Would your office benefit from a 'happiness officer'?

Keeping teams motivated and working well together can be a challenge for any business.

To solve the enigma of workplace satisfaction, buzzword-ridden roles have been flitting across the HR world with Chief Happiness Officers bounding into C-suites (complete with red nose and wig) with the aim to instil fun across an organisation.

Whilst these roles may be dismissed as flippant, with forced smiles actually having the opposite effect on moods, separate research suggests that almost 70% of employees believe that the workplace environment should foster happiness. The Workplace powered by Human Experience survey, also found that nearly nine out of 10 respondents were enthusiastic about having a Chief Happiness Officer at work.

Stefanie Frenking, Head of Recruiting and Feel Good Manager at Spreadshirt, told us why she took on the latter role in 2011, and how it has benefit the firm. “My role as Feel Good Manager includes the onboarding process for each new 'Spreadster', improving workplace culture, having a to-go-to-person for any problems and all the fun stuff in the office,” she explains.