Finnish Independence Day and other cultural discoveries

For those of you that have not met any of us at Honeydew Health, we are actually a very multinational team with the 5 of us hailing from Denmark, Finland, Poland and the UK. With such a great variety on offer, every organisation should embrace their different cultures!

The difference in cultures is something we like to celebrate and learn from which is exactly why today we are celebrating Finnish Independence Day (or ‘Hyvää itsenäisyyspäivää!’ as they say in Finnish) and St. Nicholas’ day (‘St.Nikolaustag’ in german). We’ve lit a candle in our window and have put our boots by our beds in return for a treat from St Nikolaus so today has been very festive indeed.

Within each organisation there are usually a whole host of cultures to learn about and having a mini celebration or even just acknowledging each culturally significant day can be a real bonding experience for your team. The explanatory conversations and the little extra cheer engages employees in the lives of colleagues and lets them get to know each other on a more personal level. Truly making it a happier workplace.

There are many great ways to incorporate the holidays and special dates from each culture into a workplace. You could ask your employees to note down any days they wish to share with others on an ‘office calendar’ and on each significant day, typical food and gifts can be brought in to share.

You could even write a small article or e-mail explaining each of these dates to encourage your employees to learn about the other cultures.

Ensuring that your organisation celebrates and acknowledges different cultures will bring its organisational culture in line with this era of corporate globalisation. You may begin to benefit from a far wider range of clientele and will allow all employees to feel as though their beliefs and values are celebrated, rather than ignored. When your employees feel as though they are cared about by their workplace, they are far more likely to enjoy their job – which in turn increases productivity and engagement.

If you’d like any information on why ‘engagement’ is more than just a buzzword and why your workplace needs to be happy to be successful, just get in touch with us!