The Career Happiness Index 2012 delves into what people in the UK consider to be the most important factors contributing to their happiness at work and found that the British workforce want flexibility, reasonable control over their daily duties and the opportunity to use their skills to tackle challenges and gain rewards.
As well as HR professionals, it also suggested that bankers and IT professionals were the least happy in the workplace.
The report revealed that 54% of HR professionals feel there isn’t enough flexibility in their job role, and in addition to this, half of the HR professionals surveyed believe that there is little or no scope for career progression. Thirty-six per-cent said that they are satisfied with the career progression where they are working.
The online survey of 2,179 UK employees discovered that people in vocationally trained and skills-based jobs, such as hairdressers, gardeners, plumbers and electricians were happiest – 65% compared to 58% of those in largely academically trained, office-based jobs.
Commenting on the findings, Nick Bradley, Group Director at City & Guilds, said:
“At a time when both happiness and employment are high on the Government agenda, we wanted to link the two areas and look into what affects levels of happiness at work and in life.
“Most people spend half of their time working, so we wanted to find out what makes people happy at work and how that differs by job role.
“Having a happy and motivated workforce is essential to boosting productivity and the recovery of the UK economy.”
