Expert Urges Companies to Promote Culture of Love

A human resources expert, Mrs. Cynthia Odunaiya, has urged companies to promote a culture of love in the workplace as it fosters good relationships and employee productivity. 

Odunaiya, who is the Head of Human Resources at Greensprings School, said this while speaking about the ’14 Days Acts of Kindness’ initiative introduced by the school in celebration of the Valentine’s season.

The initiative was aimed at reinforcing the love and kindness shared in the school community. Staff members were encouraged to engage in deliberate acts of kindness towards their colleagues and loved ones from the February 1 to14.

On the idea behind the 14 Days Acts of Kindness, the HR professional stated that initiatives, like the one organised by the school for the Valentine’s season, are needed in the workplace to ensure that employees experience love and happiness, as this will motivate them to put in their best and ultimately increase productivity.

“Three things matter in every organisation, and they are the people (staff), the product and the profit. In all these, people are at the centre; hence, the work environment must be warm and comfortable for them to thrive. Thus, there is a need to come up with exciting initiatives that will make them happy and promote bonding among colleagues.”

“At Greensprings, we have several initiatives and staff engagement to ensure that our employees feel heard, loved and respected. Some of them include regular wellness talks and health checkups through our HMO partners; long service recognition awards; most valuable employees of the month; birthday shoutouts and surprise milestone celebrations. 

“Generally, we maintain an open-door policy for all staff and ensure fair hearing for everyone, because this enables us to get feedback directly from employees. There was a time when we noticed a gap in workflow, so we organised a session with employee representations from different generations comprising Generation X, Millennials and Gen-Z. After meaningful deliberations about the ways of work, we modified our policy to be more suitable for the diverse generational needs within the organisation,” Odunaiya stated. 

She added that the human-centric HR initiatives of the school are in line with the school’s motto, saying, “we do all we do because we want everyone in our organisation to feel heard and valued. This helps us to sustain our service culture, thus aligning perfectly with our motto, which is ‘In Love Serve One Another’.

 Odunaiya is an Associate Member (ACIPM) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management and a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).