Ep 39: Alexander Kjerulf: The Chief Happiness Officer at Woohoo Inc.
Feisworld Podcast
English - June 11, 2015 02:40 - 43 minutes - 41.9 MB - ★★★★★ - 46 ratingsPersonal Journals Society & Culture Education How To advice art business career fitness law lifestyle martialarts philosophy sports Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Alexander Kjerulf (pronounced a little like care-oolf.) is the founder and Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) of Woohoo inc and one of the world’s leading experts on happiness at work. He is an author and speaker, presenting and conducting workshops on happiness at work at businesses and conferences in over 30 countries. His clients include companies like Hilton, Microsoft, LEGO, IKEA, Shell, HP and IBM.
Alex was "officially" introduced to me by Stephen Shario, a guest from an earlier episode of the feisworld podcast. Long before I found out that Alex is a connection of Stephen's, I had already been reading Alex's blog called The Chief Happiness Officer Blog. A more recent article I loved is called "Why every company should have a CHO?"
Studies show that happy employees are more productive, more innovative, more motivated, more energetic and more optimistic. They are also less sick, stay with the company longer and make the customers more loyal. For those reasons (and many others) happy companies make more money.
Alex owns the space of Happiness at Work. I find this approach inspiring, intelligent and intriguing - I was intrigued! There are 120 million people with full time jobs in the U.S. In 2010, Business Insider reported that 80% Hate Their Jobs, and there are numerous articles asking you the question - should you choose between a passion or a paycheck?
If we set aside people who are generally depressed and miserable no matter where they go (I hope this is a relatively small percentage of the world population), there is still a significant percentage of the workforce that aren't motivated to go to work for a variety of reasons. Alex suggests that it is not without pitfalls but:
Having a great CHO, a person somewhere in the organization who has the skills, the knowledge and the passion to help create a happy workplace and who has the unconditional support of top management makes perfect sense. It will not only make employees happier, it will also most likely make the company money.
To learn more about Alex, please visit Woohoo Inc., The Chief Happiness Officer Blog, and follow Alex on Twitter.
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