As the world celebrates International Day of Happiness (20th March 2025), WorkL reveals that the commute, career development and flexibility are key drivers to happiness in the workplace.
WorkL’s qualitative data highlights that flexibility would improve their working lives. While often related to working hours, flexibility means many different things to different people, and whilst the largest volume of over 4000 respondents have not offered specifics in terms of what flexibility means for them, there are some clear themes from those that did.
• Working hours is the most common standout theme, accounting for 20% of respondents who mentioned flexibility. Health and Social Care, Retail and Financial Services account for the largest proportion.
• Working from home/Hybrid working is the second most common theme within flexibility (15%), with respondents seeking more opportunities to work away from the office (not necessarily just from home), especially when things outside of work are impacting factors (childcare, car troubles, awaiting parcels etc) and this is most common in the Financial Services and Technology sectors.
• The percentage of those seeking more flexibility in general increases with age before beginning to decline again at 65+. This is most likely due to caring responsibilities increasing with age and then dropping off as children fly the nest.
Founded by Lord Mark Price, WorkL has helped over a million employees measure and improve their workplace happiness to date, through its free Happy at Work Test. Recent insights from WorkL’s data show that companies with high employee happiness scores experience greater retention, better collaboration, and improved business performance.
Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL, commented,
“As we mark the International Day of Happiness, we want to remind businesses of the crucial role happiness plays in the workplace,”
“Employees who feel valued, supported, and fulfilled are not only happier but also drive better results for their organisations. Our data shows that employees who have minimal development opportunities, have a higher Flight Risk and are ultimately unhappy at work- this is just one area that I urge employers to address.”
Finally, it’s the commute that is blocking employee happiness, including this in the answer to the question ‘what three things would make your working life easier?’. WorkL’s data reveals that almost 3,000 respondents asked for increased opportunities to work from home and argued for a reduction in travel time in order to support a better work/life balance.
The overall global happiness score is currently 74%, up 1% from January 2025. This aligns with the decrease in Flight Risk from January 2025 to 21%, down 2%.
The Technology sector (78%) remains at the top of the happiness rankings, a trend attributed to its adaptive workplace practices and focus on innovation. This score is five percentage points above the global average score of 73%. However, Retail (68%) and Hospitality (71%) sectors continue to score poorly, currently ranking near the bottom globally. This disparity underscores a critical need for sectors with lower happiness scores to reassess work conditions, flexibility, and support for mental health.
Lord Price launched WorkL, back in 2017, along with WorkL For Business which now helps over 1000 businesses globally improve the happiness and engagement of their teams and has seen over 1 million individuals globally take the free Workl Happy at Work survey which helps people determine how happy they are in their current job.
For additional information on WorkL visit their Website
