Chief Happiness Officer: that’s who they are and what work they do
The certified “happiness managers” , in Italy, are already 250 and increasingly represent sought-after figures, in a scenario where the number of companies that revolutionize their management style continue to increase. people, aware that success also depends on the degree of satisfaction of the resources
The Chief Happiness Officers, or “happiness managers”, play a strategic role within companies and can concretely help companies thrive.
The effectiveness of their actions can also be measured in relation to the impact they produce on the often mentioned KPI of the company. They don’t just organize events or initiatives to increase team building , but they define longer-term actions.
Chief Happiness Officers are becoming more and more requested figures because, with their actions, they are able to bring happiness to the company, create harmony, well-being and motivation for the benefit of employees and organization.
CHOs are experienced professionals, capable of strategically reorganizing the structural, managerial and cultural processes of the companies in which they operate. The effectiveness of their actions can be measured in relation to the impact they produce on the company’s KPIs ( Key Performance Indicators ).
“Experiences and research in the field are demonstrating that, today more than ever, Chief Happiness Officers perform a strategic, urgent and necessary function and can concretely help companies thrive in the world […] VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) »
These are the words of Veruscka Gennari, author together with Daniela Di Ciaccio of the book “Chief Happiness Officer. The future of positive organizations” , inside of which they explain what the CHO is and what it does to bring happiness to the company.
CHO: the first 250 in Italy
In 2015, Veruscka Gennari and Daniela Di Ciaccio founded the 2BHappy Agency, the first company in Italy born with the aim of promoting the spread of the “Science of Happiness” and the growth of Positive Organizations (ORG +) and, in 2019, certified the first 54 Italian Chief Happiness Officers.
«To date, and despite two years of pandemic – he tells Morning Future Di Ciaccio, the CHOs certified by 2BHappy are already 250 and we expect to reach 300 by the end of 2022. Our goal is to have a CHO in every Italian organization” .
Not only Team Bulding
«In spite of the more or less stereotyped images that identify the” manager of happiness “with a person who wants to organize our free time and propose activities of a motivational nature – underlines Gennari – the CHO does not only organize events or spot initiatives but defines long-term actions both in terms of results and in terms of quality of relations “
The work of the Chief Happiness Officer is very similar to that of an orchestra conductor who, having a rich and varied toolbox, is able to concretely start the process of positive transformation of the whole organization.
The CHO, clarifies di Ciaccio «is a complexity thinker , a professional capable of applying principles that derive from scientific research (specifically that on the psycho-neuro-biological functioning of human beings ) in complex systems (organizations) ».
His work, he continues to emphasize, “resembles that of an orchestra conductor who, having a rich and multifaceted toolbox, is able to concretely initiate the process of positive transformation of the whole organization. This is why it can be understood not as yet another role to be added to the organization chart, but as a set of skills updated to our times that complete and enrich the profiles of professional figures already present in the company: HR Manager, CEO, entrepreneurs, welfare and Community Manager ».
COVID: HOW LIFE COULD BE BETTER (OR WORSE)
Why are more and more companies interested in employee happiness?
Until recently, the work-happiness combination seemed like a utopia. For many it still is but for others, fortunately, things are changing, as more and more companies are initiating a cultural revolution in the way of managing people, aware that their success also passes through the degree of happiness, satisfaction and involvement of one’s resources, not only for the achievement of specific profit objectives.
«We have at our disposal – says Daniela Di Ciaccio – numbers, researches and a vast source of contents signed by men and women of science, which demonstrate how the way in which work is organized has strong repercussions on the happiness of those who work and generate motivation, performance, creativity, innovation and resilience. It is therefore not true that the worker is only interested in remuneration. The reality is not so different from common sense: the ineffectiveness of leadership is in fact the third reason why people on average leave companies ».
Positive organizations
The two managers, Daniela Di Ciaccio and
Veruscka Gennari, founded in 2019 the Italian Institute for Positive Organizations, a study center that does research on positive organizations in Italy that is, those companies that, alongside a whole series of benefits that deal with the satisfaction of needs, also take care of people, offering training and development opportunities.
Among the positive Italian organizations we have:
- Mondora
- CGN Services
- Asp Martelli
- Zeta Service
- eFM
- Heply
- Assiboni
- Unifix
- Copying
The Science of Happiness
The Science of Happiness applied to organizational contexts is not a 21st century fashion but has almost 100 years of history.
Indeed, the “Happy Productive Worker” study dates back to the 1920s and has already amply demonstrated that employee wellbeing leads to increased productivity and profits. Since that time, hundreds of scientific publications have highlighted the positive correlation between employee well-being and aggregate company-level measures of performance across all types of industries.
To date there are many realities, especially foreign ones, that are constantly researching these issues such as the Center for Positive Organizations and the Greater Good Sciences Center.