9 August 2023
Creating workplace happiness, with Henry Stewart
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Overview:
In our uplifting and empowering conversation, Henry:
Explains how Happy helps businesses to create positive workspaces, and his role as Chief Happiness Officer.
Expands on how Happy delivers training, relevant to businesses at all stages of their business journey, and how their government funding works.
Drills down into company facts – how and why Happy started, its size, its turnover and its pricing.
Describes Happy’s recruitment philosophy, including why they interview people in groups of six.
Talks about the moment Henry first realised a business like Happy could succeed.
Highlights some of the unorthodox ways that Happy is structured, including having no managers, and empowering the staff to decide Henry’s salary.
Discusses Happy’s B-Corp certification, the process they had to go through to get it and what they’ll need to do to keep it.
Shares an overview of Happy’s early years, and how they work today – for example how they measure staff happiness, how amazing their staff retention rate is, and their core values including the number one: ‘make people feel good about themselves’.
Opens up about future plans – working with as many people as possible to create more happy workspaces, and learnings he’s picked up along the way, including trusting people, letting yourself make mistakes, getting rid of middle management and letting people define their own roles.
Explains the concept of psychological safety – the idea that anyone can speak up, and ways you can structure meetings to have more positive outcomes.
Henry Stewart
Founder and Chief Happiness Officer at Happy
Highlights:
1:18 – Our show’s sponsor, Magus Wealth.
1:48 – Introducing Happy; what they do and what Henry’s role is.
3:01 – Detailing the government’s funded programme.
5:48 – Who Happy works with, and where.
7:18 – Company facts, and Happy’s origin story.
12:25 – Happy’s unorthodox recruitment process.
16:18 – First realising that a business like Happy could succeed.
20:45 – Deeper dive into how the company is structured.
24:00 – Happy’s B-Corp certification.
26:55 – Happy’s early years.
33:25 – Measuring staff happiness.
35:40 – Key learnings.
39:06 – Happy’s core values.
40:40 – Future plans.
45:20 – Learnings for entrepreneurs and young businesses.
48:12 – The concept of psychological safety, and ways of structuring meetings in order to have more positive outcomes.
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