‘Never Grow Up’ a Work Culture Consultancy is Revolutionizing Workplace Happiness & more!

In some way or another, we’re all in the pursuit of happiness. More importantly, everyone defines the word ‘happiness’ in their own way. The ultimate goal however, is to be able to sit back and feel truly content knowing that happiness isn’t just a pipe dream and that you are living it every moment of the day, be it in your personal or professional life.

So, what if we told you that a Work Culture Consultancy is has spent the last decade being dedicated to ‘happiness at work and building admirable cultures’?

Meet ‘Never Grow Up’, led by a first-generation founder Asif Upadhye. For over a decade, Never Grow Up has been putting employee happiness first by engaging with Human Resources and Communications teams to build an admirable culture in the workplace.

The self-funded startup works across different sectors in media, retail, manufacturing, finance and healthcare. An experienced professional himself, Asif Upadhye has a Masters in Advertising and Communications from SIBM, Pune and has worked extensively for HDFC, HSBC, and Barclays prior to taking the entrepreneurial leap.

But even for him, carving in niche in the cluttered consultancy space definitely came with its own set of challenges. “Most of our learnings were experimental and through trial and error, but they have really helped us fine-tune our services. The first six months were about un-learning and re-learning the ropes of the business, evaluating core ideas, and more importantly, convincing clients about the services we have to offer. Being a first-generation entrepreneur has its days when you feel like it was easier on the other side but then, we have a bunch of spirited team members who are passionate about ideas that keep us going. Our mission, at Never Grow Up, is to connect with people and in turn, help them connect with their inner child through our products and services. We are driven by the smiles we see on our customers’ faces!”

So what makes Never Grow Up stand out from the crowd?

Happiness at work isn’t just a concept that the company presents to their clients. They practice what they preach by putting their own people first, and the business second. Be it through transparent communication across all levels, a non-hierarchical structure, not ever denying a leave application (its true) or simply by ensuring that each person is given exactly what they need to put their best foot forward at work, Never Grow Up is proving that is possible to build and sustain a happy work environment.

But why the emphasis on workplace happiness? Even before the pandemic reared its head earlier this year, the conversation was slowly shifting from employee engagement to well-being at work. So let’s look at the numbers for a second. Companies with happy employees outperform the competition by 20% and have teams that are 12% more productive! Simply put, when your employees are happy, it shows!

By offering an array of services ranging from Talent Consulting, Employer Branding, Happiness Quotient, Workshops, Technology and Content to Communications and Design, Talent Public Relations, and adopting a people first to deliver customer first approach has helped weave a number of initiatives across clients ranging from Diversity and Inclusion to Rewards, Appreciation, Value and Competency drives and managing the Employer brand on Social among others.

And it doesn’t just stop there. Ever wondered if ‘happiness levels’ at work could actually be measured?

Say hello to India’s first patent-pending happiness tool – Happiness Quotient that provides a real-time indication of the level of happiness across an organization by analyzing what drives individuals based on their personal and professional choices down to a department level. The survey tool is fun, flexible, easily adaptable and utilizes proprietary algorithms to measure what is valuable and resourceful to an organization. While on the topic, it is no secret that happiness and well-being go hand in hand. Learning from his own experiences in the corporate world, Asif feels that “mental health is the most crucial issue in the workplace and that sensitization programs, well-being workshops and inclusive internal communications are solid ways to at least start a dialogue around mental health at work”. The Workplace Well-Being program by Never Grow Up offers an eclectic mix of customizable corporate happiness workshops, expressive arts sessions and a professional counselling packages, all designed to help create happier places to work!

Never Grow Up opened their doors to happiness more than ten years ago and since then has worked with industry stalwarts such as Unilever, Reliance, Janssen, Pfizer, TATA, Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra and many more.

When asked about his people-first approach to running a company, Asif says: “Your employees are the ones that actually run the business. When you take care of them, they, in turn, take care of work”