It's been an up and down few years to say the least. To stay competitive in challenging times, leaders need to ensure they have the right people. And, while the eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score) can help track whether teams are working well together, it is not a headline indicator of employee experience, and it should not be how companies think of wellbeing.

Every business leader wants to build great teams but too many define greatness solely in terms of successful business outcomes. Now I don’t have anything against business success, but I do think that building happy, successful teams is an even smarter move.

At Friday Pulse we often refer to research that shows that happier teams are more successful. It’s most certainly true but why is it? Why does being in a positive mood lead to better business outcomes?

Addressing low employee morale and overall wellbeing is a crucial component of business performance. During periods of social upheaval, organizational change, and more generally in day-to-day operations, it is essential not to overlook the human aspects and challenges that employees face.

Returns on investment have never been more critical as recession is looming. Yet, if we were to offer you a 5X return on investment – in Year One – you would certainly not believe us. There has to be a catch, right?

Hybrid is the new normal with most people returning to the office for at least some of the time. Leaders need to make deliberate efforts to encourage positive social interaction amongst teams, whilst they think how the office fits into their business.

It feels odd to focus on happiness while the last remnants of a pandemic still linger on and there is war in Ukraine. However this weekend it is International Day of Happiness, which was founded by the UN during more peaceful times.  The idea was to focus on the importance of happiness as a universal goal. And while tensions and anxieties are at an all-time high, there are certain things we can control in our own sphere of influence.

Boredom is not only a joy killer. It’s a job killer. But when we think about why people leave jobs, we often focus on stress, not boredom. Here’s why we need an ‘interest’ stimulus.

This week, our article highlights what we’ve learned in 2020 and what we think organizations should hold onto post-pandemic. A crisis is always an opportunity and, this year, we’ve learned a number of self-care and trust lessons that can help us in 2021.

How happy are you at work? Our new individual happiness test, FridayOne looks at your interactions with your team, your role and your organization. A learning feedback loop that can help you reflect and highlights what at work is working well and what isn’t.

This week, Sarah Metcalfe from the Global Happiness at Work Summit interviewed our Founder and CEO, Nic Marks, to discuss the meaning of being happy at work, resilience in COVID-19, and the function of emotions.

In January, we shared what we thought would be the top workplace culture trends for 2020. However, a lot has happened since then!

There’s now uncertainty in organizations as to the shape of things to come, especially as the world comes out of lockdown. So, how did our predictions hold up? And, what does our analysis tell us about the next six months?

Workplaces are now very different places. Business have to be sensitive to the way their employees frame risk as they make decisions on how quickly they open. By looking at your employees through The Five Ways to Happiness at Work, you can empower your people during this time of increased and continued anxiety.

Teams are the instruments of change in a company. Changes in their microcultures are more likely to shape you company’s culture than anything else. In today’s Covid-19 world, flexible team sizes are a must, and small teams are how companies will be able to climb the resilience curve.

Friday Pulse was never designed to pick up global trends — it’s a tool for building positive experiences across the microcultures of an organization. It emphasizes the team experience because, from our data, we know there are as many microcultures in an organization as there are teams.

There is now a growing body of proof on why a positive culture is crucial to the success of a business. But that’s something we’ve known about for a while — happy people do better work. But when COVID-19 struck, our platform found a trend across all of our clients, in every industry, at the same time.

A 5x return on investment in year one is, you may think, both elusive and improbable. Yet, it’s entirely possible when you proactively look after employee wellbeing and team morale.

Putting numbers on what is intangible is, by nature, an estimation compared to other financial drivers within a business. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done. At Friday Pulse, we’ve done just that – estimated the return on investment in wellbeing. And when potential returns are so significant, it shows that the investment is worthwhile.

Estimating the monetary impact of a rise or fall in employee experience and morale is necessarily an estimation process. We use the best, most reliable available information from both external and our own proprietary research.

Lockdown is the biggest shock since the 1920’s. To bounce back, as a priority, businesses need to protect employee wellbeing and team morale.

Every company faces changes and setbacks. Organisations inevitably have to pivot without much planning just to survive and stay competitive. Changes in strategy, business models, restructures and closures are the norm.

Over the last decade we’ve seen some major shifts in the workplace, especially in corporate culture and employee values. At the start of this new decade, we couldn’t resist looking at the data trends leading to 2020 and some of the major influencers that will be trending in the new year and beyond.