Healthcare has highest number of happy employees, e-commerce & retail has least: Study  

More than half of the Indian workforce or 59 per cent is not happy at work, with e-commerce and retail accounting for the highest number of unhappy people and healthcare & pharmaceuticals having the greatest number of happy people, according to a recent survey of 1,360 employees by consultancy firm House of Cheer. 

Only 25 per cent of those working in e-commerce and retail said they were happy, while 51 per cent of those in healthcare and pharmaceuticals said they were happy. Retail and e-ecommerce also has the least number of happy women employees at 11 per cent, while fintech had the least number of happy men at 27 per cent. 

“The glaringly low percentage of happy employees in the retail and e-commerce sector can be attributed to the high pressures and expectations from the industry. The need for employees to deliver perfectly and speedily comes from the intense competition among the players in the industry and is permeating the stress levels of the employees,” said the report. 

On the other hand, healthcare and pharma, which saw an uptick during the pandemic because of a lower likelihood of layoffs and sector shrinkage and high pay, offers a sense of validation for the purpose and meaning in life for a lot of healthcare employees, along with a high sense of belongingness that they share with their coworkers, the report said.  

“On average, those in retail and e-commerce experience greater work interference in their personal lives as compared to employees in the healthcare sector,” according to the report. 

Highlighting that workplace happiness significantly impacts employees’ turnover intention as well as organisations’ growth, the study found that it is a combination of both psychological factors such as belongingness, autonomy, sense of meaning & purpose and stress management as well as workplace-specific factors such as innovation, turnover intention and work-life balance. Both workplace happiness & general wellbeing are important for sustained happiness, it said. 

Further, the study found that 47 per cent of the men said they were happy at work, while only 37 per cent of the women agreed to the statement. While there isn’t a huge gap between the general well-being of men and women, it indicates a need to also pay attention to external factors such as pay and job positions that might be impacting the workplace happiness levels for women. Besides this, the gender roles in society that sometimes tend to put extra pressure on women to multitask and cater to the needs of both their home and work lives explain this well. 

The study also found that full-time employees are happier (44 per cent) than part-time counterparts (25 per cent), but it does not equate to flexibility because 59 per cent employees prefer flexible working compared to 41 per cent who prefer working from home.  

Pointing out that 41 per cent employees wish to leave their jobs, the study said employees who intend to leave their jobs are not unhappy people, but they are particularly unhappy at work. Again, more women than men intend to leave their jobs as 62 per cent women said they have a high intention to leave their job, while 58 per cent of the men said so. For men, the reasons included being older (Gen X and Boomers), having fewer children and lower workplace happiness. 

For women, it was greater stress. Common reasons for both genders are more interference between work and personal lives and greater general well-being. And the intent to leave jobs does not vary strikingly across generations. While 22 per cent each of Gen Z and Millennials intend to leave their jobs, the number is 21 per cent for Gen X.