Taking our data and looking at the happiness of people who are registered with a disability shows overall they are less happy than those without a disability. Reward and Recognition and Empowerment score particularly low for this community.
Indeed, the biggest gap our data drew out is a 5.9% difference in happiness relating to empowerment and reward and recognition, when compared to people who are able bodied. This is a very significant difference. Research suggests that 18% of people in the workforce are registered as disabled therefore it’s important for employers to look at how best to empower and reward their employees who are disabled.
With the recent Black Lives Matter protests there’s been a renewed focus on diversity across all areas in society. Looking at diversity of ethnicity in the workplace our data shows all ethnic groups scored high in job satisfaction, however Arab/,Middle Eastern respondents score particularly low on four of the six steps. White/British/Mixed White scored high when rating their satisfaction with reward and recognition and empowerment. Black /African/Caribbean/Other Black scored high when rating whether their job instils pride. The happiest group we found is Asian.
We’ve found that sectors are improving diversity across the board. Defence, architecture, mining, marketing and advertising all have a high amount of diversity across demographics. As industries tend to become more diverse in one dimension (e.g. ethnicity) they tend to become more diverse in other dimensions (e.g, gender). This is encouraging as any instance of diversity helps foster a general attitude of inclusivity within individual sectors. WorkL allows people to find out how companies score, with live data on the happiest sectors.
In the UK our workforce is becoming increasingly older as people put off retirement. If we look at diversity in terms of age, we can see that well-being at work starts off high in the younger age groups then dips between the ages of 25-54, finally improving for those aged 55+. The same can be said for Information Sharing and Reward and Recognition. We’ve found that organisations that are not-for-profit are most diverse in age and the happiest.
As we have discovered, diversity alone won’t directly create a happy workforce but it can indirectly. It can encourage inclusivity and make a workforce more open to new ideas and direction. To keep track of how the global workforce feel about their working lives, take a look at our free reports published each month with up-to-date analysis or join us for our free monthly webinars.
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