How to Create a Hygge Culture at Work

With over a third of U.S. employees saying they are unhappy or just about okay with their work-life, organizations may seek inspiration from the Danish concept of “hygge.” In this article, we look at:

• What is hygge and why you need hygge at work
• Three tips for bringing hygge into the workplace
• A tip to get started with hygge at work right now

Employee happiness is now a vital concern for employers as workplaces become more demanding, dynamic, and performance-focused. There’s always a risk of creating a toxic culture in a bid to push productivity and performance.  A recent CNBC surveyOpens a new window of 8,000 members of the workforce found that employees defined their happiness at work when they felt that their work was meaningful. This is why it is important to turn the spotlight on the work culture and the kind of work that they are expected to do, making employees feel more comfortable, nurtured and engaged.

Here’s where the Danish lifestyle concept of “hygge” comes in. Initially formulated as the feeling experienced by individuals when surrounded by a cozy environment, hygge has made deep inroads into lifestyle and work cultures.

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What Is Hygge and Why Do You Need Hygge at Work?

Hygge (pronounced hoo-guh) can be loosely translated into a specific feeling or emotive response to nurturing elements in the environment, ranging from the layout of your home to its furnishings and people or pets you’re with. It refers to a person’s ability to be “in the moment” and enjoy their immediate surroundings.

Hygge is a Danish concept – Denmark is regularly recognized as a proponent of healthy work culture. The World Economic Forum named Aarhus in Denmark Opens a new window as the most mindful city in the world, and it has always performed exceptionally well in terms of livability, quality of life, and other parameters.

Organizations across the world can take inspiration from the concept of hygge  when reformulating their work culture. How the physical workspace is designed, interactions with peers, the benefits the company offers, and micro-moments across the employee experience can all go into establishing a culture of hygge at work.

As employees spend more time in the office and the lines between home and office blur in the age of always-on connectivity, bringing the concept of hygge to work can be extremely beneficial to employee happiness.

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3 Ways in Which You Can Adopt the Principles of Hygge in the Workplace

You can take small steps to enable the comfort and sense of fulfillment commonly associated with hygge. At work, this means creating the right culture, offering smart benefits, and ensuring that employees experience small moments of contentment and joy as part of their daily workday. Here are three ways you can take inspiration from hygge and reimagine your work culture.

1. Open up communication across the organization

When done right, hygge at work should leave every employee feeling happy and empowered. This cannot take place if you have a rigid organizational hierarchy with limited communication between the different perceived ranks. Instead, it is advisable to follow an informalized structure where every employee is treated as an individual and an equally important contributor to business outcomes.

By opening the lines of effective communication in the workplaceOpens a new window across senior leaders, business unit heads, executives, and interns – while crowdsourcing ideas from the entire workforce – you can create a culture of democracy and empowerment. It’s no surprise, then, that an open office layout that encourages quick informal chats is among the basic tenets of hygge at work.

2. Make employee wellness central to your benefits package

Too often, employers limit their benefits to the mandatory time-offs and medical policies as mandated by the government. Monetary compensation is supposed to make up for the lack of any value addition to employee wellness.

This lack of focus on employee wellnessOpens a new window creates a workplace where employees routinely struggle with various personal and professional challenges. For example, student debt and mental health issues could be impacting employee happiness. And these are issues that employers can address through specific measures.

Offering employee-centric benefits like a healthy cafeteria, tuition reimbursement, mental health supportOpens a new window , financial wellnessOpens a new window , provisions for childcare, and other such benefits, can go a long way towards enabling hygge at work.

3. Encourage sustainable relationships between employees and their environment

Remember, at work, hygge is closely associated with how employees react to and interact with their surroundings. By working towards sustainability, you can build a healthy relationship between employees and their environments, making them more likely to experience “hygge” at work.

Avoiding paper-based processes, reducing the need for long commutes by offering flexibility and remote work options, and providing sustainable food options are some of the key steps you can take to create a culture of sustainability in the workplaceOpens a new window .

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Want to Start Right Now? Here’s an Easy Way to Create a Hygge Culture at Work

As any advocate for hygge at work will tell you, there’s one thing a hygge-friendly environment does not include – the overuse of technology. Constantly staring at a screen, browsing through social media for hours, switching between multiple productivity apps, or feeling compelled to check emails even outside work hours can leave employees feeling exhausted and unhappy. That’s why one of the secrets to enabling hygge is limiting the overexposure to technology.

To start with, you can assign one “airplane mode” hour every week, where employees can talk in a free-flowing format, step out of the office together, or even sit down with a book and a hot cup of coffee, all without screen time.

Small steps like this will help your employees connect with each other and their surroundings on an emotional level, resulting in the hygge effect, even at work! It will keep them wanting to come back and interested in the work and the workplace. It may seem like an out-there concept, but a hygge culture is worth aspiring toward to engage and retain employees.

Have you tried to implement hygge at work? Tell us about your experience on FacebookOpens a new window , LinkedInOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We look forward to learning from you!