Most Hungarian Workers Unhappy, Bosses Need Improvement
A new international workplace survey has found that less than half of Hungarian employees are happy in their work, and also believe that their bosses could be doing a better job.
The survey by leading recruitment agency, Kelly Services, found that just 44% of Hungarian workers were either happy or very happy with their current position, the lowest ranking of all countries in the survey.
The quality of Hungarian bosses has received little praise from workers. Asked to score their bosses out of 10, the average score employees gave Hungarian bosses was 6.4
The Kelly Global Workforce Index sought the views of approximately 70,000 people in 28 countries including almost 1,000 in Hungary.
The most contented employees in the global study were in Denmark, Mexico and Sweden and the least happy in Hungary, Russia and Turkey.
“This result suggests that many organisations need to improve development of workplace practices to keep their employees engaged and motivated”, Anikó Jónás, managing director of Kelly Services Hungary Ltd. said.
Hungary’s bosses were also rated only moderately by workers.
Hungarian bosses ranked 19th out of 28 countries on a world scale, and 8th of 16 countries in Europe.
Employers were rated on four attributes – communication, leadership, team spirit and delegation skills. Workers felt that bosses were best at delegating effectively and weakest when it comes to leadership.
Younger workers generally viewed their bosses more favourably, while men rated their bosses slightly higher than women.
On the question of who makes the best bosses – men or women – there is a strong preference for men. A total of 45% said they preferred a male boss, and just 10% like a female boss. A further 44% said it makes no difference.
Some 48% of workers in Hungary said that their bosses rewarded them for a job well done while just over 40% said they were rewarded rarely or never.
“It’s important to try and find what makes a contented and motivated workforce because workers who enjoy their work will make a more effective contribution to the performance of the organisation.
“The best employers understand this and provide people with interesting and challenging work as well as opportunities to learn and more fully develop their own skills.
“If we look at what workers say is important to them, they want a workplace with good morale, stimulating work, a degree of autonomy, and one where they receive feedback from their bosses.
“Simply taking the time to tell someone when they’ve done a good job or provide some constructive feedback can make a big difference.
“Many employers recognise this but it’s not universal. Sometimes senior managers are so busy managing the business they frequently overlook the people aspects, which are so important,” Anikó Jónás said.
Those Hungarian workers most happy in their jobs were in Central/Local Government (64%), Financial Services and Science/Pharmaceutical (55%), Business Services (53%) and IT (52%).
Kelly Services
Kelly Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: KELYA, KELYB) is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Troy, Michigan (USA), offering staffing solutions that include temporary services, staff leasing, outsourcing, vendor on-site and full-time placement. Kelly operates in 30 countries and territories. Kelly provides employment for nearly 700,000 employees annually, with skills including office services, accounting, engineering, information technology, law, science, marketing, light industrial, education and health care. Revenue in 2005 was US$5.3 billion. Visit http://www.kellyservices.com
Media contact: Anikó Jónás
Managing Director
Tel: 0036-1-354-2770
E-mail: ajonas@kellyservices.hu