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Are you happy at work? Some qualities of a happy employee include feeling like they matter, enjoying working with other members of their team, and having a sense of freedom. Okay, now raise your hand if this is how you feel at work most of the time. Didn’t raise your hand? Hmm, maybe you need a Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) to join your business’ team to improve the employee experience.
Whether or not you (metaphorically) raised your hand, this is an important topic that resonates with employees and businesses across the board. In fact, in a study shared earlier this year conducted by Indeed and Forrester, people valued workplaces that promoted their wellbeing over their want of fair pay and flexibility. (Yes, in a way, this study shows that money doesn’t buy you happiness.) If financial and work life balance incentives being offered by a company are not enough, what can be done to ensure their happiness for in-person and remote workers? Many companies have resorted to hiring CHOs to improve employee satisfaction.
Chief Happiness Officer Goals and Tasks
Why would a CHO be needed in the workplace to promote happiness, anyway? Maybe it seems a little excessive for a company to hire someone to lift everybody’s spirits. While such a role might sound silly to anyone who is just hearing about it, it all has to do with how productive everyone within a company is. Think of a CHO as an extension of human resources, with their primary goal being to make sure everyone is working at their highest level of performance. CHOs regularly meet up with employees to make sure everything is running smoothly and that they are enjoying their time working for the company.
Diving into what a CHO’s job entails, they first want to make sure employees feel like they matter and have a voice. Whether it is tiring or embarrassing for employees to reach out to HR about the issues they face in the workplace, a CHO can act as a person in the middle. If anything, this could ease some of the work on HR’s end, as they are so occupied balancing the more practical needs of management and the employees.
Beyond simply listening to employees, CHOs implement programs to boost the morale of the teams they are working with. At the core, these programs are meant to encourage employee freedom while pushing them to grow within the organization, whether it is their professional performance or their mental state. Establishing a setting where all employees can collaborate with one another in harmony is important to becoming a productive workplace. For this reason, a CHO is tasked with cultivating an enjoyable work environment where everyone can effectively work together and address problems that arise through team building.
Why CHOs are Integral for Hybrid Work
I don’t have to go into detail here that hybrid work is on the rise, and chances are you’re reading this blog at home in your pajamas before hopping on virtual team meeting. But maybe you feel like you don’t have much to offer on the call with the team you’ll be collaborating with. It turns out this is quite normal for employees working in remote environments. A whitepaper published by Workwize shares that more than half employees working in remote situations feel less noticed on teams than individuals who are in the office. With that, enter the role of the CHO.
It is vital for CHOs to make sure that employees have a voice and feel valued, regardless of whether they are in the office or at home. To ensure everyone is heard, CHOs can schedule regular meetings to provide employees feedback on their activity as a way for them to know they are making valuable contributions to the team. Not all meetings have to be formal, as CHOs can organize informal group meet-ups to check on how everyone is doing, as well as set up social activities for employees to bond and feel like they are truly members of the team.
Keypoint Intelligence Opinion
It goes without saying that we agree happy employees make excellent employees! How you feel has a clear influence on your work, and no one wants to feel frustrated or underappreciated on a regular basis. Should CHOs be required in every business? Not necessarily. At the end of the day, it all depends on whether your team needs a CHO on hand. With an increase in hybrid work, it wouldn’t surprise us to see more CHOs hired to make remote workers feel more included.
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