Playmore offers the following utilizing the programs listed or will do a custom designed program upon request.

	Keynote sessions 50-90 minutes
	Seminars 2 Hours
	Workshops Half Day or Full Day

Playmore certifications are a combination of programs and meetings with your group to make a better workplace. Please refer to Playmore Certification for more details.

Human Resources

We offer a full Human Resources audit to help you stay on top of issues and concerns that may affect your organization. Our reports will offer ideas on how to make this function stronger and support your growth.

Outsourced Human Resource services are also offered allowing you to hire us to oversee this function for you without the need to retain a full time employee.

Strategic Human Resources Planning is another offering of Playmore, helping you to create a plan that matches the business plan of your organization for growth and success.

Coaching

Coaching for executive team members, individually or as a group is another offering of Playmore.

Learning to Live the Life You Love is also a coaching program offered by Playmore.

Statistics

Over 500 companies responded to a survey in 2002 by SHRM* on fun in the workplace. The degree to which organizations promoting fun environments experienced some significant change due to these playful techniques is summarized in this report. The top five outcomes tell quite a story:

	95% indicated an increase in the ability to attract new employees
	95% of the respondents reported increases in employee enthusiasm as a result of the fun.
	94% experienced an increase in group cohesiveness
	93% had increased communications among employees and employee satisfaction
	92% saw an increase in employee creativity

Three other interesting results:

	91% showed an increase in employee friendships
	88% saw a greater level of employee commitment
	86% experienced increases in customer satisfaction

While so many things went up we should also look at what went down:

	84% experienced a decrease in stress and anxiety in the workplace
	79% had reductions in turnover
	72% had decreases in absenteeism
	72% saw reductions in employee conflicts

*Survey results from,"Fun Work Environment Survey," November 2002 Sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management

The Power of Play

Profit and Play = The Magic Formula

I recently worked with a company that went from losing over 20% of their annual revenue, due to a catastrophic situation outside their control, to regaining that revenue in eleven months. How did they do it? Hard work AND play. This company not only did all the normal drill downs on how to regain revenues through new business, but incorporated play in a big way throughout the organization. They laughed, worked, and played their hearts out until success and profitability were where they needed to be again.

In the past ten years we have seen a change in the reasons companies make "The Best Places to Work," listing. While good benefit and compensation programs, child and parental care and health clubs continue to provide a good part of the story, there is also another secret element that is part of that culture of success, and that is play.

Many years ago, Ovid, a famous philosopher, made the profound statement that, "In our play we reveal the person we really are." If you take this statement into the workplace you will find that playful workplaces, companies who truly understand the power of play, are revealing higher profits, more product ideas, greater retention, and higher morale. This higher morale creates an environment that faces challenge and creativity head on and with great success.

What does play in the workplace look like? Too many people think that it is silliness and a waste of time. Not so for a plant near Atlanta that discovered play meant putting their people on roller blades to negotiate the large terrain of their plant more easily and get things done in half the time. Also not so for the many companies that have found on-site "play rooms," with exercise equipment and other fun distractions, relieving the stress of very arduous projects. Their ability to keep the energy high, even with laborious critical projects on the line, easily proves the point that playfulness has a place in the workplace.

What else is play at work? It is an attitude. It is knowing that when the going gets tough, you need to play. Play has been known for years to be an antidote to stress. What we fail to realize it is that play is also the key to creative thought. There are so many examples of play as the creator of things we know and use in this world. Newton was using the playful tactic of a nap when he was hit on the head with an apple and developed a key scientific theory. Mozart composed one of his most famous concertos while playing a game of billiards. Velcro was discovered by a Frenchman and his dog while they were hiking in the Alps. Charles Dickens wrote, "A Christmas Carol" after a long period of writer's block that he countered with long walks through the streets of London. These walks were the inspiration for all the characters in the book. Play is not always about silliness, it can be as simple as a walk.

No one ever argues the point that high morale usually will bring about high results. When play is introduced appropriately into the day to day operations of an organization, in making meetings more relaxed, in creative problem solving, etc., the results are always spectacular and even fun.

Play has the power to open the mind, soften the heart and provoke new thinking. A call center once faced the age old problem of high turnover and even higher stress and burnout. After all, who calls a call center? People trying to resolve a problem usually. Most call centers have a policy that no matter how rude a customer is to an agent they may not hang up on them unless the customer uses obscenity. Many customers can get fairly volatile without crossing the line which can make for a very difficult call for the agent. Now think about it. What if you, nice person that you are, were the next caller? The agent has just received a fairly significant brow beating from the previous customer and now they have you. In an ideal world they would switch immediately to their original warm, friendly script, but their heart is hurting. Sure it wasn't personal, but it feels personal! Using play we trained the agents to deal with this stress. First, others were trained to listen for a colleague having a bad call. When they heard it they would blow bubbles into the work area of the agent struggling with the caller. We gave everyone a bubble supply for their desk. We also gave them small foam airplanes to fly kind remarks over to the agent. The agent who was having a difficult time might also put on a silly hat while taking the call, reminding them to think lightly of themselves and not take this one particular call too seriously. We did many more things such as silly slippers, and a silent standing ovation to rally the spirits of the person being harangued. Our call center eventually went on to have great retention and 80% of our new hires were referred by existing employees.

What are the corollaries in your business? What big problem needs a light touch to be solved? Where are your employees stuck, and how can they be playful with getting out of that rut?

Play is so simple. I never leave a restaurant without slipping a small toy into the folder with the bill. Watching the waitperson open the folder and laugh and then seeing them move on in their work explains the simple power of play. The people at the next table receive not only the smile but the open heart for service and have a great experience.