What It’s Like to Have a Happyologist

Oh yeah, you read that right. My firm, the awesome Best in KLAS award winner Impact Advisors, is so dedicated to maintaining and growing our internal culture that we have a Happyologist on staff. His official title is actually Director of Firm Culture and Associate Satisfaction, but “Happyologist” lends way more street cred. Check him out.

So what is a Happyologist? I’m so glad you asked. Our Happyologist’s whole job is to make sure Impact Advisors’ Associates are happy. By happy we mean, have meaningful work, good employee relations, feel appreciated, want to stay, are heard, and surprised by fun stuff. Michael makes sure that when I as a Recruiter tell candidates that our culture makes Impact Advisors different, there is mega bite behind that bark. Because everybody says that, right? “Our culture makes us different.” Yeah, well, let’s let reality be the judge.

Here’s just a sampling of Michael’s To-Do list:

  • Ongoing internal communication efforts
  • Ongoing external communication efforts
  • Plan and execute New Hire Orientation
  • Plan and execute annual corporate meeting
  • Plan and execute leadership retreat
  • Help newbie consultants be successful
  • Celebrate any anniversary, accomplishment, marriage, birth or other employee success
  • Ongoing improvements to benefits and technology
  • Create peer to peer recognition program
  • Listen, like a lot of listening
  • Stay interviewing
  • Information wrangling
  • Custom requests (probably more than I will ever know)

Therefore what is it like to have a Happyologist? Essentially it’s like having an advocate, friend, party invitation, news anchor, concierge, problem-solver, and psychologist on call all the time. And what is the result? A 90% retention rate, that’s what.

Want some advice on how to better a company culture? Check out Michael’s advice here, here, here, and here.

About the author

Cassie Sturdevant

Cassie Sturdevant is a Senior Recruiter for Impact Advisors, a healthcare IT strategic and implementation services consulting firm just named 2013 Best in KLAS for Overall Services. She specializes in humor and follow up.

3 Comments

  • You gotta love anyone who sends bacon when he hears you otherwise may need to go without due to lack of electricity (and therefore refrigeration).

    Michael is one of the MANY reasons I love Impact Advisors. Actually, I think we’re up to about 170 associates, um, I mean reasons to love us!

  • Funnily enough I am a Happyologist too! 😀
    I work with individuals, teams & organisations to help them find their best performance through happiness, because my whole business (www.Happyologist.co.uk) operates on the philosophy how happiness fuels success. Everything I do is based on the science of positive psychology – and I can totally agree about the positive effects I’ve seen in the people & teams I’ve worked with. The success stories start with retention and go far beyond that, in both their professional & personal lives!

    Keep up the good work! 🙂

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