World Kindness Day 2025

Our first challenge is to nominate a colleague to be recognised as part of our World Kindness Day celebrations! 

This could be someone who always brightens your day with a cup of tea and a biscuit, someone who went above and beyond to help you at a tough time, or someone who is always there for you and your team as a kind and compassionate colleague. 

Nominations can be submitted through the online form, where you can share your reasons and stories to help us recognise their positive impact. There is also an option to submit a video as part of your nomination, telling us exactly why they deserve to be recognised. 

We will be shouting out these members of staff on the day, and there could even be some prizes in store for the winners… 

The deadline for nominations is Friday 31 October, so make sure to get your nominations in before Halloween (or you might get a fright when submissions close)!  

Often, it’s the small things that mean the most. A “how are you doing?” on a difficult day, bringing a pack of biscuits in to share with your team, or a simple thank you are just some of the wee things that help us through our busiest days. 

For this week’s challenge, we’re focusing on the small acts of kindness you can do to brighten a colleague’s day.  

Here are a few things you could do to show those around you that you care:

• Tell three colleagues, either in person or online, things you like about working with them 

• Say hello to three people you’ve not spoken to before and see how their day is going 

• Download and print our bingo card, ticking off simple acts of kindness throughout the week 
• Pay-it-forward to create a ‘kindness chain’ – for example, buying coffee or lunch for the person behind you in the queue, encouraging others to do the same kind acts 

It might be a simple expression, but it’s important to treat others how you wish to be treated. How we treat our colleagues at work, and how we are treated ourselves, has a big impact on our mood, morale, and productivity. 

This week, we challenge you to get together to create resources that will help to boost everyone’s days now – and be a useful tool for your team going forward. 

Here are a few things you could do this week as a team: 

• Set up a Kindness Graffiti Wall – create a space where you can post positive messages and acknowledgments of colleagues’ hard work or kindness. This could be a noticeboard you decorate together or even just a space on the wall reserved for positive Post-its 

• Make a Sunshine Box – each write down uplifting messages or positive affirmations and put them all in a box in a communal area, ready to take one when you need one. Get creative with things that will make your team smile, or look to the internet for inspiration like these example quotes we found here 

Busy week and stretched for time? Take five minutes to check in with your team over a cuppa 

When our wellbeing suffers, it can feel more difficult to extend kindness to others. It is important that we look after our own mental health and wellness so that we can bring the best version of ourselves to work. 

This week, we challenge you to make time for yourself and prioritise your own wellbeing. 

Here are a few self-care ideas for the week: 

• Wellness Wednesdays – dedicate some time each Wednesday to wellness. This could be a virtual yoga session, a mindful break or meditation, or even just a walk around the block and a blether 

• Book a free Active Staff class with options such as yoga, Pilates, and bootcamps. Find out more information and book a class here 

Get back to nature and go for a walk outside. Enjoy a mindful stroll by yourself or connect with friends or colleagues 

Now, most of our NHSGGC colleagues have some kind of online aspect to their role. Whether that’s emails, access to our intranet StaffNet, using Teams, or working in admin or corporate roles, it’s important to be kind online as well as in person. 

This week, we’re looking at how we can extend our kind and compassionate behaviours to the online world.  

Here are a few ideas for how to ‘virtually’ brighten our colleagues’ days: 

• Arrange Virtual Coffee Chats to help team members connect outside their usual circles or to talk about things other than work 

• Send a voicenote, an awesome card or a thankyou through the Praise app on Teams (just search ‘Praise’ in the Apps section in the left-hand toolbar) to show your appreciation for your colleagues

Send a message to ask how someone is or a GIF to brighten someone’s day on Teams.

It’s easy to show kindness to the people we’re close to, but it’s important that we spread positivity to include all our colleagues. 

For our final week, we challenge you to connect with colleagues outside of your usual social group and extend kindness to everyone on your ward, in your office, or that you bump into day-to-day. 

You could: 

• Have lunch with colleagues you wouldn’t usually, and get to know them a bit better 

• Add 5 minutes to the end of your team meeting or handover to talk about your lives, your weekend, or generally check in with each other 

• Get everyone to bring in a boring biscuit, and have a snack time with your team 

For people usually working virtually, have a catch up online or plan a day for everyone to be in the office to have some social time in person