Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Careers in HRLatest NewsHR practicePay & benefitsIncentives

HR moves up happiness league table but still lags behind soldiers and accountants

by Greg Pitcher 9 Jun 2008
by Greg Pitcher 9 Jun 2008

Soldiers, beauty therapists and even accountants are happier at work than HR professionals, a poll has revealed.

But HR did manage to move up from 17th in last year’s City & Guild’s Happiness Index to a lofty 13th out of 20 this year.

This placed people managers equally as displeased with their chosen career as journalists and mechancics. Crucially, however, HR professionals are happier than IT workers.

The report by qualifications body City & Guilds found that despite the credit crunch, pay is still not the most important factor in workers’ job satisfaction.

Almost six in 10 people stayed with their present employer because of a strong interest in what they were doing for a living – while only 44% remained due to their salaries.

Good relationships with co-workers, and a healthy work-life balance, were also appreciated by employees more than pay.

Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, said: “The City & Guilds Happiness Index provides a call to action for the business community to rethink its reward and recognition strategies, and consider employees’ needs on an individual basis.

“It marks the end of an era for organisation-wide HR policies. From now on a flexible approach is needed if businesses are to create a happy, and by association productive, workforce.”

The UK’s happiest worker would be a female beauty therapist in her 60s working in the North East. The unhappiest would be a man in his 40s working as a builder in Northern Ireland.

Last year the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development was moved to insist that despite the findings, the profession was happy with itself. It declined to comment on this year’s results.

Top 5 happiest professions

1 Beauty therapists

2= Hairdressers and Armed Forces

4 Catering/chefs

5 Retail staff

Where HR comes in happiness stakes

13= Journalists, mechanics/automotive and HR

16 Call centre staff

17= IT specialists, nurses, bankers/finance, builders/construction


Avatar
Greg Pitcher

previous post
Dame Carol Black: A healthier workplace
next post
European ministers thrash out agency workers and working time deal

You may also like

Police Scotland pays out £948,000 to female officer...

16 May 2022

Gender equality facing growing backlash from male managers

16 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022

How firms need to comply with sponsor licence...

16 May 2022

easyJet joins battle for cabin crew with £1,000...

16 May 2022

Ethnicity pay gaps: Not making reporting mandatory is...

16 May 2022

MP demands timeline on carer’s leave legislation

13 May 2022

Employment tribunal: use of word ‘bald’ can amount...

13 May 2022

Rees-Mogg under fire from civil service leader over...

13 May 2022

Prime minister steps up calls for 90,000 civil...

13 May 2022
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+