Pay is less important than relationships with colleagues and type of work in retaining staff, according to research released today.
The City & Guilds Happiness Index found that while 57% stayed with their current employer because of an interest in their job, only 44% remained due to their salary.
Good relationships with colleagues, and a happy work-life balance, also beat pay as job satisfaction factors for employees.
However, the poll of 1,000 employees found that only one in five were offered flexible working by their bosses.
Bob Coates, managing director of qualifications body City & Guilds, said: “With a clear impact on the bottom line, improving workplace happiness is rising up the business agenda and employers cannot afford to ignore it.
“Companies can no longer rely on those established reward and recognition policies that fail to resonate with employees and do little to combat stress levels in the workplace.”
Apparently the UK’s happiest worker would be a female beauty therapist in her 60s working in the North East.
The unhappiest is a man in his 40s working as a builder in Northern Ireland.
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