Halo Habit #29 - KEEP THINGS FUN. What better time to highlight our commitment to FUN in the workplace than after St. Patrick’s Day?!
While our passion for excellence is real, we know that the world has bigger problems than the daily challenges that make up our work. Work shouldn’t be the burden of our lives and the happiness of our employees matters. Endless research into the subject of workplace culture shows that the human brain needs passion, play, and release at work in order to perform at the highest possible level. Introducing small ways to create fun in the workplace is the ultimate win-win. Our clients win because they have a more engaged and productive workforce. Our staff wins because they are able to express themselves more freely in the workplace and improve their workplace morale while banishing a sense of isolation.
For Halo, keeping things fun has been an evolution over time with a strong learning curve as growth and external forces have played a role. Today we will share some tips we have learned over the years that have helped Halo create an inclusive and fun culture and we aren’t done yet. We have experienced ups and downs and some growing pains but it is our mission in 2022 to ensure all of our employees and teams experience the FUN that Halo has to offer.
As with most startup companies, Halo began as a small tight knit group of people all working towards a common goal for a single client. This environment was prime for creating the conditions needed for effortless fun. Just doing the work, beating out the competition, and providing the very best to our clients kept our teams engaged, collaborative, and happy. As we grew, fun became less easy with larger more structured events. These events gave Halo an opportunity to get together but felt more like a meet and greet as more and more of our staff became remote or team segmented. By 2019, we felt like we were learning to come together in more productive and fun ways and our team started to regain the cohesive feel we had in the beginning. And then 2020 happened…
We all know that story - but at Halo we are determined to not let that keep us down in 2022. Below are some of our best tips for creating and fostering an environment of fun in your company!
1. Make fun optional!
With well over 100 staff members, Halo understands that fun looks different to each and every individual. One way we try to include all of our team members is by offering different options - whether it is the Tuesday office lunch club, a friendly leasing competition, or an evening of Top Golf, we try to offer different options that appeal to all and by keeping extracurricular activities optional, team members are able to pick and choose what works for their schedule and family!
2. Keep it small…Sometimes
Oftentimes our fun is geared toward getting the entire company together, like last night’s St. Patrick’s Day happy hour. Other times, we entrust our Project Managers to make decisions for their team and offer smaller events for more collaboration. For instance, our title team might enjoy a night out at Milestone, a board game bar in downtown Canton (If you have never been, go! It is so much fun) while our ROW team might enjoy a night of drinks and arm wrestling (half kidding, guys). The point is, we allow our team leads to pick the activity that best fits their team’s unique personalities!
3. Engage for change
Another way that Halo cultivates a fun environment is by giving back (See Halo Helps! Blog). When you encourage your team members to give back, it creates a positive charge throughout your organization and positive attitudes lead to a happy, fun, creative, and engaged workforce. Our Halo Helps campaign allows our team members to work together for a good cause and encourages healthy competition and collaboration.
All in all, meeting other employees through fun activities builds up the social network in your office, and the benefits of this denser network of relationships manifest as increased trust, deeper transparency, and more willingness to communicate openly. Even more importantly, fun activities can serve as great “flatteners” that lower the barriers between employees on different teams and seniority levels.
Although it can seem a bit counterproductive at first, breaking up the workday or week with FUN can actually result in more productive outcomes for all companies!