are the greatest asset your company can acquire. Happy employees also tend to stick around. Turnover is costly and can have far-reaching effects on your business. You can practice corporate citizenship and retain happy employees. As previously mentioned, offering corporate sponsorship or paid time off for volunteering is especially beneficial as it allows employees to take charge as active participants while identifying the company’s full support and participation.

Positive Company Image

That same study found that 91% of global consumers expect companies to do more than make a profit, but also operate responsibly to address social and environmental issues. Retaining customers is no easy feat, and acquiring new clients is even harder. Demonstrating environmental and social responsibility goes a long way in helping consumers see your business as a benefit to their community.

84% said they seek out responsible products whenever possible, which means your efforts, both environmental and charitable, make your products and services more appealing to a clear majority of consumers. 66% of global consumers would pay more to support companies that are committed to making a social and environmental impact. Not only does this statistic lend itself to perceived value, it offsets the cost of CSR. Investing in a CSR program invariably comes at a price, but that cost can be easily offset by consumer trends towards responsible business.

Personal and Professional Development

CSR can positively impact employee attitudes and expectations by giving them a different perspective of their community and providing a new skill set. CSR initiatives can enhance your team’s soft skills, like team building and skill sharing. Participation in volunteer work or environmental initiatives helps staff to grow personally, from new awareness of social issues to self-awareness of their environmental impact. CSR is not a one-off initiative. It needs to be fostered and embraced throughout the company. Getting employees involved will have a catalytic effect on your company culture, and CSR will become an integral part of your business, rather than an extra-curricular.

At Positive Adventures, we believe strongly that businesses of all sizes should demonstrate social accountability, and we work with others to help implement programs that are effective and lasting.

Some examples of CSR initiatives include:

• Donation-based Team Building Programs (bikes for kids, care packages for vets, beehive boxes for the world at large, raised garden beds for schools, and much more)
• Convention Caring Squares (large-scale give back projects that can be done from the convention center floor during your conference)
• Off-site Projects (Landscaping, Playground Building, Painting Murals, etc.)
• Charity Runs (5k or Fun Run to raise money for a good cause!)

At an off-site meeting or planning a multi-day company event? Combine an employee wellness day, team development program, and a dose of corporate social responsibility to reinvigorate your staff.

Are you interested in implementing a CSR program for your company? Need help sourcing a nonprofit partner or planning and coordinating a meaningful project? Contact us for information on creating effective and customized programs that are perfect for your business!

Our founder Ryan Shortill shares insights and lessons learned from years of experience about the current need for greater employee engagement.  Read the full article...