What makes a Happy Workplace?

 Yet again we hit upon a topic that is searched an infinite number of times world-wide! In fact Google Search throws up about 248,000,000 results! So if it's such a hot topic, why is it so hard to achieve? 

 I remember choosing this topic as the subject of my dissertation in 2012, when I undertook my MBA (Masters in Business Admin) at DeMontfort University, UK. I was keen to research Employee Engagement.

I'm in Spain on holiday as I write this, so don't have my dissertation to hand, believe it or not (haha), but for all the research and interrogation of results, the one thing that stood out, above all else, was that employees wanted to feel empowered. They also wanted to be appreciated. The two went hand-in-hand.

After all, the employee had secured their role, primarily because their essential and desirable skills were a close match to the Job Description. They could therefore be trusted to make that role their own,...

As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I've decided to focus on happiness .... and why should I choose this as my key topic?

It's a hot topic!!

Happiness isn't something you can pluck from a takeaway list of essential and desirable characteristics, and yet, if you Google the term 'happiness' it returns about 4,360,000,000 results!

In fact Happiness was searched more than ever on Google Search in 2020 (and 2021). People went online to look for hope. 'Google’s year-in search term proved how much people across the world were struggling throughout to survive the COVID-19 pandemic'.

One of the top topics (no surprise here) being 'Health and Happiness'. They go hand-in-hand. I'm sure you'd agree but they are both equally distinct and bear no relationship to one another in terms of definition and to assume so leads to confusion.

For example, you can be of poor health and yet still feel a sense of inner peace and contentment. You may be happy but blissfully...