how having fun at work makes your business more profitable
by Kevin Ryan
Five years ago, I started speaking to business groups about the value of having fun at work. A lot of the time, my main challenge was to simply get them to accept the principle that letting their staff have fun would help their business.
Things have changed. I don’t struggle to convince business owners anymore that fun at work is worth the effort. Here are a few of the obvious ones –
A fun workplace retains its good staff
Some industries have such high staff turnover that they refer to it as their ‘attrition’ rate. One such industry is call centres. A call centre in Sydney introduced a fun program and their staff turnover dropped from 30+% (the industry standard) to 13%. Imagine the saving in staff training! A study at Griffith university in Brisbane found, that encouraging good social networks (which is what fun at work does) is as effective in retaining staff as increasing salary .
When people are enjoying themselves they complain less and get into fewer disputes.
Workplace disputes are disruptive, destructive and, generally, expensive. Staff complaining about minor issues are the blight of every manager. A workplace fun program is a proactive way of dealing with these costly irritations. And it is not an acceptable excuse to say “O, that wouldn’t work with our industry – the work just isn’t fun!” One of the most successful demonstrations of workplace humour, is the FISH! series of books and videos (Lundin, Paul & Christensen). It is based on the activities oat the Pike Place Fish Markets in Seattle. This is why it is such a powerful example> Fish mongering is not fun! To quote FISH!: “You can’t always choose the work that you do, but you can choose your attitude to it”
Fun at work means better customer service.
A survey done in 2000 buy Marketing Focus in Perth Identified the factors that influenced customer’ buying decisions. The top