Editor’s note: Nat Measley is the CEO and managing partner at The Fun Dept., Philadelphia.
To have fun or not to have fun? That is the question.
Are you curious how companies like Google, Zappos, Southwest and others develop those winning workplace cultures, with such high productivity and profitability? Regardless of the industry, there is a common thread running through the highest performing companies: the inherent or stated culture of fun. Among companies denoted as “great” in Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, a whopping 81 percent of employees say they work in a fun environment.
If you look closely at the highly successful companies mentioned above, they incorporate fun into the fabric of their culture. Fun at work may not be a silver bullet that produces superior results on its own but a workplace environment that prioritizes fun will rise above the competition. With stout leadership, dedicated management and strong company values, company-wide fun can take you over the top.
Prioritizing fun in the workplace will have a direct impact throughout your company in a myriad of ways but there are a few specific areas that can be highlighted.
Organizational health
Everyone would agree that a healthy and happy employee is a more productive employee, right? Fun can be an important component of emotional wellness. Often, fun is used to encourage participation or bolster existing wellness programs. The attention on emotional intelligence in the workplace and its impact on the bottom line is rapidly gaining momentum. For most organizations human capital is the largest asset and the single largest expense. It seems like a natural place to focus on, considering it will have the largest impact on the bottom line. We have already seen the biggest advances in technology and those investments today are producing marginal returns and impact on productivity. The next revolution in the wo...