It won't come as a surprise to those of you who are parents, that after my wife gave birth to our twin girls on 1st September, I haven't had much sleep.   Abbie and Tia decided to join this world unexpectedly early - more than 12 weeks early in fact. The run up to the births was a little hectic - lots going on at work and the impending likelihood of becoming a dad any day, but there was never any pressure on me to work if I needed to be at Brighton hospital.   If it came to it, my colleagues were happy to rally around and cover my work knowing I had more important things to worry about.   My wife went into hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning and the girls arrived early on Thursday, weighing just over 2 pounds each. A quick email in from my phone explaining the situation and putting on my out-of-office, and I was able to focus on my new family for a few days without worrying about work - unbeknown to me the senior team here had met and each taken some of my...

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Form an orderly queue; Google is hiring Autocompleters for its Instant Search tool. If you have psychic tendencies and an average 32,000 WPM typing speed then you could be next in line to work for the search engine super giant: “As a Google Autocompleter, you’ll be expected to successfully guess a user’s intention as he or she starts typing instantly. In a fraction of a second, you’ll need to type in your prediction that will be added to the list of suggestions given by Google. Don’t worry, after a few million predictions you’ll grow the required reflexes.” Except this, of course, is no ordinary job description. This is one of Google’s celebrated April Fools’ Day pranks. Yes, last Friday was April 1st and, whilst the Propellernet team managed to refrain from any Fool-based naughtiness, Google couldn’t resist a few cheeky jokes. Not content with simply advertising a spoof vacancy, Google also introduced its latest Gmail technology - a movement-powered...

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There’s never a dull moment at Rocket HQ. Last Friday we ran our very first ‘Well Fun Party’ election. With a new Fun Minister and his deputy at the helm, fun and wellbeing at Propellernet is going next level. A perfect way to end the week, the rocketeers gathered around the soap box to hear candidates make known their manifestos and pitch their promises, with claps of support and jeers of disdain, they listened intently to seek out the best team for the job. Minds made up, everyone took to pen and paper and casted their vote- all of which were then counted by independent adjudicator Karen Smithson, who is also our Fun and Wellbeing Co-ordinator! Read the rest of this entry...

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Topping off a fantastic month of award entries and wins, we were victorious at the Sussex Sports Awards! Following on from our Healthiest Workplace award win at the Sussex Business Awards, we were selected as winners for the Active & Healthy Workplace Initiative award (sponsored by Wave Leisure). The other finalists included Nibbles of Worthing Ltd and Wellbeing at Work (Brighton & Hove City Council). To find out about some of the healthy workplace activities and initiatives we have in place here at Propellernet, check out Annelies' recent blog post: Is Propellernet the healthiest workplace? Read the rest of this entry...

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Friday night saw some of the best of the Brighton and Sussex business community turn up for a night of glitz and glamour at the Sussex Business Awards. A fantastic evening was had by all and it was a particularly triumphant night for the Propellernet team! We were shortlisted for three award categories on the night: Healthiest Workplace, Best Employer and the Innovation in Business award. Despite some very stiff competition from some great Sussex businesses, we are pleased to have walked away with the award for the Healthiest Workplace (sponsored by the NHS West Sussex), as well as the Innovation in Business award (sponsored by the University of Brighton). As regular readers to the blog have probably seen, we're keen believers of a healthy body = a healthy mind and have put in place a 'wellbeing team' to drive forward continual improvements in this area. So it was fantastic to win an award for our wellbeing efforts and we've got plans to continue investing and improving employee...

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By 2050 almost 60% of the UK population could be obese... now there's a scary fact. Regular readers of our blog and newsletter will know that we are an active and healthy bunch of people here at Propellernet. We regularly take part in events such as the Brighton half marathon, Tough Guy and we reached the semi finals of the Brighton Business Volleyball tournament. We've even launched our own 'wellbeing' team focused on continually improving employee wellbeing, which has seen us receive nominations for 'the healthiest workplace' and 'best employer' at the BAHBAs, The Sussex Business Awards and the Sussex Sports Awards. So we can definitely vouch for the concept of health body = healthy mind. All this brings me neatly onto the purpose of this blog post, to highlight a couple of great offers being promoted in the Brighton & Hove and Worthing areas, in association with National Obesity Week (2nd - 8th Nov 2009): Read the rest of this entry...

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At the start of the summer I wake-boarded to work. My friend has a boat, we left at 7.15 am from the Marina, I shot past the two piers at 7.30 am and waded to shore still in my wetsuit with my office clothes in a waterproof bag on my back, James Bond style. When I got to work my PR colleague Stella said I looked different. No, it wasn’t the fact that my hair was wet, no it wasn’t that I didn’t have any make up on, I just looked ... chilled.  I was feeling like a Sunday morning on a Thursday and I’m still talking about it! This type of activity sparked our idea to start a wellbeing team with the sole aim to make everyone here happier and healthier and our results are paying off. We’ve just been shortlisted for the BAHBA Healthiest Workplace Award, which makes us one of the total 37 finalists of some of the best companies Brighton has to offer. So how did we do it?  By injecting a healthy dose of ‘life’ into our ‘work’ with fun activities, providing healthy...

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