Whilst the pandemic is over, the way we work has been permanently impacted. Over 50% of people in the UK now work remotely at least one day a week, with 15% being fully remote. But how has the pandemic impacted our happiness at work?

The results of the biggest annual happiness survey in the world were released earlier this week: the 2023 World Happiness Report (WHR). It covers over 100 countries and ranks them by how happy their citizens are. Carrying out over 100 representative samples of national populations every year is a hugely complex statistical task. And are the results really that useful? I think it’s questionable.

Leading a team is never easy, but it’s especially hard when you are under constant time pressure. Delivering results is always going to seem more urgent than looking after the people side of team leadership. Yet if things go wrong and you end up with an unhappy team, then everything becomes a lot more stressful. So, investing a little time every week can save a lot of time (and stress) over coming weeks.

People want the great positive experiences at work, but they also want to avoid the bad, unfair, disrespectful ones.

Recent years have created a fertile environment for burnout and brought about shifts in working habits that organizations are still navigating. Traditional companies are working harder than ever, while the increase in hybrid or remote-first cultures presents its own challenges.

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.

How to say no gracefully in business is a key skill to develop. Taking on too much work can have a severe psychological impact, possibly even leading to full burnout. Here we explore how to say no at the right time, in the right way, creating healthy, polite boundaries in the process.

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.

Leading a team isn’t easy. You are under pressure from above and below. There are targets to be met and people, with different personalities and motivations, to manage. It’s a tough gig. But what makes for a successful team? How important is the team leader? Which skills matter?

Friday Pulse’s CEO Nic Marks talks with Lucy Beck CEO of A2Z who help companies improve efficiency and productivity with great cloud-based software platforms.

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?

How to scale a company efficiently and effectively has become a whole business area, with strategies, coaches and books of all stripes. One of the biggest concerns scaling companies have is how to grow with their culture intact. Yet, this entirely possible with a team-first focus, rather than a top-down approach.

Companies often look to perks as a way of increasing staff engagement, but effective, long-lasting change comes from cultivating a work environment that satisfies people’s core psychological needs.

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.

We moved to a 4-day week in August 2020 and, in doing so, joined the ranks of a growing number of organizations.

So, how did it go for us? 

In our series of articles on The Science of Happiness, we’re exploring our Five Ways to Happiness at Work framework with co-creators Nic Marks and Dr. Jody Aked.

Inspire is the fifth of The Five Ways and is key to staying motivated in our careers. Within this interview, Nic and Jody discuss how leaders can inspire their people and help them find meaning in their work.

As we enter year three of the pandemic, today is Blue Monday — the supposed most depressing day of the year that ties holiday blues with winter and job dissatisfaction. And, it’s clear that people are struggling amid the continued uncertainty. So, what can we do to beat Blue Monday this year and ensure 2022 is about thriving, not just surviving?

It’s the end of another year living with the pandemic and with the omicron variant surging, we continue to face further ambiguity. Traditionally, many companies throw some kind of Christmas party before the holidays commence. However, once again, this year office parties will look different with many companies opting to cancel or hold smaller, online get-togethers.

With the dust settling on COP26 and the environment crisis hitting the headlines more than ever, businesses now have a pivotal role to play in allaying employees’ concerns.

In our series of articles on the Science of Happiness, we’re exploring The Five Ways to Happiness at Work with co-creators Nic Marks and Dr. Jody Aked.

Challenge is the fourth of The Five Ways and is a key component of an enriching and happy work experience. In this interview, Nic and Jody discuss how leaders can both challenge and support their people.

In our series of articles on the Science of Happiness, we’re exploring The Five Ways to Happiness at Work with co-creators Nic Marks and Dr. Jody Aked.

Empower is the third of The Five Ways and is critical to enabling your colleagues to do their best work. Nic and Jody show us how leaders can start trusting their people more.

In our new series on The Science of Happiness, we’re exploring The Five Ways to Happiness at Work with creators Nic Marks and Dr. Jody Aked.

Be Fair is the second of The Five Ways and sets the foundation for a successful wellbeing plan. Nic and Jody tell us why.

With the end of the pandemic feeling so close yet so far, many feel trapped by uncertainty. What can you do to help your team through this time of continued disruption?

In our new series on the science of happiness, we’re exploring The Five Ways to Happiness at Work with creators Nic Marks and Dr. Jody Aked.

With Connect being the most important component of The Five Ways, Nic and Jody show us how teams can create real friendships in the workplace.

Every business that switched to remote working at the beginning of the pandemic must now consider the return to the office and review their options. However, asking people if they want to return to the office before they’ve actually tried returning is an inherently flawed approach.

The future of employee engagement KPIs lies in prioritizing happiness and well-being in the workplace. Traditional measures of engagement are being replaced by a more holistic approach that focuses on creating a positive and fulfilling work experience for employees.

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.

The 9th World Happiness Report acts as an excellent benchmark for our wellbeing data. And, Friday Pulse clients have fared significantly better than their peers during the pandemic. Here’s a detailed look at how this happened.

It may feel odd to celebrate International Day of Happiness amid COVID-19. Still, in many respects, the ongoing pandemic has made happiness at work evermore important – particularly as the boundaries between work and home have become increasingly blurred over recent months due to lockdowns and the associated shift to remote work.

There’s now some reason to be optimistic, and many employers are beginning to look beyond pandemic conditions and hoping to accelerate their growth. To achieve this, 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.

Our hopes and expectations for 2021 are admittedly low — it just needs to be better than 2020. But even with the slow rollout of vaccines, there is little to believe that the first part of the year will be any different (though our cousins in the US may feel the new start with a new President). Even so, some trends have stood out to us for the year ahead.

As managers continue to play an essential role in determining how well their organizations navigate the ongoing pandemic, we provide some practical, positive advice for beating the Blue Monday ‘blues’ this year.

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.

Tony Hsieh was a pioneer in employee happiness and wellbeing, and firmly believed they were essential to business success. As an early friend and supporter of Friday Pulse, our Founder & CEO, Nic Marks offers his own personal tribute to Tony.

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.

As World Mental Health Day approaches, it’s our belief that leaders need to pay attention to their team’s mental health and take active steps to preventing burnout.

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.

It’s increasingly difficult for workers in all sectors to find the right balance in work/life. Remote or hybrid working is normal for many, and yet it comes with a cost. Friday Pulse’s latest data shows that work life balance has deteriorated across the board and isn’t bouncing back. Here we look at the importance of work life balance and give tips to improve it.

The size of an organization is often overlooked when it comes to building (or rebuilding) happy teams. While the principles of employee happiness and engagement apply whether you have 10 or 10,000 employees, the specific dynamics and challenges can vary significantly based on organizational size. Our research has found that larger organizations have less happy people.

Where once the average response to “How have you felt at work this week?” was happy, the new normal is now “Ok”. The costs of a workforce becoming just “Ok” about work can be high but connecting with your team in better ways may be a feasible solution.

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental health is a critical part of our business. Our purpose at Friday Pulse is to improve wellbeing in the workplace. It’s our reason for being – now more than ever, as we all navigate our way through the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The week also provides an opportunity for us to reflect on The Five Ways to Wellbeing — how we designed them and their legacy. A precursor to The Five Ways to Happiness at Work, their development would eventually come to shape Friday Pulse, the direction we take and, ultimately, who we are as a business.

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.

It’s now clear that the Coronavirus pandemic is not going to be a short, sharp emergency. How people cope with the fallout is dependent on the depth and quality of the relationships they had before lockdown.

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

Today is International Day of Happiness – the irony! Yet, now more than ever, the science of happiness has a place in the world in mitigating the ongoing fear and anxiety sweeping our nations.

It’s Valentine’s Day. The day we celebrate that most supreme of human emotions – love. It’s also the day when rampant commercialization of romantic love steps into overdrive. Regardless of your feelings towards this holiday, it’s a perfect time to talk about (positive) emotions.

Blue Monday – when lack of sunlight, the burden of post-Christmas debt and festive family rifts collide with job dissatisfaction and the overall down of being back from the holidays. The most depressing day of the year…

As an organization which loves data and people, especially data aboutpeople, today is an exciting day for us. The release of a new happiness study from Oxford University highlights the impact of positive mood on sales.