Wellbeing at Work

The Future Of Business Is Employee Wellbeing

Wellbeing is good for employees, but it's good for business too.

Wellbeing is one of the most important factors for employees to keep motivated & feel good about their work and life: when they are happy at work, it leads to the overall balance and feeling of purpose in life, creates a sense of motivation and meaning both at their work & life, and impacts their health positively.

But it is also good for business: both science and successful business examples show that happy employees have a significant advantage and impact on business over the less satisfied ones.  According to research, satisfied employees are more productive, flexible, resilient, healthier, creative, more motivated, involved, and cooperative.  They collaborate better with their colleagues and make customers happier.

Why should wellbeing be at the forefront of your business strategy?

Global events in the last couple of years showed us the importance of employee wellbeing.

From the rise in burnout to the struggles of remote work, changes in the way we work and connect, and trends like Great Resignation and Quiet Resignation, many new challenges presented themselves in the world of work.

They impacted the employees in diverse ways: while some managed to cope with the new situation in a resilient way, for many there was impact in shape of decreased motivation and efficiency, mental health issues, feeling disconnected from their work, or losing a sense of meaning in what they do.

This extended into an ample impact on businesses: employees became more likely to leave if they don’t feel fulfilled at their workplace, burnout and lower efficiency became the new reality, and “quiet resignation” (doing the minimum requirements of one’s job and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary) became a new term in the business dictionary.

While wellbeing matters in every company, when employees are remote motivation & engagement become that much more important.

In the modern world of work, wellbeing becomes an important pre-condition for all goals and results that your organization is trying to achieve!

It is not just our opinion at Happiness Academy – the Future Workplace 2021 HR Sentiment survey found that 68% of senior HR leaders (of which 40% were CHROs) rated employee well-being and mental health as top priorities.

With all the changes in the workplace, at Happiness Academy we are excited to see that wellbeing, happiness, and satisfaction at work are finally rising on the list of top priorities for all organizations.

While at the start of Happiness Academy in 2015 wellbeing at work was still a buzzword for advanced-thinking companies, today it is finally getting the spotlight that it deserves.

Let’s make wellbeing an integrated part of the organization’s vision, going hand in hand with purpose and business goals.

“At Happiness Academy, we believe in a business world in which every person lives their personal vision through engagement, and fulfillment, with a sense of purpose, growth, and meaning. So let’s together put wellbeing and happiness at work in the center of the way we do business!”

If you are:

an HR director or HR expert focusing on the education and wellbeing of a team or an organization.

organization leader or team leader who wishes to bring wellbeing of your team to a new level, or

actively working on the wellbeing of your team or organization

This is an invitation for you to connect and see how together can we strengthen the wellbeing of your team and organization.

How can we support you with that? Keep on reading.

What does wellbeing at work actually mean?

Before diving into how can we work on it – let’s start with what is actually wellbeing at work.

When people are in a state of wellbeing at work, they’re able to develop their potential and truly use their talents for big goals, be productive and creative, build positive relationships with others, better cope with stress, and make meaningful contributions to their organization and clients.

Wellbeing at work means that the individual:
uses their potential to the fullest - the individual “flourishes”, is aware of their personal strengths and how to best use them, is advancing towards their goals, and feels a sense of contribution to a meaningful cause,
feels positive about work and at work and feels engaged - is often in the state of flow, experiences positive emotions regularly, and enjoys close connections with others,
has a sense of meaning and purpose at work - individual finds importance in what they do and what their organization does, and they can connect their everyday actions with “big” meaningful goals,
maintains their vitality - is healthy (mentally and physically), can maintain a good level of energy and recharge regularly, and
copes well with challenges at work - including big challenging goals, as well as everyday stressors, obstacles, and frustrations.

When wellbeing is the focus of the organization, individuals are more creative, motivated, and perform higher, but also orientated on contributing over the long-term to their work and organization.

How do we build and “achieve” wellbeing at work?

We achieve wellbeing at work by building each of the foundations (according to the science of positive psychology) – such as resilience, engagement & flow, positive relationships, sense of purpose and many more – through understanding and strengthening the culture of the workplace and enriching the individuals with the right set of skills and abilities to maintain their wellbeing.

But whose responsibility is wellbeing at work – organizations or individuals?

Wellbeing at work is a shared responsibility.

It is something that each individual needs to create for themselves – by learning, understanding and applying the tools and the principles of wellbeing.

It is also something that companies and organizations need to be aware of, create foundations for it, and support individuals in building the skills for it.

Providing a positive psychology training is a great way for organisation to support it’s employees in building those skills and enriching their toolbox – as well as encouraging individuals to strengthen their personal sense of responsibility for their own wellbeing.

How do we work with wellbeing at work at Happiness Academy?

At Happiness Academy, we provide positive psychology training to individuals and organizations, in order to build the knowledge and skills needed for a sustainable sense of wellbeing at work.

We do that in a range of different formats – from one-time webinars to provide quick, practical tools and hacks, to comprehensive skill-development training that creates a strong foundation to transform individual wellbeing, and build a company culture that allows wellbeing at work to flourish.

We focus on three principles in our work:
goal-oriented - making sure that the interventions that we build for your organisation are aligned with the goals and specific needs of your organisation,
highly practical - turning the content into highly practical and impactful tools, and
science-based - we build on science-based content.

At Happiness Academy, you can build your team’s skills in 3 groups of topics. – resilience & mental strength, engagement & flow, and ownership & intentionality.

Key topics that make foundations of wellbeing at work

These are the three main pillars of wellbeing at work – and three main topics that at Happiness Academy we work with your team on:

Wellbeing can only exist when we learn how to deal with challenges and manage stress effectively.
Resilience makes us better at dealing with hardship, at reaching higher and achieving bigger goals, as well as protecting us from burnout.

At Happiness Academy, we work with mental strength & resilience by first building awareness and deep understanding of how resilience works and discovering the crucial elements that impact it.
After that, we train your team how to implement practical, vital, actionable tools for resilience, ranging from deep mindset-shifting insights to small, quick practical hacks to use in everyday life.

While an organization can do a lot to support an individual’s well-being, in the end, nothing will work without a strong sense of personal responsibility.

That is why in the core of our work is building a sense of personal responsibility, proactivity, and a growth mindset to stimulate motivation for continuous improvement and more innovative mindset, as well as positive changes for teams, the organization as a whole, and consequentially for your customers.

This includes being proactive about building more awareness of own strengths and weaknesses, about working on own wellbeing & resilience, and about continuously improving own skillset in all areas of our work and life.

If resilience is the enabler of wellbeing, then flow & engagement are at the core of what it means to live wellbeing in practice.
To work in the state of flow (“in the zone”) means to work in a deep, enjoyable, immersive, and highly focused way.
Spending more time in flow means feeling more satisfied with what we do, and it is related to faster learning, heightened creativity, and higher motivation to do more and better.

Through the science of positive psychology, your team will discover “recipes” to build a whole new level of engagement & flow for themselves through practical, evidence-based tools and techniques.

How can we support you with your wellbeing initiatives?

Webinars

Happiness Academy webinars are 1-1.5h long, engaging, interactive, rich in science-based yet practical and diverse tools.
Webinars can be delivered for different audience sizes, and while we offer a range of predesigned topics, we are also always happy to design custom topic for you (as long as it’s within the area of our expertise).
Looking for webinar? Download the list of topics and let us know which topic you would like to book.

Workshops

At workshops, we go deeper than in webinars as we focus on truly training the skill and tools in an experience-based way.
Your team gets to actually practice the tools, see how to best adjust them to their style and circumstances, and learn to use the tools for maximum positive impact in their life & wellbeing.
Workshops are designed for a smaller groups, a bit longer than the webinar (2-4h, or a series of several modules of that duration), and running around range of topics – download the list of topics below and get in touch around the one that most resonates with you & your team.

Custom Programs

Are you looking to build a deeper, custom-made wellbeing program or intervention for your team,
designed according to the needs, priorities, and preferences of your team and organization, and aligned with your business goals and strategy?

Get in touch to book a Discovery call, on which we can discuss your wellbeing strategy and offer you a custom built proposal for your team.

We would love to meet you and support you with your wellbeing initiatives.

You can also connect via Linkedin with Mirna, the Happiness Academy founder and head trainer.

Discover the most popular webinar topics by downloading the list of webinar topics.

If you would prefer to build a deeper, comprehensive educational program for your organizations and employees, sign up for 30 minutes Discovery call where I will also ask you to share more about your goals, challenges, and culture of your team, so I could design a custom made proposal for you.

How to choose the format that works best for you?

Webinars and workshops are highly valuable, as they give the team the ready-to-use quick and effective tools for many situations and challenges. And they are quick & easy, which especially helps when your team is busy & with a lot going on.

These are the most popular topics that companies request – however, at Happiness Academy, we cover many other topics related to wellbeing and positive psychology.

Download the full list of webinar and workshop topics here.

Here is what some of our previous corporate customers say:

“Mirna creates engaging content that is easy to understand, insightful and offers practical guidance on how to implement it into everyday life.
I recently worked with Mirna as part of the Think Week program at Twilio. Mirna designed a program to introduce the concept of Flow, what it is and how to harness it with respect to our work lives. Producing a toolkit of elements including a bite-sized introductory video to the concept of flow, a Think Week planning workbook, and a live interactive workshop meant that regardless of how and where individuals chose to engage with the topic there was an equally valuable resource available.

Mirna was a pleasure to work with. She was committed to understanding the program’s purpose, the people involved, and how best to connect to them on the topic. Tailoring everything to suit our company’s and people’s particular needs meant the materials were bespoke to our exact requirements.

Can’t wait to collaborate with Mirna again in the future.”

Audrey Baker, Ireland, EMEA Program Manager – Employee Experience at Twilio Inc.

“It was our great pleasure to have Mirna facilitating 3 workshops (held in Apatin, Belgrade, and Nikšić) on positive psychology-grounded tools, applicable to daily life. Mirna’s professionalism, positive attitude, engaging energy and hands on examples were highly welcomed and appreciated from the workshop nominees. Thank you one more time for having added great value to our corporate Wellbeing platform by landing the positive mindset content at its best. It would for sure be our pure pleasure to cooperate with Mirna and for some different topics in the future.”

Jelena Dragosavac, Ireland, People Development Manager Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia at Apatinska Pivara

Webinars are great to introduce new tools and quick hacks – but going deeper is where the true impact lies.

The key to making positive psychology & wellbeing interventions impactful, sustainable and deep is to truly understand the pulse of your team & organization – and then design a custom educational wellbeing program for your employees and their specific environment and challenges.

Working with Happiness Academy starts with exploring together what are your organization’s needs, preferences, and current wellbeing initiatives, and how can we best leverage that for the biggest impact on employee wellbeing.

If this is the road you are interested in taking – it starts with booking a discovery call through contact form with Mirna (head trainer at Happiness Academy), so we can together explore the needs, preferences, and current wellbeing initiatives in your organization.

After the discovery call, you will get a custom offer and suggestion for a program designed according to your needs and best fitting format.

Finally, the program will be delivered, for noticeable changes in wellbeing, satisfaction, and motivation of your team. We will finish with a follow-up call, we will explore what was the impact on the team and attendees.

Mirna Smidt is an interpersonal skills trainer and coach, specializing in positive psychology training and train-the-trainers topics, and a founder of Happiness Academy and Trainer’s Toolbox.

One of the first people in Europe to obtain a Master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, Mirna is combining her academic knowledge with 10+ years of corporate experience in advanced technologies in Cisco and a practical, solution oriented-approach of an engineer.

Mirna has been a certified trainer since 2008, actively working on training projects in diverse industries ever since, with special focus on IT and tech industry. She is also an NLP Master practitioner holding a range of coaching and training related certifications.

Mirna aims to build training programs that are impactful, goal-oriented, science-based and highly practical – and trains other trainers in doing the same.

Absolutely in love with her work and positive psychology, Mirna brings a depth of knowledge, energy and enthusiasm in all of her workshops.

She lives in Croatia but works internationally with organizations and individuals in numerous European countries.

Apart from training, Mirna is in love with experiences and adventures – she is an avid traveler, a bookworm, and in love with the sea (sailing, diving, kayaking), nature, horses, and outdoor sports.

“I could only emphasize exceptional interaction, great preparation, and a really inspiring and motivating session we had with Mirna.”

Ivan Suvar, Brands and Portfolio strategy director CEE, Molson Coors

We're a good fit if...
you believe wellbeing at work is important, and you would like to support your team with practical, science-based, no-bullshit workshops and tools
you believe in long term learning and continuous improvement… and know that it happens by actively training the new skills, and just listening about them
you believe in empowering the individual by building skills of your employees
you are goal-oriented and looking to build the impact out of the training room, and understand that that comes from making training & workshops practical, engaging, experiential and customised
you appreciate positive energy, leaning onto scientific foundations and
you would like to engineer your team into more wellbeing and resilience using positive psychology

Ready to bring the wellbeing of your team to a whole new level?

Download the list of webinar & workshop topics and let us know which webinar would you like to book.

Book the discovery call to explore what improvements to your wellbeing initiatives we can suggest.

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