Research consistently shows that happy employees are more engaged, more productive, and stay with their companies longer. While many organizations recognize this connection, they often lack the data and insights needed to make meaningful improvements in their workplace culture. With different generations having different expectations from work and regional variations in what contributes to happiness, reliable metrics are essential for making the right decisions.
So, how can employers better understand workplace happiness and use this data to attract and retain talent?
My guest this week is Matt Ward, Head of Recruitment Services at WorkL. For their latest research report, WorkL surveyed 400,000 employees in 26 industries across 100 countries on the key drivers of workplace happiness. The results give us some fantastic insights that can help make talent acquisition and retention strategies significantly more effective.
In the interview, we discuss:
• The findings from WorkL’s latest workplace happiness report
• The six key elements that contribute to workplace happiness
• Why workplace happiness is rising globally
• Variations across generations and genders
• What is driving flight risk?
• The continued importance of flexibility at work
• How can Talent Acquisition teams leverage happiness data for competitive talent advantage?
• What does the future look like?
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Matt Alder
Are we getting happier at work despite five years of disruption? New research suggests companies are doing a better job of making people happy. But what’s happening behind this trend? And how does happiness vary across industries, countries and generational groups? Keep listening to find out how smart organizations are using data driven insights around happiness to attract and retain the talent they need. Support for this podcast is provided by shl, a talent intelligence company. From hiring and development to talent mobility and workforce planning, SHL’s assessment solutions and objective workforce insights take the guesswork out of people decisions. With more than 45 years of experience and proven results, SHL’s unique blend of science and data combined with predictive analytics and AI are helping HR teams to transform their talent strategy, uncover hidden skills and potential in people, and redefine career opportunities.
Matt Alder
SHL can help you optimize performance and decision making at every stage of the talent lifecycle. Visit SHL.com to find out more.
Matt Alder
Hi there. Welcome to episode 693 of Recruiting Future with me, Matt Alder. Research consistently shows that happy employees are more engaged, more productive and stay with their companies longer. While many organizations recognize this connection, they often lack the data and insights needed to make meaningful improvements in their workplace cult. With different generations having different expectations from work and regional variations in what contributes to happiness, reliable metrics are essential for making the right decisions. So how can employers better understand workplace happiness and use this data to attract and retain talent? My guest this week is Matt Ward, head of recruitment services at WorkL. For their latest research report surveyed 400,000 employees in 26 industries across one countries around the key drivers of workplace happiness. The results give us some fantastic insights that can help make talent acquisition and retention strategies significantly more effective.
Matt Alder
Hi Matt and welcome to the podcast.
Matt Ward
Hi Matt, thanks for having me.
Matt Alder
A pleasure to have you on the show. Please, could you introduce yourself and tell.
Matt Alder
Everyone what you do?
Matt Ward
Yep.
Matt Ward
So I’m Matt Ward. I’m the head of recruitment services here at workall. We’re an employee engagement, a company and a platform for individuals to hopefully work happier.
Matt Alder
Yeah, tell us a bit more about.
Matt Alder
That because you measure workforce happiness, don’t you?
Matt Ward
Yeah, that’s right.
Matt Ward
So were founded around six years ago as an employment engagement survey company.
Matt Ward
Based on Lord Mark Price’s work following his time at Waitrose and John Lewis.
Matt Ward
With a real focus on happy. Happy workers work harder for you. They put in what we describe as extra discretional effort. And so what we do here at.
Matt Ward
Workal for individuals and also for companies.
Matt Ward
Is provide them our survey, which we.
Matt Ward
Call the Happy at Work test, which essentially sort of asks individuals a number of questions about the six sort of key topics that we feel contribute to workplace happiness. And that’s reward and recognition, information sharing, empowerment, instilling pride, job satisfaction and wellbeing.
Matt Alder
And how many people have sort of.
Matt Alder
Taken the test over the last six years?
Matt Ward
So over the last six years, it’s.
Matt Ward
Over a million people have taken the test. And I think today we’re going to.
Matt Ward
Be talking about some of the data.
Matt Ward
From our 2025 or 2024 data workplace.
Matt Ward
Report, which was over 400,000 individuals.
Matt Alder
Fantastic.
Matt Alder
And so this is a report that. Does it span, like the whole of 2024? What’s the kind of makeup?
Matt Ward
Yeah, so the Data runs from January 2024 to 30 September, and the report.
Matt Ward
Was prepared for the end of last year.
Matt Ward
It covers 26 different industries, over 100 countries, and 100,000 different workplaces.
Matt Alder
So how does the latest report compare to the previous ones? And is there anything in there that really surprised you?
Matt Ward
So I think the really interesting thing is that overall workplace happiness seems to be rising at a global level. So we do see different trends and.
Matt Ward
Patterns across different countries.
Matt Ward
But overall, it seems that workplaces are.
Matt Ward
Catching on and providing the things that.
Matt Ward
Their employees want from them to be happy at work. I think probably the most surprising thing that came out of the report was that the sort of Gen Z flight risk was comparable to those in later.
Matt Ward
Stages of their careers, 45 plus. And the levels of happiness were the.
Matt Ward
Same, whereas the sort of millennials in the middle had a.
Matt Ward
Had lower flight risk, but also lower levels of happiness and engagement, which was a real sort of surprise to me.
Matt Alder
Yeah, that’s really interesting. And.
Matt Alder
But let’s kind of dive into that a little bit later because I’d be interested to see what your thoughts are around what’s sort of causing that. Before we do, though, let’s kind of stick with the bigger picture.
Matt Alder
What are you seeing as the main.
Matt Alder
Drivers of workplace happiness?
Matt Alder
And is there a difference in them between sectors and between countries?
Matt Ward
Yeah, so absolutely there is a difference. So we’re seeing sectors like defense and hospitality and retail are actually the areas.
Matt Ward
Reporting to lowest levels of workplace happiness. Whereas the technology industry has remained the leader for a few years now in.
Matt Ward
Our data as the leader in employee engagement.
Matt Alder
And what’s the happiest country to work.
Matt Ward
In our Data shows that the Philippines is currently the happiest place to work.
Matt Ward
In the world with really high levels.
Matt Ward
Of reporting of happiness against reward and recognition, information sharing and empowerment. Whereas we see Australia and Egypt dipping.
Matt Ward
Below our sort of industry and global average of sort of a 70% happiness score.
Matt Alder
And what about sort of the US and the UK, where are they sitting?
Matt Ward
So the UK sits just above our average 71% happiness score and the US is slightly happier. But we are seeing sort of some trends in the US between different age.
Matt Ward
Groups and genders dropping slightly.
Matt Alder
I think one of the interesting things is that you can use this data to kind of really identify what is increasing kind of flight risks in particular places.
Matt Alder
What are the significant things that are.
Matt Alder
Driving up flight risk and what can employers do to deal with them?
Matt Ward
Yeah, so that’s really interesting question, Matt. And our data is showing that essentially staff development is the biggest flight risk driver. So we ask people how likely they.
Matt Ward
Are to leave their role in the next nine months. And there’s always a correlation between people that are reporting that they’re being developed.
Matt Ward
By their employer and a low flight.
Matt Ward
Risk and people saying that they’re not.
Matt Ward
Being developed by their employer with a high flight risk.
Matt Alder
And are there any other kind of.
Matt Alder
Significant flight risks that you’re seeing?
Matt Ward
Yeah, so we also interestingly see that.
Matt Ward
Women are more likely to leave the.
Matt Ward
Workplace globally according to our studies. And that’s largely again reported due to flexible working.
Matt Alder
If you kind of dig into that.
Matt Alder
Data, are there any kind of other significant findings around that sort of, that kind of male, female split?
Matt Ward
Yeah. So particularly in the US we’re seeing the biggest difference between female and male.
Matt Ward
Flight risk, 5 percentage points. So 25% of women are reporting a.
Matt Ward
Flight risk compared to 20% of men.
Matt Ward
And women in the workplace still tend to find that there are a number of different issues.
Matt Ward
So we reported that 27% of women.
Matt Ward
Face challenges in the workplace when it comes to the menopause or fertility family planning. Men tend to, I ask for less flexibility in the workplace.
Matt Alder
Let’s go back to Gen Z. So and generations in, you know, generational stereotypes in general. You mentioned there that they have as great a fright risk as older people in the workforce. But actually the millennials are kind of slightly different. What’s kind of driving that? Do Gen Z have a different attitude towards workplace happiness? How does it kind of split across the age groups?
Matt Ward
So I think interestingly what we’re seeing is that employers are reporting the younger employees tend to view work differently and there’s that perception of a lack of drive and ambition. And what we’re seeing echoed out through what our survey has said is that Gen Z are looking for that pride in their work and a mission driven feeling. So it’s not a big surprise to.
Matt Ward
See the people working in the non.
Matt Ward
Profit and charity sector have really high levels of engagement with that mission driven work. And I think it’s important for employers to be able to talk to that younger generation about what it does that matters at their work and why they should care. Because Gen Z is going to make up projected 30% of the US workforce by 2030.
Matt Alder
And so are we kind of seeing a mismatch there between what employers think that younger members of their workforce want or need and what they.
Matt Alder
Actually want or need?
Matt Alder
Or is it just that, you know, employers aren’t used to talking to people that way? What was kind of driving it, do you think?
Matt Ward
I think it’s is that mismatch in.
Matt Ward
Communication and communication styles.
Matt Ward
And there’s also no longer that.
Matt Ward
I think the trust that going out.
Matt Ward
And getting an education and spending your money on that education is the guarantee.
Matt Ward
Of a sort of good and fulfilling job that maybe other generations were sold.
Matt Ward
And a report show that again, particularly.
Matt Ward
In the US the student loan debt is the biggest sort of financial regret of most 19 to 24 year olds.
Matt Ward
And I think really giving people passion for work and why you’re doing the work is the key to engaging with that younger audience. I also think they are slightly more.
Matt Ward
Willing to move and I think that’s.
Matt Ward
Where we see that interesting kind of leveling out in flight risk between 19 to 24 and 45 plus is that there’s possibly less responsibility at that age and more confidence that you’ll find another job when you’re younger, whereas at 45 plus maybe your kids have left home or they’re certainly moving towards a bit more independence. And there’s again that request for flexibility.
Matt Ward
That’S driving some of the flight risk.
Matt Ward
Data that we’re seeing.
Matt Alder
So we’re five years on now from the pandemic or at least from the very first lockdown where we had the kind of. The working from home revolution is probably even the wrong word.
Matt Alder
It was quicker even than that. Yet we’re still seeing lots of headlines.
Matt Alder
About companies trying to get people back to the office or moving away from hybrid work and very much reports of employees protesting against that. Where does this sit on the happiness index? The remote working, the hybrid working, the in office working? What’s the data telling you about that?
Matt Ward
Yeah, so it’s certainly still a desire from the workforce to have that flexibility. And we’ve seen more people industries where there’s possibly slightly less flexibility over working hours or being in the, in.
Matt Ward
Offices or work locations.
Matt Ward
So retail, we’re seeing people showing more dissatisfaction over the flexibility of hours there. And we’re also seeing that most employers.
Matt Ward
So 82% of the employees that we.
Matt Ward
Surveyed are against the prospect of the.
Matt Ward
Four day working week that’s been tabled.
Matt Ward
A number of times across different organizations. But generally the feeling is that there’s.
Matt Ward
Still strong support for flexible working. 73% of our surveyed audience are not.
Matt Ward
Planning to bring employees back to the.
Matt Ward
Office and 64% support government initiatives for flexible working.
Matt Ward
So I think there is still that desire to offer flexible working and I think that will be key in people’s.
Matt Ward
Sort of recruitment messaging, talking to people about those types of opportunities that they offer.
Matt Ward
That said, we are seeing really big.
Matt Ward
Companies saying we’re having a return to.
Matt Ward
Work and I wonder whether we’re falling into an area where fully remote jobs that are desired by a number of.
Matt Ward
People will become more scarce and those hybrid flexible jobs will become more of the norm.
Matt Alder
Yeah, I think it’s an interesting one and it certainly stirs up lots of headlines and lots of attention. But as you say, actually we’re talking about relatively few companies that are still trying to make those kind of moves. You mentioned there people thinking about this kind of thing in their recruitment messaging. What advice would you give to people, to employers in terms of how they can use data like this to their sort of competitive talent advantage?
Matt Ward
The big thing that we think about.
Matt Ward
Here at work is that everybody deserves to be happy at work and that there’s a happy role out there for you somewhere.
Matt Ward
And sometimes roles and companies don’t fit.
Matt Ward
And so what we’re doing, trying to.
Matt Ward
Espouse are companies that put in place the building blocks to make individuals happy.
Matt Ward
And it really does often need to.
Matt Ward
Be at an individual level.
Matt Ward
So somebody in their late 40s will have different workplace opportunities that.
Matt Ward
Would make them feel happy compared to.
Matt Ward
A younger person starting out their career. So it really is, I think, a case of trying to showcase the happiness at work while also making sure that.
Matt Ward
There’S an authentic voice to that. And I think that’s the big thing, that newer generations that are coming through workforces and will make up the majority of workforces over the next five to 10 to 15 years, they’re looking for that authenticity.
Matt Ward
They would I don’t want to be.
Matt Ward
Sold a dream that’s not true.
Matt Ward
And so being able to see where.
Matt Ward
Other people like themselves have said, I’ve.
Matt Ward
Been happy here and this is what the working culture is like and this is what the business has done to help me alongside those stories of this is where I struggled, but here’s how.
Matt Ward
I was supported is how you build.
Matt Ward
A true kind of employer brand and make the most of being a.
Matt Ward
Happy company or certainly a company that tries to make their people happy.
Matt Alder
What does the future look like? Are there any clues in the data as to trends that might stick or grow? What do we think the future of happiness at work is going to be like?
Matt Ward
I think the big thing that we’ve seen is flexibility in the workplace. Whether that’s flexible working hours to avoid commutes, whether that is a flexibility over to parental issues, taking kids on the school around, having children, whether that’s as you become older, looking after elderly parents.
Matt Ward
There’s a lot of different ways that employers can be flexible and help their.
Matt Ward
Their staff be happy at work.
Matt Ward
And ultimately investing in that happiness is going to give you a more productive workforce.
Matt Alder
And final question, where can people see the data and get the report?
Matt Ward
So all of the data is updated live on our LIVE World’s Happiest Workplace. And you can go to workall.com to check out the data, find your company there and see how your employees are ranking you.
Matt Alder
Matt, thank you very much for talking to me.
Matt Ward
Thanks, Matt.
Matt Alder
My thanks to Matt. You can follow this podcast on Apple, Podcasts on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can search all the past episodes at recruitingfuture.com on that site. You can also subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Recruiting Future Feast, and get the inside track on everything that’s coming up on the show. Thanks very much for listening. I’ll be back next time and I hope you’ll join me.
