



Businesses will benefit in a number of ways if they embrace fun at work, according to the HR Director of Byron Burgers.



Mike Williams explains in this month’s edition of HR Grapevine that the key to remaining competitive is to have fun.



“We bring fun into a lot of what we do, one of the key elements to our culture is fun.” And, he continues: “There’s an absolute correlation between our employee engagement, our labour turnover and our customer service scores.”



According to the ‘It Pays to Play’ report from BrightHR fun is of growing importance – especially among Millennials. The research shows that respondents between the age of 16 and 24 expect to be part of a culture that promotes fun and creativity in any job.

"But if you think about it, 'fun' is quite hard to do,” Mike explains, “our employees are discerning. If we came out with some cheesy rubbish, they would be like 'this isn't fun, this is cheesy rubbish'. So we have to be quite innovative in what we do."



Byron Burgers embraces fun in every aspect of their people strategy, from speed dating recruitment to ‘burger research’ development trips across the world.



However, the culture is driven from the top. Founder Tom Byng and Head Chef Fred Smith are truly part of the fun, according to Williams: “As a management team we have to set the example, so when we’re in the restaurants it’s about not being stuffy, not being formal, and having a bit of a laugh with people.”



Byng even goes as far as to dress as a squirrel and throw nuts at staff quarterly.



To find out more see this month’s magazine here.