Britain has best work environments out of major European countries, new survey claims

Britain is home to some of the best work environments in Europe when compared to other major economies, a new survey has revealed.

Despite a third of respondents saying they did not get enough recognition from their boss, some 67 per cent said they thought their manager had a genuine interest in their wellbeing and happiness at work.

Almost half said they got on well with their boss on both a professional and personal level and two-thirds agreed they deserved to be in the position they were in.

However, managers on the continent came off far worse.

Research of 5,000 workers in France, Germany and Italy has revealed over a quarter of European employees felt their bosses had no genuine interest for their wellbeing, with Italians feeling the most underappreciated followed by workers in France and Germany.

By contrast, just 22 per cent of Britons said the same, the lowest number of all four major economies.

The survey also found 44 per cent of European employees did not believe their bosses would be able to complete a day’s work in their job.

This could be due to a lack of interest or effort to engage with them, with 36 per cent of workers on the continent saying their boss had no idea what they did on a day-to-day basis.

“The workplace has a profound effect on shaping the beliefs and values of employees," said Saurav Chopra, co-founder and CEO of Perkbox. “In fact, a key differentiator separating the highest performing companies from the rest is the way they look after the wellbeing of their staff.

“It signals ‘the right way’ of doing things and becomes self-reinforcing - you care for them, they will care for your business in return.”

He added: “The case of France is an interesting one because most businesses are obliged to provide employee benefits by law. But as these stats show, this doesn’t necessarily evidence a ‘genuine interest’ for employee wellbeing.”

The study also found over a quarter of respondents said they did not get any form of verbal recognition for doing their job well.

Italy was worst performing in this regard, where almost a third said they did not feel they got recognition. That compares to just one in five employees in Britain, where workers felt the most appreciated on the continent.

SWNS