Winning as little as a candy or a bar of chocolate from playing trivia games during a busy day at our workstations makes all the hard work easy. At eHealth Africa, while we believe in working hard, we equally believe in striking a balance. Having fun while working reduces fatigue that may result in burnout.
A study by Ford et al, suggests that an environment is considered fun when it intentionally encourages initiatives and supports a variety of enjoyable and pleasurable activities that positively impact the attitudes and productivity of individuals. Because we prioritize the happiness and well-being of our team, we strive to create an environment where everyone can take a few minutes out of their busy schedules to unwind; no meetings, no scrolling through our task management tool, or not even reading emails.
Here are 3 employee engagement initiatives we introduced to revitalize our workplace to decrease stress and promote fresh creativity and job satisfaction.
We get everyone involved
Thank God it’s Friday (TGIF) is a favorite of many of our staff because of the rationale behind it. We organize a series of activities every last Friday of the month to allow our team to unpack their month and approach the new month with a relaxed and fresh mindset. While some employees spend the time relaxing and unwinding, others engage in healthy competitions to determine which team wins the title for the month. Different departments take turns hosting the TGIFs.
We go outside
Our mission as an organization is to ensure that people in underserved communities can lead healthier lives through our work. We started our Community Development Initiative (CDI) as part of our efforts to give back to the communities where we work and live in. We identify the needs of these communities and look for ways to support them. These CDI projects also serve as team bonding opportunities outside our work. Recently, to celebrate Earth Day we planted 500 trees in Kano and Abuja. Also, we renovated 22 boreholes across 10 LGAs in Kano State, Borno State, and Abuja.
The conversation-starter
What started as an informal lunchtime trivia game has since become the norm at eHealth Africa. Some Fridays, a subset of our team gather to play trivia games. You can simply call this learn and play, while everyone involved has a good time, they update their knowledge of projects, programs and solutions.
For us at eHA, fun at work is essential to our employees' happiness. We know fun means different things to different people on our team. From a random joke from a colleague to just gathering around the workstation for trivia games. But whatever their concept of fun is, we are leaving no stone unturned in the pursuit of our team’s happiness.