At The Happiness Camp Foundation in Portugal, meeting rooms carried labels such as “Playful Pitstop” and “Dopamine Hub”. The two-day conference on “workplace happiness” last September could easily be dismissed as corporate whimsy. But the list of international companies in attendance – Ikea, Lidl, Adidas, among others – shows more businesses are taking the theme seriously.

“We all know happy employees are more productive, more creative and more motivated, and yet study after study shows happiness levels at work are often very low,” says Mr Antonio Pinto, the 26-year-old founder of the conference.