New Research Suggests 6.5m People Are Unhappy at Work

By Sam Thomas | 28th October 2016 | 14 min read

New research suggests that around 30% of the UK's working population are unhappy at work, and that staff benefits are a root cause.

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The research revealed that the unhappiest workers are in Yorkshire and the Humber where 42% claim not to be happy while the happiest workers hail from the East Midlands with a massive 80% claim to be happy with their job.

Additionally, the research from workplace benefits provider Perkbox found that men are more likely than women to tell their boss if they are unhappy at work, and younger workers are more likely to be motivated by company perks and benefits when compared to the older generation.

Saurav Chopra, CEO and Co-founder at Perkbox, said: "This research indicates the scale of unhappiness in workers within UK businesses, and goes some way into revealing some of the causes of the nation’s general productivity issues. A single disengaged worker, irrespective of sector, can cost a business over £3K annually in sick leave, lost productivity, training and recruitment.

“This cost spirals into six figures if the organisation employs over a 1,000 people. Investment in employee health, well-being and engagement via perks and benefits is often perceived as a costly, non-critical ‘nice-to-have’ rather than an intrinsic tool for incentivising, retaining and recruiting talent. Yet most research already in the public domain indicates that while remuneration might instantly gratify and sway potential employees into accepting a job offer, it’s the non-financial factors that come with reward and recognition that engages and retains workers in the long run.

“Satisfied workers yield dividends in terms of engagement, loyalty and morale. Quite simply, happy teams accomplish great things.”

How Happy Are Your Staff?

The figures presented in this new research bring forward and interesting question – is your business doing all it can to keep staff happy?

Many businesses across the UK are switching their HR practices to self-service software, to help them manage things such as absences and reward statements, as these are often indicators of job satisfaction. However, really good HR software can do much more, and IRIS HR ticks these boxes.

IRIS HR comes with a range of features including detailed employee benefits reporting to help your business do all it can to help your workforce feel happy at work.

Click below to arrange your free, no-obligation software demonstration of IRIS by one of our specialist team.

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