Abstract—The purpose of this study was to implement the
happy workplace activities through the employee engagement in
the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) located in the
industrial estate around Bangkok, Thailand. Information
obtained from participants, comprising of semi-structured
interviews and happinometer questionnaire surveys were
analyses to evaluate the appropriate happy workplace activities,
which were conducted as during May 2013-May 2014. The
improvement of solid waste management and “5S” system of
Cornel Polymer Co. Ltd., Pop System and Service Co. Ltd., and
Siam Integration System Co. Ltd. approximately 80, 20, and 30
percent, respectively leaded to the increasing of happy
workplace score of happy body about 40 percentages of each
case study.
Index Terms—Industry, happy workplace, safety
performance, solid waste management.
I. INTRODUCTION
Company’s ability to compete and gain market share in its
industry is related to the quality value of a product or service
fitted to customer needs. The happiness of employees leads to
the customer satisfaction [1], especially the workplace
satisfaction [2] to increase organization productivity [3]. A
workplace management can enhance performance and reduce
organization losses resulting from cognitive decline [4],
illness [5], accidents, high absenteeism, and high labour
turnover [6]. Therefore, employee should empower the
employees to increase their knowledge and skill in activity
engagement of employees to stimulate happy workplace on a
sustainable basis [7].
Happy workplace activities are happy body, happy heart,
happy society, happy brain, happy money, happy relax, happy
soul, and happy family as shown in Table I [8]. Owing to the
happy body related to the physically and mentally health
employees, less sickness will help the company to save a lot of
their budget on health expense.
TABLE I: HAPPY WORKPLACE ACTIVITIES
Happy workplace activities
happy body Appropriate working area, sport
happy heart Friendly working cooperation
happy society Communication o employee
happy brain Training courses
happy money Welfare
happy relax Recreation
happy soul Voluntary club
happy family Family vocational training
Employee of happy workplace will do energetic and active
Manuscript received November 29, 2014; revised January 21, 2015.
Charuvan Kasemsap is with the Department of Engineering Management,
Kasem Bundit University, Bangkok, CO 10250 Thailand (e-mail:
charuvan.kas@kbu.ac.th).
at work and also be harmony to cooperate at work. Sport is a
highly effective tool for enhancing overall physical fitness,
engaging and empowering individuals and company to take
action to improve their efficiency [9]. Two-way
communication not only verbal communication (sounds,
language [10], and tone of voice) but also nonverbal signals
(facial expressions, body language, and posture) can have a
positive impact on improving mood and productivity in the
working environment [11]. A greater collaboration,
participation is needed, and teamwork among workers in
different functional groups leads to an effective management
of production processes.
According to the employee safety performance regulated
by the occupational safety and health act (OSHA) [12], each
employer has a general duty to furnish each employee a place
of employment free from recognized hazards that cause or are
likely to cause death or serious physical harm. Work
environment may be divided into three broad components:
physical environment (ventilation & temperature; noise;
infrastructure & interior, amenities), mental environment
(fatigue, boredom, monotony, attitude & behavior of
supervisor & colleagues), and social environment. Effective
work environment encourage the happier employee with their
job that ultimately influence the growth of an organization as
well as growth of an economics [13]. Safety performance can
be continuous improved by the “5S” system in workplace to
reduce waste and solid waste management.
The “5S” system comprised of five steps of sort, set in
order, shine, standardize, and sustain as shown in Table II
[14]. The “5S” team should define the area’s geographic
boundaries on area map, take photos, and use workplace scan
checklist to assess the improvement of “5S” state. The 5S
Audit was checked for working table, file cabinet, shelf,
electrical machine, and surrounding area as score of 1 (very
poor) to 5 (very good). Employee participation in 5S systems
has become widely challenged as a critical component of
environmental management in industry.
TABLE II: 5S SYSTEM
Category Meaning
Sort Effective space by removing unused items.
Set in order Less searching time by labeling items.
Shine Keep ready-used thing by cleaning.
Standardize Integration into standardization.
Sustain Keeping as a habit of procedures.
Solid waste is the unwanted or useless solid materials
generated from combined residential, industrial and
commercial activities in a given area. Management of solid
waste reduces or eliminates