It's not a pay issue' Happy workers boost productivity, says peer

It's about how you are being treated and how your employer is developing you in the workplace' Mark Price Founder of WorkL

- Joanna Partridge

Is being happy at work the key to the UK government's goal of boosting productivity and economic growth? The former Waitrose boss turned big company adviser Mark Price certainly thinks so.

Since leaving a decades-long career in retail, followed by a stint in government as trade minister, Lord Price - known during his days running the supermarket chain as the "chubby grocer" - has embarked on a mission to make organisations recognise the value of a happy workforce.

Price said: "If people are happy in their jobs they don't leave, you retain knowledge, you have lower levels of sick absence, all of which leads to more profitable and more effective organisations. And it's good for individuals."

He has the data to back this up, thanks to the 1.5 million workers globally, half of whom are in the UK, who have completed a happy at work survey run by Price's organisation, WorkL.

Brits are, on average, the unhappiest workers in the G20 group of nations, a fact that he believes has a direct link to the economy's productivity problem, where the UK is also in the unhappy position of being bottom of the G20.