These titles suggest that HR professionals can create a more enjoyable work environment and be seen as morale boosters and champions. But promoting a buddy-buddy image, often with the encouragement of upper management, is also fraught with peril.

“It’s hard to walk the line between being the chief of fun and the chief enforcer of the harassment, workplace violence and other policies,” says Michelle Phillips, an attorney with N.Y.-based Jackson Lewis, who was quoted in a recent article from the Society For Human Resource Management (SHRM).

HR’s main focus should be on making sure employees feel comfortable seeking their help over misconduct or other serious concerns, rather than making sure employees have enough birthday cake, Phillips notes. The best bet for HR is to steer clear of taking direct oversight of social/fun activities, some experts say.

Employees who experience bullying or mistreatment may feel an HR director who is seen as the Chief of Fun will be weak or ineffective in addressing serious issues. Morale boosting-type events should be handled by employee committees and managers, while HR is left to handle serious issues, experts say.

One example of the buddy-buddy scenario gone awry happened at a company where Philippe Weiss, the HR manager, called herself the “company merriment and morale manager,” according to a lawsuit against the company. Weiss, managing director of Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a Chicago-based legal compliance and consulting services firm, arranged weekly happy hours, trivia games and fantasy football pools.

“When the company eventually was sued for failure to address major EEO [equal employment opportunity] issues, a number of the employees specifically testified at depositions that they were uncomfortable bringing any serious discrimination concerns to someone who seemed more focused on workplace frivolity than workplace fairness,” Phillips notes.

Employees also should not expect to find happiness at the workplace, according to Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, CEO of Hogan Assessments and a professor of business psychology at University College London and Columbia University. Chamorro-Premuzic shares his thoughts in a recent column for Fast Company.

“What employers truly care about (and this includes nonprofits and public agencies) is productivity, performance, and organizational effectiveness--and rightly so,” writes Chamorro-Premuzic. “In fact, nothing of value would ever be created unless people are somewhat unhappy and therefore motivated to change their state of affairs.”

The human resources industry played a role in promoting unrealistic expectations, starting in the late 1960s, when it pushed employee well-being, Chamorro-Premuzic notes. “It’s one thing to try and find a sense of purpose within an otherwise mundane job, but it’s another to expect your job to make you happy, as though it’s a universal right,” he writes.

But, some research shows that efforts to engage employees and address wellness--from flexible working and mental health support to financial and physical rewards for good performance--help increase retention, cut down on absenteeism and boost productivity, notes Raconteur, a UK publication.

One survey suggests that the lack of such initiatives can hurt employees and that employees who struggle with work-life balance can be less engaged with life in general more so than the average person. Workers between 25 to 34 years of age are especially vulnerable to becoming disengaged when work-life balance is off.

UKFast, a Manchester, UK-based cloud computing and hosting firm, has made employee wellness a priority, says Lawrence Jones, its chief executive. Employees have access to childcare options, flexible working schedules, an on-site gym and a monetary reward for those who put in 10 years at the company. “We don’t have an HR department,” Jones says. “If you get the right people in and create the right environment, you’d be better off with a director of happiness than an HR director. It would be more proactive than reactive.”

Adrian Wakeling, senior policy adviser at UK-based ACAS, an employment advice service, says HR can be effective if it focuses on people instead of just policies and procedures. An overemphasis on compliance can undermine a firm’s efforts to create a positive experience for employees.