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In Denmark and other Nordic countries, workplace happiness is so common there’s a word for it.
Arbejdsglæde.
What is arbejdsglæde, and how can we create an American counterpart?
Alexander Kjerulf, a Danish author and employee engagement expert, brought the concept of arbejdsglæde to an international audience with his book, “Happy Hour is 9 to 5,” and popular blog, The Chief Happiness Officer.
He’s even created a website — What the Heck is Arbejdsglæde!? — dedicated to teaching the world about this “weird Scandinavian word” that is “totally not a throat disease.”
Arbejde means work and glæde means happiness, so arbejdsglæde translates roughly to “work glad” or “work joy.”
The only equivalent phrase in English would be “job satisfaction,” or “workplace happiness.” Neither seems to fully embrace the spirit of the arbejdsglæde.
According to Kjerulf, variations on the word exist in Nordic languages but in no other languages on the planet. Why? Let’s dig into the reality and cultural meaning behind arbejdsglæde — and why your company’s workplace happiness depends on it!
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Teamwork. We see it again and again in sports, the arts, business. Take March Madness. The teams that work well together are engaged, rise to the challenge, enjoy each other, and are successful. To build your business’s success – build an engaged team!

Mark Anderson, president and chief economist at ExecuNet, in “What Does March Madness Show About Leadership & Teamwork?” first evokes last season’s  World Series participants, the Mets and Royals, as teams without mega-superstars but with plenty of talent,

“What they did have were talented players working under talented leaders who believed in them and put them in position to win through a culture of unity and team-first thinking among the players.” 

We see the same in college basketball’s March Madness, year after year. Teams with a common mission and that feel ownership for what they produce, achieve greater results. If each member of a team understands his/her role and how it contributes to success, he/she is better equipped to contribute to organizational goals. As Anderson writes:

“The more multiple members of a group can engage in leadership activities, the greater their engagement and performance, creating an intentionally joyful workplace that leads to sustainable results–in any business. Teams of leaders outscore leaders of teams.”

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Once a nice-to-have perk, employee wellness programs have long since become “a strategic imperative,” according to the Harvard Business Review.
Simply put: healthy employees cost less, stay longer and work harder. What’s good for the employee is good for the company.
Rising healthcare costs and an aging workforce have certainly driven the urgent prioritization of employee wellness. But there’s another factor driving HR’s empowered focus on building a healthy workplace. It’s a shift in how we think about the employee-employer relationship.
“We need to move away from the transactional model of ‘work to get paid’ to a model of shared vision and investment,” according to the Limeade ebook “The Truth About Great Places to Work.” This partnership model “goes beyond the paycheck,” and employees “gain personal fulfillment through work while contributing to their organization’s bottom line.”

Easter is fast approaching, followed by Easter Monday, and it’s the perfect time to liven up your workplace with a celebration.
As we covered earlier this week, a workplace Easter celebration is still a great idea, regardless of employee religion.
Easter marks the beginning of spring! The weather is getting warmer, trees are budding and flowers are blooming.
Significantly, Easter also honors the sense of renewal and gratitude that accompany the new season.
With outdoor activities beckoning and many families distracted by spring break vacations, Easter is a great time to boost engagement.
Appreciation is the fastest way to re-engage distracted employees — a simple “Thank You” card accompanied by an Easter-themed gift or a fun, low-key celebration of your workplace team will re-energize everybody! Read on for Easter workplace tips to help you create a fun and meaningful celebration with employees.
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Appreciation is a well-documented key to employee happiness, so why isn’t it more prevalent?
According to HubSpot’s Jami Oetting, we’re too distracted by the fast pace of today’s workplace.
“We might have the thought to tell a salesperson she did a good job, [but] we typically forget to execute on the idea and quickly move on to the next thing,” Oetting writes in her blog post “The Power of Praise on Employee Happiness.”
That’s why it’s so important to implement a program that systemizes employee recognition. Letting employees know they’re appreciated is too vital to business success to leave up to chance or “when we get to it.”
The best employee engagement initiatives invest in holistic gratitude — one that includes compassionate language, mindfulness training and more. It’s about more than saying “Thanks!”
Building a culture of gratitude has a profound, lasting impact on employee happiness. If you want to build employee happiness, start with gratitude: it’s the seed from which happiness grows.

Read on to learn how gratitude fuels workplace happiness.

Download Your Free Guide to “Transforming Your Workplace with Gratitude” to start building your culture of appreciation today!
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Let’s celebrate happiness! International Day of Happiness is March 20!
Include your employees in this United Nations global celebration to reaffirm and clarify your company’s commitment to building employee happiness.
International Day of Happiness activities around the world are coordinated by Action for Happiness, a London-based nonprofit supported by a partnership of like-minded organizations and the Dalai Lama.
Action for Happiness and the United Nations Foundation have plenty of happiness-building resources for individuals and groups of all kinds, including workplace teams, but first let’s look at why International Day of Happiness matters — especially for employees today. Your company’s engagement program shouldn’t let the day pass without a celebration!

How Happiness Works

Happiness is an outcome, not a method for better living. Nobody ever got happy by being told to. (Although a little Partridge Family never hurt!)
Happiness is the warm, feel-good outcome of certain actions, skills and attitudes that anyone can learn and develop: mindfulness, kindness to yourself and others, positivity, gratitude and more.
This is where some well-meaning employee engagement programs go wrong — they operate under the false assumption that an event associated with happiness, like a big party with free food, is enough to automatically make employees happy.
But if employees aren’t feeling appreciated or working in an everyday culture of kindness and positivity, then the party can feel decidedly unhappy.
Company leaders need to develop meaningful, teachable and repeatable methods for creating workplace happiness.
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Is your company planning a March Madness workplace celebration before the NCAA Final Four? It should!
When done right, celebrating March Madness in the workplace is a slam dunk for employee engagement, happiness and even productivity.
March Madness can be a financial drain on employers, at least in the short-term. One report estimates the nationwide cost of distracted employees during the weeks of the NCAA tournament at $1.9 billion in lost wages. Another estimate puts the loss at $1.3 billion for each hour of the workday wasted on building brackets or watching games.
These are big, shocking numbers — but don’t take them at face value. Trying to banish March Madness excitement from the workplace sends the wrong message to employees and ultimately backfires.
Employers are better off managing March Madness distractions by embracing the fun and celebrating alongside employees as a means to boosting morale, engagement and loyalty, according to Forbes contributor Lee Igel.
Igel describes this as a “short-term tradeoff for long-term gain.” An employer-endorsed March Madness workplace celebration ultimately makes people more productive.
“That’s because people who are happier at work tend to be more satisfied — and people who are more satisfied tend to be more productive … and less likely to suffer from burnout,” Igel writes in his 2015 opinion piece, “Stop the Insanity About NCAA March Madness Ruining Workplace Productivity.”
Read on for tips to make your March Madness workplace celebration a win for your employees, business and company culture!
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The financial services industry today has some of the highest overall turnover rates, and experts say the cure is a robust employee appreciation program that puts people first.
Today is Pi Day — a celebration of the fascinating mathematical constant known as pi — so what better time to recognize employees who work with numbers all day?
A Compensation Force analysis shows that only the hospitality industry has a higher rate for voluntary turnover than the financial services industry.
Young employees burned out by 90-hour workweeks, intense competition and little recognition are leaving banking and finance jobs in droves, according to a Bloomberg Business report.
It’s natural for money to be a top motivator in this high-stakes and lucrative industry, yet many companies — faced with high turnover and a big talent gap — are reevaluating their strategies for attracting and keeping employees.
“Banks are acutely aware of the too-high attrition rate among their young associates and analysts … and have initiated programs to combat it,” writes Bloomberg’s Dawn Kopecki.
The HR consulting company O.C. Tanner calls for an emphasis on employee appreciation in its new industry report, “Leading Financial Organizations Today: How Investing in People Strategies Pays Dividends.”
“Employee recognition can be the glue that holds together a fast-moving and transitioning industry like finance,” according to the report.
Read on for tips and case studies for better employee appreciation and recognition in the financial services industry. Now is the perfect time to be setting new goals!
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Looking for secrets into building great workplaces?
Then the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For is a great place to start. It’s full of insights, inspiration and examples of great cultures in action.
Unsurprisingly, Google — with a 4.4/5 rating on Glassdoorand forward-thinking HR practices that receive consistent, widespread praise — takes first place.
But Fortune’s list, created in partnership with Great Places to Work, goes beyond the obvious and covers a wide variety of industries: hotels, insurance, retail, healthcare, financial services, HR consulting, software, home remodeling and more.
What do these companies share in common? A clear and successful commitment to building great workplaces with dedicated, engaged and happy employees.
Easier said than done, right? Let’s take a closer look at what these companies are doing right — and how you can join their ranks. The Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list offers real-life case studies in building great workplaces!
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Employee recognition is essential—but you already knew that, didn’t you? As WorkStride CEO Jim Hemmer writes in “2016 Predictions for Employee Engagement and Recognition,”

“2015 saw the terms ‘employee engagement’ and ‘company culture’ elevated from HR industry jargon to everyday business vernacular.”

There are many ways to recognize and engage your workforce, but effective employee recognition programs—those that make your workforce feel genuinely valued—share certain characteristics.

Read on for the eight must-haves for your employee recognition program to excel!

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International Day of Awesomeness started in 2007 as an inside joke between coworkers to encourage “feats of awesomeness.” Celebrated every March 10, it now has a worldwide following.
Why March 10th?
“Because that’s Chuck Norris’ birthday,” founder Kevin Lawver explains on his International Day of Awesomeness website. “No offense to Mr. Norris, but this isn’t really a salute to Chuck Norris, the man. This is a tribute to the awesomeness of the myth of Chuck Norris.”
Being awesome together is the essence of any great workplace, so it isn’t surprising that International Day of Awesomeness has its origin among coworkers.
So what does it really mean to be awesome and to celebrate awesomeness? Read on for the key characteristics of true awesomeness — and how to celebrate it this week in your organization!
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Employee Appreciation Day is the Valentine’s Day of workplace holidays — both holidays are ultimately about building relationships.
What’s a core element of relationships? Appreciation! Sharing appreciation is vital in the workplace, just like in any other relationship. We also know that appreciation is most effective when we celebrate it daily — after all, we don’t limit love to just one day of the year, right? Employee appreciation is the same way!
Don’t miss Employee Appreciation Day! It’s a perfect opportunity to thank and connect with employees.
“Celebrating Employee Appreciation Day is just as critical — if not more — than Valentine’s Day. And, saying ‘I love you’ at home translates to ‘Thank you’ at the office,” David Sturt and Todd Nordstrom write in their recent article, “Simple, CEO-Approved Ways to Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day.” 
Employee Appreciation Day is special in many ways that make it a not-to-miss holiday in the workplace. Read on for all the ways we love Employee Appreciation Day!
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Are company leaders involved in your Employee Appreciation Day celebration? They should be — employees will notice!
When bosses engage in recognition activities like Employee Appreciation Day, it sends a strong message that employees — and their work — matter to the people in charge.
In some cases, however, it isn’t always easy to get management involved in direct employee appreciation.
“Managers have all of these excuses: They are too busy. They don’t think it is their job to do this. No one ever shows them any appreciation, blah, blah, blah,” author and management expert Bob Nelson tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Nelson created Employee Appreciation Day 21 years ago and jokes that he’s the “Johnny Appleseed of employee recognition.”
Bosses are essential to making employees feel appreciated, Nelson says. Ideally, recognition needs to happen daily — “every day a manager should do something for somebody to show appreciation” — but a holiday like Employee Appreciation Day is a great opportunity to energize your recognition program and recognize all employees.
So, how do you get bosses on board?
Convince managers that participating in Employee Appreciation Day is well worth their time and effort — read on for research-backed talking points you can use! Let’s debunk the common excuses, one by one.
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Building a culture of workplace gratitude takes more than a paycheck.
Yet many companies still operate under the false assumption that employee compensation is thanks enough. In a recent Harvard Business Review, author Shawn Achor shared an anecdote about a Fortune 100 leader who believes employee happiness is a simple given.
“We don’t need a happiness program, we pay people to be engaged,” the leader told Achor.
In fact, the correlation between pay and job satisfaction is small. Competitive pay draws quality employees, but without a strong culture of workplace gratitude to support them after they’re hired, they’ll leave. Or worse, they’ll stay and spread bad attitudes among coworkers!
“We know that recognition and intrinsic motivation are important to our success, but the key is finding ways to effectively operationalize them,” Achor writes.
Recognition should never replace deserved pay increases, according to Achor. Ideally, pay and recognition “should work in tandem,” he writes. “But as companies do not have unlimited funds and many report to shareholders, the question of ROI becomes critical, especially in a world in which employees are under-recognized and under-praised for their efforts.”
Nurturing workplace gratitude is a low-cost, effective way to build employee happiness — but it takes commitment and creativity. Read on for six examples of workplace gratitude fundamentals, as explained and modeled by some of the smartest CEOs in the business.
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Now that Random Acts of Kindness Week is winding down, how will you sustain that “helper’s high” for year-round employee happiness?
Nurturing a culture of workplace kindness this week has a lasting ripple effect. Kindness itself grows the more it is practiced.
Yesterday, we covered tips for sustaining a year-round culture of workplace kindness following #RAKweek.
What about the other lessons practicing kindness teaches us?
Incorporate what you and your team learned this week into your overall approach to work and building employee happiness. Read on to find out why workplace kindness is about much more than acts of random kindness — it’s a foundation of employee happiness!
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Committing random acts of workplace kindness this week with your team may feel like a novelty, a fun break from the daily grind.
You may find yourself thinking: what if every day could be like this?
It can!
Random Acts of Kindness Week is intended to be a springboard for the rest of the year. It’s our annual reminder that kindness should be the rule, not the exception. Why? Because it feels good!
But the long-term workplace benefits go beyond feel-good emotions, and that’s why cultivating workplace kindness is a growing HR trend.
When kindness is embedded in company culture, employees are healthier mentally and physically, more productive, more creative and all-around happier! Read on for tips on making workplace kindness a daily habit.
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Workplace kindness is a growing HR trend because it builds happier, more productive teams by nurturing our instincts to connect.
While kindness comes naturally, employees don’t always feel comfortable or empowered to act on it. Workplace kindness thrives best when:

• companies offer employees regular opportunities for connection and
• managers prioritize gratitude and compassion.

Kindness grows and spreads through small acts gestures — a friendly smile, holding a door open for someone, or saying “Thank You.” That’s why Random Acts of Kindness Week is such a great way to promote a culture of lasting workplace kindness!
Why should your HR department invest in workplace kindness? Read on for the research behind the recent push for kindness awareness in company culture.
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It’s Random Act of Kindness (RAK) Week! And as the RAK Foundation suggests, let’s make this the year of kindness.

Scientific studies show that random acts of kindness improve your health by decreasing your anxiety, depression and blood pressure. Kindness is important at home, at school, and at work, and in the workplace, company leaders can get the ball rolling.

Author and journalist Marina Krakovsky, in “The Psychology of Kindness in the Workplace,” reports on a recent Stanford University conference on Compassion & Business. Research on “emotional contagion,” she writes, shows that people are likely to “catch” the emotions of their leaders. So if you as a leader are kind, your workforce is more likely to be so as well.

And why random acts of kindness? John Brandon, contributing editor at inc.com, writes:

“By showing kindness … when there is absolutely no reason to give out a gift or reward to anyone, you are showing that the workplace is not that predictable after all. In fact, it’s a fun place to be.”

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Few things are as meaningful as a handwritten note of thanks. Simple expressions of gratitude such as “I appreciate you” or “Well done!” can make huge impacts in our lives and our workplaces. This weekend, we celebrated National Send a Card to a Friend Day. It’s a great reminder that it’s always a good time to celebrate friends, colleagues, and employees with a thoughtful thank you note.

As novelist Philip Hensher writes in “The Lost Art of the Handwritten Note,”

“Did you not feel that someone you knew had, for once, reached out and greeted you, in a way that an email or a text never could?”

Read on to learn why you should start a habit of thank you note writing!

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Keep everyone focused and accountable with an annual employee Thank You plan! Investing the time and effort in a year-long employee engagement plan will be a welcome relief in stressful times later in the year.
Workforce planning is a “big picture” HR strategy that anticipates the booms and busts of your company business cycle, and according to Workforce magazine, “Business people who just wait and then attempt to react to current events will not thrive for very long … The HR world is no different.”
Make gratitude part of that planning!
An employee Thank You plan helps managers understand the importance of employee appreciation, know when and how to hold workplace celebrations, and use the resources they have.
Read on for tips on building your own annual employee Thank You plan. It is the perfect time to start!
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