In pursuit of happiness

PSYCHOLOGY: Fat pay cheques, large bonuses, and big expense accounts are on hold as the economic outlook darkens. In the meantime, global firms are trying to raise spirits in non-financial ways. Some have even employed chief happiness officers (CHO) to do so.

Jeff Kaye,
Bassman International "It’s so easy for an organization to get depressed"

“It’s so easy for an organization to get depressed,” Jeff Kaye, head of Dallas search firm  Kaye/Bassman International, told Business Week. And since firms increasingly depend on their staffs’ brain-power, keeping those brains clear of anxiety and fear has become a big focus. Some spirit-raising efforts sound rather bizarre, however.

For example, the CHO at the London ad agency Iris Worldwide, organized pub crawls to cheer up staff. And the Los Angeles law firm DLA Piper sent 400 employees and their families to Disneyland. “Anything that encourages a positive outlook,” says DLA managing partner Michael Meyer. Firms such as BMW North America, Qantas and Sanofi-Aventis have also employed experts to assess the emotional health of their staff.

The idea that happier employees mean larger profits has been driven by the positive psychology movement of the past ten years. It has also meant the growth of a new consultancy industry  or, as author Michelle Conlin in the Business Week article calls them, the “fun shui” experts.

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