This Year’s Global Workforce Happiness Index from Universum captures key insights to retaining experienced talent

STOCKHOLM, STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, December 1, 2016 /EINPresswire.com/ -- What motivates young professionals the most to leave one employer for another? And why does talent in one country appear to be happier and more loyal that of its neighbor? Global employer branding thought leader, Universum, has just completed one of its largest studies to date, this time concentrating on establishing which country has the most satisfied and loyal workerforce in the world. More than 200,000 young professionals in 57 markets participated in the survey for this research, which was carried between September 2015 and September 2016.

This year’s Global Workforce Happiness Index, shows it’s time to take a data-driven approach to attracting and retaining your top talent. The results deliver benchmarks for employee happiness and loyalty, allowing us to analyze its impact on innovation and growth, and provide a way for companies to plan improvements. The ability to retain experienced talent is no longer a matter of employee satisfaction alone; it is also tied to how employees compare to their peers in other organizations. This research has found that a negative gap between peers from one company to the next is often a signal that less satisfied employees will be much easier to persuade to leave one company for a competitor.

Global Workforce Happiness Index Top 20

The top ten is dominated by countries from Western Europe and more specifically the Nordics, with Denmark’s workforce taking this year’s top spot, however in third place tucked between Norway and Sweden, Costa Rica has this year’s third most happy and loyal workforce. Austria’s workforce stand at number five followed by the Netherlands, Finland and Belgium in eighth place. In ninth place, Hungary’s workforce represent Eastern Europe’s happiest workforce, followed by the Czech Republic. Germany and Switzerland stand at eleven and twelfth place respectively, followed by Mexico which represents North America’s happiest workforce. Romania and Bulgaria sit in front of France in sixteenth place followed by APACs highest entrant, Singapore. Spain’s workforce stand in eighteenth place, followed by South America’s happiest workforce Colombia, who are closely trailed by neighbor Brazil in twentieth place.

Why does it matter?

“Employee happiness is crucial for retaining good talent as well as having a motivated workforce that delivers great results and continuously innovates. If the young professionals in a market show low levels of discontent, this is a good sign for the economy as whole. However, it is at these times when it’s harder to obtain the best talent from your competitors.” said Universum Research Project Manager, Daniel Eckert.

The participants in the survey were segmented into four cohorts: young female professionals, young male professionals, young professionals with a background in STEM and young professionals with a background in business.

To gauge employee happiness and loyalty the Global Workforce Happiness Index uses a scoring system that tracks three factors:
1. Employee satisfaction
2. An employee's willingness to recommend a current employer
3. An employee's likelihood to switch jobs in the near future (2-4 years)

The responses to the first two factors are scored based on a scale from 0 to 10, whilst the responses to the third come in the form of “Yes” and “No”. At the core of the study is the Happiness Quadrant, which depicts challenges and opportunities by region across four basic categories of satisfaction. But the real value of this research is in the granular findings by country, equipping employers to diagnose problems at the local level and respond with targeted solutions.


At the core of the study is the Happiness Quadrant, which depicts challenges and opportunities by region across four basic categories of satisfaction. But the real value of this research is in the granular findings by country, equipping employers to diagnose problems at the local level and respond with targeted solutions.

About Universum:
Universum is the global leader in employer branding. Advising the leading employers in the world to better understand, attract and recruit talent. During our 25+ years we have established ourselves in 55+ markets with 15 offices covering the world.Our solutions are actionable research, strategic advisory, data driven communication solutions – and being a pioneer in social media solutions in the world for talent branding, sourcing and analytics.

For more information, please go to www.universumglobal.com/happinessindex

Jonas Barck
Universum
+46706933388
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