Global Employee Engagement Study Finds Only Half of Employees Happy at Work

Oakland, CA –News Direct– Great Place to Work®

Great Place to Work®, the global authority on workplace culture and leader in certifying great employee experiences around the world, today announced the results of its 2021 Global Employee Engagement Benchmark study, a data-led analysis of employee satisfaction around the globe. The study surveyed over 14,000 workers across 37 countries to determine the average employee experience.

The study found that only about half of employees worldwide are experiencing a great workplace, with little variation across regions. In the U.S. and Canada, just 53% of employees are reporting a positive experience at work. In Latin America, the highest-scoring region, 60% of employees report a positive employee experience. By comparison, Europe, the lowest-scoring region, saw 52% of employees reporting a positive experience.

Source: Great Place to Work® Global Employee Engagement Benchmark study

There were also few differences across industries. Hospitality saw the lowest score, with only 49% of employees reporting a positive experience, while all other industries in the study averaged between 54% and 60%.

Employees rated their workplaces against 17 statements in Great Place to Work’s confidential Trust Index™ survey. The statements measure factors that contribute to a positive employee experience such as a sense of purpose, innovation opportunities, psychological safety, leadership and fairness. Within these findings, four challenges stood out as most common to workplaces today, with employees citing inequity, lack of meaningful connection, lack of purpose and poor leadership.

“These experiences are sadly familiar to many employees,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place to Work. “Moreover, they’re hurting companies’ agility, innovation and performance.”

The study shows that more than half of workers feel pay and promotions are handled unfairly. As well, 43% said they believe their coworkers don’t care for each other, 35% said they feel they can’t be themselves at work and 45% say their workplaces are not psychologically and emotionally healthy.

Roughly half of all employees reported their leaders do not genuinely care for them as people, don’t involve them in decisions and fail to match their actions to their words. And nearly half of all employees said they do not intend to stay with their current workplace, nor are they willing to recommend their employer.

By contrast, employee feedback data from companies that are Certified™ by Great Place to Work shows that when workplaces provide positive leadership, a sense of purpose and opportunity for meaningful connections with colleagues, employees’ intent to stay improves by 52%, while their willingness to recommend their employer to others increases by 65%.

About Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture. Since 1992, they have surveyed more than 100 million employees around the world and used those deep insights to define what makes a great workplace: trust. Great Place to Work helps organizations quantify their culture and produce better business results by creating a high-trust work experience for all employees. Their unparalleled benchmark data is used to recognize Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies and the Best Workplaces in the U.S. and more than 60 countries, including the 100 Best Companies to Work For® and World’s Best list published annually in Fortune. Everything they do is driven by the mission to build a better world by helping every organization become a great place to work For All™.

To learn more, visit greatplacetowork.com, visit Great Place to Work’s company culture blog and read “A Great Place to Work For All.” Join the community on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

Contact Details
Kim Peters
+1 415-844-2574
[email protected]

Author Information

As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.

Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.

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