A Culture of Workplace Wellbeing Is Important

Employee wellbeing, engagement and a culture of wellbeing links to important company strengths such as productivity, health and employee retention, a study by Gallup revealed. Experience shows these factors complement affect one another in ways that CEOs, team leaders and managers can influence.

Yet, creating employee wellbeing and engagement in the workplace remains an elusive goal for many employers. A report by BlessingWhite research, “Employee Engagement Report 2011,” indicated that only 31 percent employees in the study were engaged, while 17 percent were actively disengaged (employees who aren’t happy at work and care little for their jobs and employer). The recent global GFC may have negatively influenced the result of the study. However, this study found that more employees considered looking for new jobs than surveys from 2007 through 2009.

Three Types of Employees

• Engaged – These are employees that work with passion, drive and feel a connection to their company. They promote innovation and drive the organization forward.
• Not-Engaged – Employees who are ‘checked out’. They sleepwalk through the workday. They might put time in, but not passion into their tasks.
• Actively Disengaged – These are a minority but they are employees who just aren’t happy with work. They actively act out this unhappiness. They undermine what their accomplished engaged coworker do.

Jim Harter, Ph.D is Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and wellbeing. He believes individual wellbeing has an effect on future employee engagement and changes to employee engagement. “If people had higher wellbeing in year one, they would tend to have higher engagement in year two and a more positive change in engagement in year two,” Harter says. “People that have high individual wellbeing are more likely to see their workplace as positive, productive, and engaging. Conversely, if they are struggling or suffering, it rubs off on the workplace and the team.”

Engaged Employees Are Happy Employees

Employee wellbeing has important implications for productivity and work relationships. Satisfied, passionate and happy employees are more likely to trust their leaders, comply with tasks given, and company rules, provide suggestions to improve the organisation, help co-workers, and work as a team to achieve goals. Such behaviour contributes to a high-performing organisation that is productive and innovative. Therefore, it is not surprising that research has shown that employee wellbeing is associated positively with customer satisfaction.

In a 2012 Gallup survey of 70,000 people around the world, one of the largest contributors to daily experiences of negative emotions was not feeling respected. As a manager, how can you promote wellbeing and employee engagement at your company? It is important to be aware of your employee’s engagement and wellbeing because there is a strong connection between the two. “Small decreases in wellbeing may not seem like much,” says Harter. “But poor wellbeing is strongly related to absenteeism and ‘presenteeism,’ or when people show up to work but aren’t active, effective, and productive.”

If one employee rates her wellbeing as 75 on the wellbeing scale and another worker rates his as 70, the worker with lower wellbeing will have 18.6% higher risk of sleep disorders, 15% higher risk of anxiety or depression 6.3% higher risk of obesity and 0.6 unhealthy days in the past 30 days.

Be aware of your employee’s engagement and wellbeing

As the research showed above, there’s a strong connection between wellbeing and engagement, and that applies to managers as well. Employees may not be aware of all the wellbeing opportunities a company offers. But a manager can encourage employees to get involved in wellbeing activities such as yoga, improved training, motivational rewards and personal development opportunities. This reflects a powerful cascade effect from managers to employees, Harter says, “When managers care about their wellbeing, their team members take a greater interest in their own wellbeing.” This helps to minimise staff turnover and improving employee motivation.

Give employees a platform

A lot of studies are showing that change happens because of our social environment,” Harter says. “Norms are shared in a way that’s contagious, and companies and managers can help set those norms. But the team will carry them forward.”Employees who are engaged and thriving also have greater agility and resilience. “When people are engaged and have thriving wellbeing, their life situations don’t weigh them down and keep them from performing,” Harter says. “They see changes as opportunities, not problems.” Managers who encourage wellbeing and engagement will help their companies reap the benefits in times to come.

Stay Informed

The old saying, ‘leave your personal life at home, not at work’, is not entirely realistic. A Gallup analysis shows that your wellbeing has an impact on the people you work with and on the people who work for you. Work/life balances are important in order for your employees to balance their work and personal lives, which makes them happier and more productive. By creating a positive culture of organizational wellbeing for your company, you are encouraging your employees to take pride in their job, and respect their peers.

Streamline Workflow

It is important in today’s workplaces that a company runs smoothly. Do you want to streamline workflow and improve business operations? To run your company successfully your staff should be priority. By promoting wellbeing at your workplace you increases employee work satisfaction, which in turn reduces stress and save times because there is less pressure and high workloads are often a cause of stress.

Provide a Positive Environment

As a manager or leader it is important to provide an environment for your employees to learn. Paul Monsted, managing Director says it’s wise to get them out of the office. “Take your employees to seminars, workshops, somewhere that is an enriching environment. No hard core training.”

Mr Monsted also mentions introducing fringe benefits to your staff such as trips away, gift baskets to aid a positive environment. “They will see the value,” he says.

To view the original article, click here and learn more about creating a happy workplace culture.

Source by Kellie Riek

More and more, people in Australia are choosing gift baskets as the present of choice for many different occasions. If you are one of them, then you undoubtedly would like to find a hampers business that you can rely on. There are definite things to look for in such cases; read on to learn more.

Do They Offer A Wide Selection?

Although birthdays are very popular events for giving hampers, the company that you choose to order one from should offer a wide array of hampers for many different occasions including Fathers Day baskets. In addition to birthday hampers, they should offer things as diverse as get well hampers, baby gift baskets – and everything in between. You’ll discover that having a gift basket for practically any occasion can come quite in handy, and you’ll be glad to have a reliable business from which to buy one.

Can They Come Through For Major Events?

Whether you’re planning a huge social gathering for a friend or family member, or if you are going to be holding a major work event, hampers can make excellent door or raffle prizes. The company that you choose to work with should be willing and able to come up with a unique array of baskets to suit your specific needs, regardless of what type of event you’ll be throwing. Ordering your gift baskets for such occasions should be helpful – not stressful.

Are They Passionate About Gift Baskets?

Always look for a hampers business that is run by people with a genuine love for the craft. Such people will be brimming with enthusiasm about creating just the right gift for any given occasion, and they will be more than happy to brainstorm ideas with you as necessary. In other words, hampers should be more than a paycheck for them – they should be a means of creative expression and an opportunity to provide something elegant and attractive for their clientele.

Do They Feature New Ideas All The Time?

Rather than displaying the same old gift hampers week after week, the hampers business that you hire on should demonstrate the ability to come up with unique new concepts on a regular basis. This shows that they have creativity to spare, and signifies that they are most likely happy to think outside the box for their customers.

Is Giving Back To The Community Important To Them?

A professional, well run hampers business will always keep the importance of their surrounding community in mind. As such, they will happily donate baskets on a regular basis to community organizations and for special events as well. Look for companies that do this, and you will be on the right track indeed.

by David S Judge

If you love lobster, then you know it is the star of the show on your plate. So, what do you serve with this main star? What side dishes for lobster are the best?

To keep the lobster as the main event, you need to have very simple side dishes. Very colorful vegetables in the yellow, reds and greens work very well with Lobster dishes.

Here is one example:

Cucumber and tomato salad. This makes a great side dish for lobster. It is simple to make and very colorful.

Here is what you will need:

cucumbers (as many as you think you will need for your guests, you will have to gauge this yourself)

nice red ripe tomatoes

Greek style bottled dressing

Peel your cucumber and then slice in 1/2 lengthwise, and then again, and then slice the wedges about 1/2 inch think.

Wash and cut the tomatoes into pieces a similar size to the cucumber chunks.

Put these in a bowl, and then pour some dressing (I found the Kraft Greek style dressing with feta worked the best for me)

Then let it sit for about 15 minutes before you serve it, to absorb the Greek dressing. Then sprinkle with the crumbled feta cheese.

Put on the table with a large spoon, and let your guests help themselves to this delicious side dish for the lobster.

Add a basket of crusty rolls, and lots of whipped butter, and you will have a fine lobster lunch or dinner.

You don’t need to spend too long on the side dishes for lobster, they should be simple, colorful and delicious. Your guests will be more interested in the lobster than anything else really anyways. Potato dishes may be a bit heavy a side dish for lobster, so stick to lighter fare, such as fresh vegetables and fresh bread or rolls.

Don’t forget the napkins or maybe bibs!

Source by Diane Palmer

There are many homemade Easter gift ideas which are creative and exclusive. However as long as they are handmade gifts, exchanging them during the Easter season will spell much sincerity.

One conventional idea is the old time Easter basket. This gift may sound customary and common but you can make one which differs from others depending on your creativity. Simple materials such as craft paints, a basket, foam plate, stencils, and masking tape or other materials according to your basket designs.

Among the homemade Easter gift ideas, one very creative and fun idea is to fill up a box with buttons, threads, string and beads with a note saying that you would like to organize a necklace making party. Instead of having the yearly party accustomed with only food and gatherings, you can create more excitement through the necklace making idea. You may also modify according to your own ideas. For example the paper bag puppets. You can fill up the box with goggle eyes, paper bags, craft glue, scissors and other required materials. Besides making the kids happy, you can also trigger adults to join the puppet making process together.

Another recommended gift for Easter is a treasure box. The treasure box can be made from a wooden or thick paper box, for instance a cigar box. You can decorate the box to make it look like a treasure chest. In the box you may fill up with tiny treasures such as foreign money you gather from travels, marbles, pearls, costume jewelry or even the treasure map for the Easter egg hunt you have secretly planned.

Asides from those handmade gifts, you can consider presenting the homemade Easter egg. The egg is a sign of rebirth and fertility the powerful symbol for Easter. To make Easter egg as your gift, you need to dye them with colors to symbolize the spring colors. If you do not fancy making eggs, you may want to replace it with candies. You can prepare colorful candies which reflect the spring colors. Candies will be the attention of kids thus it can appear to be one of the best gifts for Easter.

Other homemade Easter gift ideas include handmade Easter cards or delicious Easter cookie. The Easter cards can be made in any ways up to your personal creativity while the Easter cookie is simply quick and easy to make if you have the right recipe. Both the gifts may appear genuine and blends well with the meaning of Easter celebration. 

Source by Stuart Michael M

If you are getting bored of the same old cornucopia or poinsettia arrangement at the parties, you have an option to go for some really trendy and cool flowers arrangements to add a spark to your party. At Ferns and Petals, you get hundreds of designs and flower arrangements to make your party memorable.

Buying wholesale flowers has an advantage over buying basic grocery store flowers, as you can have a broader selection. Poinsettia plants and flowers are available everywhere and have become quite common. Online flower shops give you a much better selection on the types and colors of flowers that add beauty to your place. Choose a different flower theme for party. If you want to be a little different then use pink and lime green flowers instead of red and green. You can find all colours and shades on online flower shops.

Flower arrangement is quite easy. You just need a pair of pliers, a wire cutter, foam, tape, wire, and a coloured tape. First of all, take a container with enough space. You can take a vase, bowl, or a basket. Then, get a holder with a colour matching that of the room you wish to decorate. Next, pick flowers with different colours and blend them well. You can mingle chrysanthemums, roses, peonies, lilies, and poppies together. Then diffuse ferns, ivy, or eucalyptus among the flowers.

Some flowers will suddenly tip over and fall, don’t get worried. Just continue the process till the vase is filled with good combination of blooms. Then, fill half of the vase with glass marbles matching to the colour of your flower arrangement and your work is done.

Oflowers brings to you a lot of options from Ferns and Petals, an online florist that offers beautiful flowers arrangements to its customers. It also provides home delivery services across all major Indian cities and a number of international delivery centres.

Source by Harry Richard

The Christmas season brings happiness and fun. The Christmas gifts symbolize love, affection, peace, harmony and fraternity. Christmas gifts are innovative and add zest to a person’s life. The Christmas gift ideas are so amazing that you can either treat yourself or amuse any person. And also show you the easy and rewarding way to keep the special moments alive forever. It is also a collection of unusual gifts that instantly mesmerize recipient.

Christmas presents do not have to have a Christmas theme of course. A dinner dress or your baseball team’s logo on a hat do not require Christmas symbols, but doing your shopping in advance is still smarter instead of procrastinating until the day before Christmas. Write down your shopping list, figure out who has been naughty or nice on your list this year, and then go shopping.

There are many perfect Christmas gifts for different people to choose from.

Music CDs, car DVDs, music accessories, audio books and musical instruments would be perfect Christmas gifts for your music lover buddies. So why not drop them these surprise gifts this holiday? Electronic gadgets such as car GPS, car DVD player for people who love travelling. A great personal MP3 player or as a gift for people who enjoy Christmas collectibles. It also makes a good give-away item for company holiday celebrations or Christmas season store events. Electronic gadgets are yet some more glowing ideas for Christmas gifts. And these are all the rage during this season, too. Sport goods for sports nuts for the gizmo buffs, or may be some fitness equipment for the health freaks, choose your Christmas gifts wisely and well in advance to avoid the rush of the Christmas shopping season.

Christmas presents are one of the key attractions at Christmas. The Christmas gift ideas bring splendid gift collection that are eye captivating and authentic, and are especially meant for Christmas occasion to make it everlasting and exceptional than other occasions. A fruit basket is also a great holiday gift idea at Christmas. Christmas fruit arrangements make an ideal gift for the joyous holiday season. Christmas is all about sharing the wonderful things god has given us, and presenting a fruit basket to your friends and family is an ideal way to do so. These holiday fruit baskets contain seasonal and rare juicy, sweet and fresh fruits that are sometimes accompanied by vintage desert wines.

Unique Christmas and holiday gifts are sure to captivate the recipient’s heart and make the festive season the most exciting one in his life. You can leave a lifetime impression of yours in the heart of the recipient by personalizing the unique Christmas gifts. Thus, send warm Christmas wishes and make your dear ones feel special with the Christmas unique gifts.

Source by berl

Gift baskets can be seen everywhere. When you see the gift baskets, will you think a question like this “How it is made?”.

1. Food gift baskets

You know the usual gift baskets. Food, wine and all that jazz.

Well, a fruit basket filled with fruit harvested from your garden would be wonderful… if the seasons permit it. If not, if you made jams and preserves from harvested fruit, these would be wonderful in the gift basket.

* Get a wicker basket.

* Put a huge box of biscuits you baked yourself at the bottom of the basket.

* Arrange colorful bottles of jam on top of that box, with a bottle of wine in the center.

* Use a clear adhesive tape to hold everything in place.

* Then wrap the entire basket and its contents with cellophane paper.

* Tie a ribbon around the wine bottle for the finishing touch.

2. Makeover gift basket

Know of a plain jane you would like to makeover into a lovely swan? Drag her to the mall and get her to try out various dresses until you find one she looks amazing in. Buy that for her.

Drag her to the makeup counter for one makeover after another and when you find a look she looks fabulous in, and buy the makeup used to create that look.

Cart her to the shoe shop and pick a pair of high heels that fit her and which go with the outfit.

If she still lets you live, put the shoes, dress and makeup in a basket and wrap it with cellophane. No doubt it wouldn’t be a surprise, but that would probably be the gift that she would remember more than anything else. She might be embarassed when you get her to use that gift at a party, but I’m sure she’d be pleased whether or not she shows it.

3. Jewelry gift basket.

Your gift basket need not really be in a basket. You could even use those compartmentalized boxes for fish bait for this jewelry gift basket.

Get a collection of earrings you know she would like. Costume jewelry would be wonderful. CZ earrings [http://www.cheapestsale.com/jewelry/CZ.html] are very affordable. You might even put in a necklace or two and other jewels that fit into these compartments.

Once every compartment is filled, decorate the box by gluing color paper on the lid and letting your artistic talent loose as you write a message on it using metallic ink.

Wrap it up and give her this treasure chest for Christmas.

wickerchina.com, first China B2B platform for wicker export and wicker import, also largest online vertical wicker industry B2B platform for relevant manufacturers, suppliers, international buyers, connects global wicker basket / picnic basket buyers and sellers.

Source by Helen Zhang

Back in 2005, on one summer night, we were sitting outside making a decision of what business to start up online. We knew we needed a website but didn’t know a thing about internet or building a website. Not letting any of that be a road block in our business adventure, we chose to start making up gift baskets, since Kim is very talented in designs and crafts such as floral, decorations and crafts in that nature. So we chose Kims Gift Baskets and the url http://www.kimsgiftbaskets.com. We wrote our story back 2 years ago in regards to the gift basket business.  Staring in mid 2006, we discussed of other possibilities and products we could introduce into our gift basket business. Don’t get me wrong, we were actually doing pretty good with gift baskets, the business bills were being paid, plus paying us. We had several ideas which were in the gifting market such as gold dipped roses, cookie bouquets, baby shower accessories and favors, wedding accessories and favors and even fruit bouquets to name a few. We kept going back to the idea in the wedding and baby accessories as a good choice of product.  The baby and wedding ideas really sparked for a couple of different reasons, one of the main reasons was, we have been involved with coordinating weddings and baby shower events in the local area even before the gift basket business started, we truly loved doing this together, a great team I must say. Now the other one is a business strategy that anybody who is thinking about selling products should think about if they are going to do a business online, especially with the way the economy is, we wanted to have multiple streams of products. This will give you a chance to reach to a broader range of consumers and in return, more orders.

  As we said, we were entertaining the thought of more than just gift baskets and gifts, so we decided to start with baby shower favors and gifts. We found a company called Baby Aspen and signed up with them, soon after, we were introducing baby gifts and baby shower favors to the Kims Gift Baskets. This was an easy choice for us; our web site was already being searched in baby phrases so that seemed to blend right in. With the baby gifts and baby favors, they just added more depth in search terms and the website. We found a couple more companies which we also set up accounts with giving the consumers more styles and choices. Over the course of a month or so, we worked very hard on the website with adding in baby products, changing site design and working SEO.  

     Now if you remember, we entertained ideas adding wedding accessories or something that was wedding related. We found out shortly after becoming a vendor for Baby Aspen, there was Kate Aspen which distributes wedding and bridal shower favors. Now it was a scramble, in less than a months span, we introduced the wedding and bridal party favors into our business along with baby shower favors and baby gifts. Of course, it’s not as easy as just put the products on your website and presto, you have customers. I wish it was that easy! Many hours spent were spent working on the content, SEO, linking and more content to get the search engines to start ranking us in keywords for wedding phrases.  We set up accounts with a few more dropship companies; Fashioncraft and Event Blossoms for the wedding and bridal favors, and couple of other companies who had favors but didn’t like their services, so soon after, we took everything off our website of theirs. When using drop shippers, whether for your wedding business, baby business, or any type of business you are going to sell products, there are pros and cons using their services, but if they’re a good company, you’ll have no worries. Fashioncraft who is mainly favors for a variety of occasions, is very reliable and consistent with getting the orders out to your customers. We have been doing business with them for over a year now and have never had any issues with their products or services.  

     As discussed, we still wanted to provide bridal and wedding accessories for all of the lucky brides who are planning their wedding. Weddings, typically is a once in a lifetime event and everything has to be perfect, including the bride! We began our searches for distributors who dropped shipped wedding and bridal accessories and found Lillian Rose, Jamie Lynn, which came a few months later, and of course Beverly Clark. I don’t think there’s a bride, a future bride or a woman in general that hasn’t heard of her line of wedding collections and bridal accessories. There are other distributors which we also use, this gives us a large variety for the customers to chose from.

   We do however, carry stock of baby shower favors, baby gifts, bridal accessories and wedding favors to avoid some of the worries of when orders will be shipped to our customers. By doing so, we have more control on providing excellent services to our customer and knowing that their order is shipped and delivered in a quick timely manner.

    

As we are now introducing wedding accessories, bridal favors, and bridal accessories, we know there’swas much work to be done. Not only putting them on the website and setting up pages, there’s SEO, Yikes……..again that awful word.

    But as we have learned, there’s more to just SEO, you must have traffic, without traffic you have no sales. With the internet vastly changing, social marketing, videos, links, advertising and several other avenues to get your product out there for potential customers and to gain more visibility. You must reach out and utilize these social networking gateways to help you get you name and product to the public.  Facebook, Twitter, Blogging of course are a few options , but remember,  you have to get involved.   

Source by Michael & Kimberly

Beauty gift baskets are an excellent surprise for any women on any occasion. A basket of what a woman loves best. Pamper beauty and relaxation. A wonderful way to tell the special woman in your life how much she means to you and how important it is to you that she looks after herself both physically and emotionally. Health beauty and pamper are at the crest of a woman heart and an essential part of any woman’s forte.

The creative essence in a man is enough to get any woman hot under the collar especially when they know it’s for them and you were thinking about them. When these special occasions role around once or twice a year this is your chance to keep that spark alive and show her she is the special one. Women generally aren’t that easy to buy for. If you are game enough to even predict that she’ll like a garment you buy her or even think you can predict her size. Men generally end up back to one of a few options. Either ask them what they want. Or health and beauty products, or jewellery. 

If we ask them we have no chance of getting it wrong but it’s the essence of surprise which we burn and if we proceed with this strategy for too long the flame is likely to burn out.

Jewellery is an option but once again to predict the sense of style of a woman is not always an easy task .  I’m sure we’ve all bought jewellery for a woman which I’m sure they really do love.  But just like that pair of red shoes which were essential to her collection 2 years ago. It only gets worn once a year. Women do love jewellery though I would always advise to get a gift certificate and keep it to nice small elegant piece. As attractive as Pat Butcher is her taste generally not everyone’s desire.

Once these two options are gone. We have the option of  a nice little person gift which would suit only her or the  health and beauty option. Make up, moisturisers, health days, spas, the options are endless. It may be something you could do together, massage oils, aromatherapy it’s a safe and an excellent option. I know to the average man this generally doesn’t make much sense but woman love this stuff.   Health beauty and pamper are at the crest of a woman heart and a strong part of any woman’s forte.

Be it the summer breeze or a winters night beside the fire aromatherapy or all over skin care they  are beautiful gifts for all occasions and  bought together as a basket these products can set sparks ablaze.  They are interesting exciting and a mixture a what your loving partner needs and desires. They can be personalised to show it was them they were thinking of a nice break away selectively booked on the weekend of a big match. Topped off with candles aromatherapy massage oils and facial beauty treatments to send them into a rage of delight overload  keeping them looking and feeling like the person that you love.

Source by Michael Raines