Chief Happiness Officer (CHO) resume examples & templates

Most people find the quest for their own happiness tricky enough, but when you are responsible for the wellbeing of an entire organization, the challenge suddenly acquires a whole new level of magnitude. 

A chief happiness officer (CHO) is far more than an HR manager who is tasked with looking after the benefits aspect of compensation. They need to understand their people, work out what makes them happy to work and ensure that the workplace rises to meet new challenges. They are the architects of corporate contentment.

As with all HR roles, a hiring manager for a chief happiness officer will be looking for concrete deliverables and well-planned strategy. Wellbeing and mental health is a science that requires an intimate understanding of the human condition. Fluffy language on a chief happiness officer resume will not inspire confidence. If deliverables are unclear and benefits not realised, maybe you didn’t quite hit the happiness mark?

This chief happiness officer resume guide seeks to explore how to describe your impact in one of the newest (but potentially most impactful) job roles. Here are what you should consider when writing your chief happiness officer resume:

• The responsibilities of a chief happiness officer (CHO)
• How to write an impactful resume
• The best format for a chief happiness officer resume
• A thought-provoking resume example for a chief happiness officer

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What does a chief happiness officer do?

A chief happiness officer has a tough job, because the definition of happiness will vary for every single one of their colleagues. Understanding the common themes and delivering on the needs of the collective lies at the very heart of the CHO role. Common duties include:

• Listen to employees, designing workplace policies around what they hear.
• Make sure that employees feel valued and support their growth ambitions.
• Ensure the best professional assistance with mental health and wellbeing.
• Empower employees to manage their careers in a way that is true to them.
• Measure employee engagement and seek to be proactive rather than reactive.
• Create a positive working environment, where balance comes first.

Chief happiness officers work closely with HR directors and other human resources colleagues to make sure that their plans are financially viable and aligned with the overall HR vision. Many CHOs will have worked in HR previously and the chief happiness officer resume should demonstrate a track record of HR delivery.

How to write a chief happiness officer resume

The format for a chief happiness officer resume will not differ from most other resumes. Your approach and achievements will set you apart, but when it comes to how you set out your resume, recruiters will expect a standard format: 

• The resume header
• The resume summary (aka profile or personal statement)
• The employment history section
• The resume skills section
• The education section

It is important that a chief happiness officer resume is rooted in the language of wellbeing and mental health. You will be expected to be an inspirational source of breakthrough initiatives, so don’t allow your resume to be too dry and formal. Use emotional language to reach out to your potential HR manager and back it up with concrete accomplishments to show that you can walk the wellbeing walk.

The best resume format for a chief happiness officer

The format of a CHO resume sample will inevitably influence how your skills and accomplishments come across. It is likely that a reverse chronological resume format will work best for you – here you list your work experience in reverse order with the most recent roles at the top of the resume. The scope of the CHO role is constantly changing so you should seek to highlight your most recent achievements. 

As a CHO requires considerable HR and corporate experience, a combined resume format that focuses more on skills will not be so suitable. This might work for those who are changing careers or for early career professionals.

Resume summary example

The resume summary is where you introduce your candidature and use 3-5 sentences to put your case to the hiring manager. Offer an insight into your chief happiness officer story by sharing some of your greatest achievements and rarest skills. Showcase your personal approach to your work and how you make your unique difference.

The resume summary should give a sense that there is so much more to come. Creating and sustaining happiness is no simple feat, so while you can talk about your impact in your summary, the rest of the CHO resume has to go into more detail around how you made it happen. Retaining great people in great jobs should be central to your success.

Here’s how to do it from our chief happiness officer resume sample:

Employment history sample

The employment history section is where hiring decisions are made. It is not enough to list your CHO job responsibilities here. Every chief happiness officer understands that their impact is negligible without measurement, so their employment history should outline their track record of impacting employee wellbeing in a variety of positive ways.

Using bullet points for each employer allows the reader to easily scan each accomplishment, using action verbs to convey how you worked and offering a context wherever possible. Talk about how you changed a situation rather than just the final outcome. Turning a content workplace into a slightly more content workplace will not have the impact of changing a failing culture into a culture where the majority are satisfied with their daily work.

Consider the employment history in our CHO resume example:

CV skills example

The skills section of a chief happiness officer resume is where you separate yourself from a simple compensation and benefits manager. 

Have a think about the unique CV skills that make you fantastic at your job and match them up with the requirements and challenges of the role in question. If you possess a skill that is not required for the role, it is infinitely less valuable for your future employer. A mix of hard skills and soft skills will show that you are a rounded candidate and make sure that you include enough of the more recognised skills in order to pass the crucial ATS test.

Have a look at the skills section from our CHO resume sample:

Chief happiness officer resume education example

While your education may look like any other HR professional on the surface, there will definitely be certain courses and qualifications around mental health and wellbeing that most CHOs will possess. Your future employer will want someone who is qualified to look after the happiness of their employees, so a bit more detail in this section will not be wasted space.

Some CHOs have degree qualifications in subjects such as psychology alongside later human resources certifications, so your formative education can play a significant part in filling out the picture of your suitability.

An example education section from our chief happiness officer resume example:

Resume layout and design

The words on your CHO resume sample are not the only aspect of telling your story. The visual aspects of your resume layout matter too. If the reader is bombarded with a wall of text that covers the page, it will be easy for them to miss crucial details amongst the noise. Pick a clean resume layout with a good amount of white space to allow their brains to focus on each individual section.

Don’t go overboard with complicated fonts and keep the size legible but not too large (size 11 or 12 will be fine for many common fonts). Color isn’t an essential element of a CHO resume sample, but if you do pick a color then make sure it is on the warmer spectrum to match with the tone of the role. A resume template is ideal to find the right look for you.

Key resume takeaways

1. Picking out only the most relevant aspects of your chief happiness officer career will make the hiring manager sit up and take notice.
2. Be specific about what your initiatives delivered, but don’t forget to include details of how you got there and how your personal touch made a difference.
3. Craft a summary that both acts as a powerful introduction and initial chapter. You want the hiring manager to feel that there is much more to come.
4. Using action verbs in your accomplishments for your work experience will bring a different level of nuance to the descriptions of your impact.
5. Have a look at our chief happiness officer resume example for some inspiration.