What is the French recipe for a happy workplace?

Business team showing unity with their hands together

Two studies have recently been published investigating the issue of well-being at work and happiness at work in French companies. The first survey was conducted by the ChooseMyCompany label and collated the views and opinions of more than 8,000 employees. The second study was carried out by OpinionWay for HubOne on a sample of 1014 employees and business leaders representative of the French population aged 18 and over from May 11 to 18, 2018. The objective of the two studies was to analyze the level of happiness at work in France and to try and identify the ingredients needed to create a happy workplace.

Who are the happiest employees?

Overall, 77% of those employees surveyed by ChooseMyCompany would recommend their company with 65% also stating that they trusted their management team, a significant increase of 10.7% compared to last year. According to OpinionWay’s survey, 68% of French employees and business managers rate their well-being at work as “satisfactory”. However, only 11% of them consider it “very satisfactory”.

These figures can be further broken down, with employees in the human resources (74,%), audit and consulting (71.6%) and marketing (71.1%) services being the happiest and most highly motivated people at work. On the other hand, people in administrative positions or working in production or construction are those who say they are the least happy.

What are the ingredients needed for a happy workplace according to the French?

If we inspect the results of the study published by OpinionWay in greater detail, we discover that the French value  a benevolent and friendly atmosphere at work (29%) above all. The second most vital ingredient is striking a healthy balance between personal and professional life  with 21% of respondents declaring that this was an absolute necessity for a happy workplace. The level of remuneration only won “only” 18% of the vote while other important factors in a happy workplace in France being an interesting travel and holiday plan proposed by the works committee as well as the possibility of taking specific leave for personal projects and financial assistance services.

According to the ChooseMyCompany survey, the French also want to feel recognized and encouraged in their efforts, and have fun doing their work. According to them, recognition is based on trust given by supervisors (82%), performance evaluation (62%) and career development opportunities (58%).