Global Workers Under Record-High Stress, According to New Survey

Europe and South Asia were hit particularly hard with regard to employee wellbeing. Both South Asia (which includes India) and Europe dropped 5% in reported wellbeing in the past year. South Asia had the lowest wellbeing in the world at 11%. Not only did workers in these regions feel their current life was worse, but their hope for the future dropped as well. 

Employees in the U.S. and Canada region said it is a good time to find a job — but not elsewhere. 45% of employees worldwide said now is a good time to find a job, with the United States and Canada leading the world at 71%, up 44% from the previous year. However, workers in other regions, such as MENA (28%) and East Asia (27%), are not nearly as positive. Global employers should be careful in regard to their narrative of global labor shortages as job markets recover at different paces around the world.  

Managers are key to employee engagement. Gallup found the biggest source of dissatisfaction at work was “unfair treatment at work,” followed by unmanageable workload, unclear communication from managers, lack of manager support, and unreasonable time pressure. A manager’s effect on a workplace is so significant that Gallup can predict 70% of the variance in team engagement just by getting to know the boss. 

Employee wellbeing is the new workplace imperative. Employers should rethink the traditional way of focusing on engagement at work and leaving wellbeing outside of work. Instead, improved employee engagement will be difficult to achieve without promoting wellbeing as the report discloses that employees who are engaged at work but not thriving on wellbeing have a 61% higher likelihood of ongoing burnout than those who are engaged and thriving.