Employee happiness depends on benefits and work environment, survey says

Happiness in the workplace is determined by the amount of satisfaction with compensation, benefits, work environment, and employee value, according to a Comparably report on Thursday. The report surveyed 45,000 US companies, whose employees gave more than 5 million ratings about their workplaces, said the Thursday press release.

The happiest employees at large companies had an average happiness score of 88/100, while the happiest employees at small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) had an average happiness score of 93/100. All of the other companies had an average score of 61/100, said the release.

When asked about employee satisfaction regarding benefits, work environment, pay, stock, and company attitude, SMB winners ranked them all higher than large company winners, said the release. Even the happiest employees at large companies were still not as satisfied as those at smaller businesses, meaning there are still improvements to be made and defined cultural differences among companies of varying sizes.

However, when comparing the overall satisfaction of the other businesses surveyed to that of the winners, there is a stark contrast. Specifically, only 61% of other companies feel excited to go to work every day, while 85% of large company winners and 96% of SMB winners said the same, according to the release.

Even more compelling, women were less excited than men about going to work. Some 65% of men reported feeling happy about going to work every day, while only 59% of women responded the same way, said the release. This gender disparity in overall employee satisfaction is also very telling of our current work environment—one in which a gender disparity is present in many facets of the enterprise.

Many sentiments overlapped from employees working at happier companies. Most commented on how their companies promoted an inclusive, flexible, and respectful workplace—they especially appreciated how their businesses promoted a healthy work/life balance, according to the release.

“Being a part of a fantastic company and a wonderful team makes me happy. Everyone really enjoys what they do and supports each other. The flexibility of my schedule [allows me] to work around my child care needs,” said a respondent from Adobe in the release.