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A pumpkin-carving party is a fun, affordable Halloween activity for workplace team building.

A fantastic opportunity for easy team building is….Halloween.
If the extent of your company’s Halloween celebration is a dish of candy corn and a few streamers, you’re missing out.
Engagement, not passive entertainment, is key to successful team building. Halloween is one of the easiest holidays to engage employees in fun activities that everyone will enjoy and that don’t need to break your budget.
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Halloween is a great opportunity to foster employee engagement and workplace camaraderie — are you taking advantage of it?
Here’s what makes Halloween such a standout engagement time:
It’s popular. According to a 2015 Harris Poll, Halloween ranks third among U.S. adults for favorite holiday. Only Christmas and Thanksgiving rank higher! Halloween outranks the Fourth of July, Memorial Day and even “my birthday.”
It’s participatory. From pumpkins and costume parades to trick-or-treating, Halloween gets people moving, talking and connecting with one another.
It’s creative. Nearly everything we do to celebrate Halloween encourages creativity, from carving the perfect pumpkin to sewing a one-of-a-kind costume. (more…)

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A nicely cooked ham is beautiful to behold. But how do you prepare the absolute, #1 Best Tasting Ham?

Borrowing advice from the ham-savvy Serious Eats Food Lab, it’s easy:
1) Buy the right ham, and
2) Don’t screw it up.
Fair enough.
But, seriously, ham needn’t be a complex dish. With these simple tips, you’re guaranteed to have success.  (more…)

Helping your holiday ham taste its best!

Sometimes foods with distinct flavors need counterpoints to bring out the best taste combinations. Whether it’s strong coffee in barbecue sauce, a pinch of hot pepper in Mexican cocoa, or a splash of balsamic vinegar on a bowl of freshly sliced strawberries, these culinary marriages will delight your taste buds!
Such is the case with ham. . . salty, smoky, and succulent it pairs wonderfully with sour fruit (pineapple, orange, cranberries, currants, rhubarb), sweet elements (brown sugar, maple syrup, honey, even cola!) and spices (cloves, mustard, (more…)

A sweet employee thank you! Via Flickr: CleverCupca

While some may pick the official Employee Appreciation Day to celebrate their employees’ contributions, really any day is the perfect day to thank employees for their hard work and dedication to your business!
Most leaders understand employee appreciation is not a one day a year deal.  It’s vital to business success to build engagement and recognition into daily business practices.  Still not a believer?
Disney is a great example of a company that believes in the power of engagement. (more…)

Our favorite candy heart saying is “ur kind” but “you rock” is always welcome!  Check out this Reader’s Digest article if you’re curious about conversation heart messages.
Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

We spend more of our waking hours with co-workers than we do with our significant others, so take advantage of Valentine’s Day and celebrate colleagues! If you focus on gratitude and appreciation, it’s perfectly appropriate and thoughtful to do.

Valentine’s Day in the workplace should be about celebrating workplace colleagues and a culture of kindness and compassion. Steer clear of romance and relationships. The opportunity is to communicate value for great working relationships and a culture supportive of compassion and camaraderie.

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Acts of kindness are one of the most powerful ways we have to connect with others.
February is the perfect month to share workplace kindness  – with Random Acts of Kindness Day (17^th) and Week (February 17th though the 22nd), and Valentine’s Day! Take advantage of these dates and inspire kindness in your workplace.

Planting seeds of kindness yields improved moods and productivity. Better yet, it’s contagious. Share a little kindness and see how it ripples through your office.

Easy Ways to Share Workplace Kindness

Here are some fun and easy strategies you can try out in February (or anytime):
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With an acceptance rate under 7% and ACT scores of admitted students hovering around 32-35, the likelihood of most people having access to an Ivy League education in Yale’s hallowed halls are slim. But we can all benefit from the fascinating and completely practical information that is shared in one of that revered educational institution’s most popular courses, “Psychology and the Good Life.”

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Hanukka just ended and it’s not long until employees start taking off for the Christmas holiday and business winds down for the year.
There’s still time to choose a thoughtful holiday gift that will show employees how much you appreciate them.

Last-Minute Gift Ideas Employees Will Love

Here are five affordable employee gift ideas that are convenient enough to arrange at the last minute. Don’t forget to share your gifts with gratitude – the most meaningful gift of appreciation is free!

• A group gift.
  If your time is short, consider a group outing, an upgrade to the break room, or a holiday luncheon or party (if you’re not already planning one).

• Productivity apps or tools.
  Digital apps can be delivered instantly, with no physical orders or trips to the store. Poll your employees on which app will save them time or make them even better at their jobs.

• Subscriptions.
  No longer just for magazines, subscriptions exist nowadays for everything from streaming entertainment to socks. Subscriptions can be ordered easily online.

• Gift certificates for turkey or ham.
  The workplace gift of a turkey or ham is a beloved tradition of gratitude that stretches back decades. Gift certificates eliminate the logistical difficulties of storing and distributing frozen turkeys or hams, and they give your employees the flexibility to choose the sizes and preparations they want.

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It’s #GivingTuesday! How will you be spreading workplace gratitude today? (Logo via GivingTuesday.org)

Today is #GivingTuesday. On this day of giving back, consider how sharing in the joys of charity and volunteerism at work engages employees. Gratitude-focused celebrations like #GivingTuesday help build a year-round spirit of workplace gratitude.
The gratitude we share over the holiday season isn’t a once-a-year diversion. Let it inspire an everyday culture of workplace gratitude in your company!
Gratitude “the high-octane fuel” of relationships, says psychology professor and eminent gratitude researcher Robert Emmons in a Fast Company article this week.
It’s vital to working relationships in particular. (more…)

By mid-October, the supermarket checkout aisle is full of magazine covers, each boasting a glorious, burnished brown Thanksgiving turkey — so juicy and tempting, you can almost smell the savory aroma while you dig out your debit card.
And indeed, it’s not too soon to start thinking about stuffing (should it have bacon this year? Probably!), your other side dishes — and of course, the holiday centerpiece: a beautifully roasted turkey.
Before you choose a bird, check out these five tips to keep in mind as you plan your holiday meal, whether you’re serving 25 assorted aunts, uncles, and cousins or a simple Thanksgiving turkey feast for two. (more…)

Inequality Breeds Unhappiness

In America (and also in other countries), an impressive postwar rise in material well-being has had zero effect on personal well-being. The divergence between economic growth and subjective satisfaction began decades ago. Real per capita income has more than tripled since the late 1950s, but the percentage of people saying they are very happy has, if anything, slightly declined.

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Finland came in number 1 in this year’s World Happiness Report – Nordic countries typically dominate the top ten.

Why are people in some countries happier than others?  What factors contribute to happiness and how can we improve happiness at home and in the workplace?  We can apply lessons from the happiest countries in the world on how to be happy.

Listen and Learn

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Happiness in the workplace is achievable — and you can learn how.

People who are happier at work are more committed to their organization, rise to positions of leadership more rapidly, are more productive and creative, and suffer fewer health problems. More and more, research is suggesting that happiness should not be an afterthought for workplaces; it should be an essential goal, entwined with the kinds of 21st century skills that are key to individual and organizational success today.

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Building an employee wellness program includes exercise and diet activities, but should go beyond those, too.

Thinking about building an employee wellness program?
They’re still quite popular with businesses looking for perks that will benefit both workers and leadership. Per HR Dive, in a 2017 study by Virgin Pulse, 85 percent of employers surveyed said their wellness programs were good for employee engagement, recruitment, retention, and overall company culture. More than just offering exercise- and diet-related options, these programs are increasingly incorporating mental-health components as well. That shift has proven popular with employees, 85 percent of whom say they want help managing stress. (more…)

Trendy employee perks like alcohol are less desirable than other extras. (Photo by U3144362, from Wikimedia Commons.)

When It Comes to Employee Perks, Trendy Is Out.

What kind of employee perks are you offering?
A study from Oregon State University, cited in HR Dive, has found that at least one trendy workplace “extra” probably isn’t doing recruiters much good: Companies that tout in-office happy hours and other opportunities to drink alcohol can turn off certain job candidates.
And those candidates who are fine having drinks on the company tab don’t care enough for it to make a real difference in whether they take the job. So unless there’s good reason for drinking to be a significant part of your corporate culture, there’s little benefit to plugging alcohol among your employee perks. (more…)