How to Have Fun in the Workplace

“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”

                                                                                                                           Dwight D. Eisenhower

Many high profile companies such as Google, Dropbox, Zappos and Southwest Airlines have made it a priority to inject fun into the workplace. It is done to increase profits, increase employee retention and create loyalty from their customers. The employees are the face of the organization whether they are on the front lines with the customer or behind the scenes. We have all heard some version of Happy employees = Happy customers = Happy profits.

Many offices at Dropbox and at Google provide scooters for their employees to get from place to place. They offer game rooms and activities to give employees a break. A video from Bloomberg highlights Google’s New York City office. Click to view video.

If you’re shopping cart is empty at Zappos.com, you will see:

“Your shopping cart is empty, and it's a little sad. Its sole purpose in life is to hold all the cool shoes, clothing, gadgets and more that are available to buy at Zappos.com. So please make your shopping cart happy and give its life purpose!”

Southwest Airlines encourages their flight attendants to sing to the passengers on the flight and play games like starting a toilet paper roll in the front of each aisle and racing it to the back. This is a You Tube video of one Southwest Airlines flight attendant. Fun for the flight crew and the passengers. Click to view video.

At Creative Business Solutions, we like fun. One of the major events for our staff is the planning and filming of our annual birthday video. This video is sent to our clients on their birthday. It's a little crazy and a lot of fun for our staff and the result, we hope, is fun for our clients. This is the video we have used for the last year. We just completed our new birthday video for the next year and you'll have to wait until your birthday to see it…if you’re on our client list! Click to view video.

Another event we had fun at this year was the Party With a Purpose at Christmas time. We had a blast shopping, wrapping and delivering our gifts to the families we adopted. Events like this are good for the staff, good for the business and the community.

What do you do to inject fun into your workplace? Are you concerned with how much fun is too much or how to inject fun that is applicable for all generations? Creative Business Solutions can facilitate a creative session that will generate ideas for your workplace. We cover generational differences, workplace culture, cost analysis and conduct employee satisfaction surveys. If we can be of assistance to your business, please contact us today.