Does your company have a Chief Happiness Officer?

Szalóky Tóth Judit
partner
Boyde Executive Search

Obviously it is the happy worker who does a good job. Still, it isn’t easy to tell what is it that workers need? The economic, technological and social changes of recent years created many challenges – in certain sectors there aren’t enough workers. Calculation is that losing an employee that is paid an average salary costs about HUF 700,000 for a company in Hungary. In the case of 1,000 workers and a 15-percent fluctuation level, we are talking about more than HUF 100 million per year. Perhaps the company would be better off employing a Chief Happiness Officer!

As a matter of fact why not have one? If a firm employs a Talent Acquisition Leader, a Chief Diversity Officer or a Campus Activation Manager…Yes, Chief Happiness Officers do exist, and they exist because increasing the level of productivity is a general challenge in the world economy today. Being happy requires hard work. Experts say the human brain is programmed to focus its energies more on the bad things than on the good ones.

When I talk to executives and ask them what makes them happy at their workplace, the point I am driving at is: Do they remember the good things, the ones they are proud of or caused them joy? Because if the answer is yes, they are more likely to become Happiness Ambassadors as managers. My personal opinion is that companies need Chief Happiness Officers, but they need Happiness Leaders even more. Experts that provide the positive worker experience in every interaction, together with the freedom of creation, the success of things done together and the joy of being appreciated for something. //