Member Article

Can you drive the fun bus to work?

Co-Founders Paul Tooth and Paul Harris from BrightHR discuss the importance of leadership when introducing engagement, and the importance of being a team-player to sustain fun culture at work.

One of life’s first lessons, says Paul Tooth, is to ‘treat people how you wish to be treated,’ and while it sounds like basic common sense, it is a very similar principle when applied to engagement in business.

No longer working in a ‘nine until five’ culture, the office as we once knew it is changing and, with that change, comes a need to create a sustained engaged work environment. We have to create the office we would want to work in and lead.

It is an old sales industry saying; ‘people buy people first’, and with that, The Pauls discuss the first rule for sustaining engagement in the workplace - lead by example.

If business owners want their office to be a place that people want to work in they have to make it more than just a job, it has to be a place where people want to be. It has to be a place, you, the boss, wants to be too.

In society, people don’t always look to follow, to be sheep, but actually we are all fundamentally creatures of habit. If your office is demonstrating a culture of fun with no exceptions to the rule, then people are far more likely to take on fun as a cultural norm.

Fun can be anything from a dress down Friday to office massages or Xboxes. ‘Play at work’ is proven to help drive creativity in the work place, boost employee trust and propel productivity - it doesn’t have to be expensive or overly organised but fun is proven to boost employee engagement

This, Paul Harris argues, is where leadership is key. As a leader, you set the rules, the precedent, you lead by example - therefore your workforce know from the start the work culture they should be embracing.

Employees are far more likely to climb aboard the ‘fun bus’ if the senior teams are also riding in the front, however every bus needs a driver, leadership is imperative.

Paul Tooth echoed this thought, with leadership it is important engagement is situated as a cultural norm, it is maintained and sustained even in pressured, stressful or upsetting situations. This cultural norm of play or fun has to start from the top, it needs to be adopted within deadlines or times of difficulty or duress - to ensure the engaged ideal remains a constant.

If, as a leader, you are encouraging others to take five and brainstorm with a indoor football session and then pulling your hair out in the next room, ignoring the ideas you put in place, then this work environment you have invented falls apart. As a leader, you have shown others it doesn’t ‘pay to play’ or in actual fact, your idea is a flash in the pan not a constant.

The leadership of any company has to be seen to buy into engagement, and not just giving it lip service.

But within that leadership comes the harsh reality that not everyone will want to stay on the fun bus, or even enjoy the ride. And with this comes a need for intolerance.

For Paul Harris, the point of having a ‘fun place to work’ is that fun should be organic and if you aren’t organic within the culture then you will struggle to comply with an engaged work force. The people you recruit need to want the same things as you from work or it will simply rust the cogs and damage the office ethos.

‘I want to work in a fun office where people spontaneously have NERF guns battles across the office,’ laughs Paul Harris, ‘I want people to feel they can have fun in that culture, I suppose this is when you have to look at your team and see if everyone is game.’

What is interesting in a culture of fun in the work place, is how important it is that fun is unanimous. When creating this culture and environment we have to be vigilant of those who aren’t prepared to adopt the ideals - we actually have to be aware of how people fit. Paul Tooth adds, ‘It sounds like an odd thing to say in the HR profession but actually if you have people in your business who aren’t taking on board the culture then it impacts the rest of the team.

Having a member of your team unengaged in your business - the effect is like dropping a pebble in a pond, and soon that little ripple becomes a wave of negativity across the whole work force. It is about getting the best out of your employees and making sure the work environment works for them too.

Engagement in the office isn’t always a process which suits everyone - having a slide or a XBox at work isn’t something that is going to float everyones boat. This is why when it comes to creating this engaged hub it starts with finding the right team and leading that team from the start. Recruiting great people, then empowering and trusting them to do what they’re good at is rewarding and fun in its own rights.

To have engagement, The Pauls say, everyone has to be on board from the most senior to the lowest junior, and as a leader you ensure this engagement is sustained through a unanimous need for fun at work.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Harris .