“Organisations need to create necessary structures and infrastructures which allow people to be cool, calm and comfortable at their respective workplaces.”, this statement from Dr. Debashis Chatterjee, Director General, IMI, New Delhi, sums up the roadmap that organisations need to follow to create a happy workplace.
Intensive interactions, all straight from the heart, marked the inaugural edition of HyWe, the HappY WorkplacE conclave held at Hotel Pride Plaza in Aerocity near New Delhi International Airport on 23 February 2018. More than 150 delegates from various leading national and multinational companies including start-ups and academia attended the conclave to discuss, debate and deliberate on happiness at workplace. It was not a question of whether to do it or not but how to do it.
Sharing his view on the topic Kartik Bharat Ram, Dy Managing Director, SRF, who is also the promoter of the company, said, “The key to happiness lies in recruiting people who fit the DNA of the organisation.” He supported the argument with an assertion, “We try to create a genome in terms of what is an ideal employee for our organisation.”
Endorsing these views, Pankaj Bansal, Founder and CEO, PeopleStrong, said, “People perceive an organisation as the best place to work if it is inclusive and fair, if it doesn’t have huge hierarchies, and if it gives them an opportunity to innovate.”
In his keynote address, Dr. S.C. Manchanda, the famous Padma Shri Cardiologist who is a 
former Head of Cardiology from AIIMS and currently associated with Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, said, “Workplace becomes a hell if you do not enjoy and relax at your work.” His prescription for a healthy mind includes, Healthy Diet, Stress Control, Regular Exercise and Tobacco Cessation. The session was moderated by Palash Jain, Ex Googler and Management Consultant who also shared his personal experience of coming to terms with reality and deciding to move on with life with full energy and enthusiasm.
According to Adam Cox, an Independent Management Consultant from UK, happiness would mean different things to different people and it would be different for the same people at different stages of their life and career. He reiterated, “Leaders must say what they mean and mean what they say.”
The conclave also witnessed some interesting discussions on the concept of Happiness Inventory by Dr. Yogesh Pahuja, Founder of Happiness Studio and author of ‘Are you Happy@Work’ and ‘Using Science and Philosophy to create Happier Workplaces’ by Jennifer Hancock, Founder of Humanist Learning System from USA. Other sessions included deliberations on the practical challenges and opportunities of building happiness quotient at workplaces by HR Heads of different organisations. The conclave concluded with the sharing of best practices of creating happiness at workplaces.
From what the CEOs and Founders discussed, it was clear that providing customised and flexible policies to different generations of workforce, striking work life balance in 24X 7 always on work culture, working across different geographies and time-zones, and offering a choice to the employees for everything from job to policies to postings, are the key challenges that today’s organistions are grappling with.
Earlier, Mukund Trivedy, Founder, Straight Drive while welcoming the speakers and delegates set the context with an emotional appeal that was interspersed with his personal experience of how negativity and toxicity in the organisation he worked earlier created an uncertainty in the minds of employees. The conclave he said was aimed at creating an awareness about the need to harness the power of pride and purpose to boost performance of the organisation.
Reputation Today was the Silver Sponsor and the Magazine Partner of the conclave.
The views expressed here are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect that of Reputation Today.
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