HWUM’s first International Happiness Day
HERIOT-WATT University Malaysia (HWUM) recently organised its first International Happiness Day.
The one-day event was part of the university’s on-going initiative to promote well-being and happiness among its staff and students. Its main aim is for its teachers and students to achieve their potential.
Under the International Happiness Day banner were activities centred on happiness, including a forum titled “Happiness at Work”.
THE FORUM The forum saw invited industry leaders come to share their experiences and their companies’ initiatives with the school. Some of the speakers included Petronas head of HRM business unit Heryati Omar, Pearson Education country manager Banu Devi and BFM presenter Freda Liu.
During the forum, the panel agreed that communication and understanding the crux of the matter are important in achieving happiness in the workplace. Liu shared that good communication with the people around you is crucial, “even when communicating bad news to them”.
CHOICE OF SPEAKERS HWUM’s senior deputy-provost Prof Mushtak Al-Atabi shared the university’s choice of speakers in a private session with the media. “We are in the business of preparing our graduates to be employable within a wide range of industries. We want to tell our students that they need to know about happiness and how to motivate others, regardless the industry they are in. At the same time, we want the industries to know that we are leading in this space, ahead of the game, preparing our students to be aware of the bolts and nuts of how to motivate others, to be motivated themselves. It will go a long way in terms of employability in the future,” Mushtak shared.
MISCONCEPTION OF HAPPINESS Mushtak also informed that the programme was created to answer the many misconceptions about
PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS International Happiness Day at HWUM does not just end at the close of the single-day undertaking.
According to Mushtak, “This will be an on-going initiative and we are going to keep on doing other things including developing our own happiness index. We would like to be leaders in this field, which is led by our psychology department. It is centred on the students and the academic staff who actively research in the field of human motivation and interaction.”
For more information, visit HWUM’s website.