The official WorkL Happiest Workplaces 2023 has been announced on WorkL’s live Happiest Workplaces List, showcasing the happiest workplaces around the world, as nominated by employees.

The comprehensive list, compiled by WorkL, the employee experience platform that helps individuals to have a happier working life and helps businesses to measure, track, and improve employee engagement, reveals that Health and Social Care has the most winners, closely followed by Education and Research, Retail, Hospitality, and Building and Construction. Together, the top five industries account for 47% of the winners, with 26 industry sectors in total.

Over 60,000 workplaces were entered in 2023 by employees taking WorkL’s free and anonymous Happy at Work Test. Organisations who scored above 70% are recognised as a Happiest Workplace. The list is designed to help employees find the happiest places to work and then apply for jobs at those workplaces.

Notable winners for the top five industries include:

Health and Social Car

  • Fitness First
  • Novo Healthcare
  • The Royal College Radiologists
  • Leicester General Hospital
  • NHS Wakefield Clinical Commissioning

Education and Research

  • Stellenbosch University
  • Fordham University
  • University Southern Mississippi
  • New York University
  • Oxford Business College

Retail

  • Pet Supermarket
  • Vans
  • Louis Vuitton UK
  • White Stuff
  • FatFace

Hospitality

  • National Railway Museum
  • DeskLodge
  • 3 Black Bears
  • Moxy Hotels
  • ExCel London

Building & Construction

  • Dangote PLC
  • Dornan Engineering
  • BTM Building
  • CL Jones
  • The Paving Experts

In addition to helping people find the happiest workplaces by industry, there are specific categories to help different groups find workplaces and roles for them, including Most Inclusive, Best for Women, Best for Disabled Employees, Best for LGBTQ+ Employees and Best for Management. The notable winners for these categories are:

Most Inclusive –

  • Dome Technology
  • Leidos
  • Versive Composites
  • Coffee House 45
  • Laing O’Rourke Australia

Best for Women -  

  • Portsmouth High School
  • Always Pure Organics
  • Jack & Bry
  • Zentech
  • API

Best for Disabled Employees -  

  • Ministry Human Resources & Emiratisation
  • Emirates National Bank Dubai
  • Rhondda Borough Council
  • ABS Bank
  • All Saints

Best for Management –

  • National Railway Museum
  • Stellenbosch University
  • Haughton Design
  • Luxury Escapes
  • Alzheimer Society Ireland

Best for Wellbeing –

  • National Railway Museum
  • Clarity Informatics
  • Stellenbosch University
  • Teneo
  • Youth Cancer Trust

Best for LGBTQ+

  • Saab UK
  • PCI Pal
  • Al Baraka Banking
  • Coca Cola Consolidated
  • Weight Watchers

Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL comments on the list: “I’m pleased to publish the 2023 WorkL Happiest Workplaces today.

“Our research shows that nearly 50% of people are unhappy, anxious or depressed at work. It’s our mission to make the world’s workplaces happier, and it starts with acknowledging the ones who are doing a good job. I encourage employees to take our test to understand how happy they are in their job role and to see where their employer sits on the list.”

WorkL has the world’s largest live database on the happiness and engagement of employees, with insight into over 60,000 organisations worldwide. WorkL links all of this data to job vacancies, helping applicants to find the happiest workplaces for them by offering specific filters, e.g. gender, age, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation.

WorkL’s anonymous Happy At Work test, which takes less than ten minutes for employees to take for free and gives them advice and actions about how to improve their score, looks at various areas that impact work life, including WorkL’s Six Steps to Workplace Happiness; Wellbeing, Job Satisfaction, Reward & Recognition, Information Sharing, Empowerment and Instilling Pride.

Lord Price launched WorkL, back in 2017, along with WorkL For Business which now helps over 600 businesses globally improve the happiness and engagement of their teams and has seen over 500,000 individuals globally take the free Workl happy at work survey which helps people determine how happy they are in their current job. WorkL currently operates in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

The test, featuring 31 questions, is centred around the Founder, Lord Mark Price’s widely approved employee engagement theory: Six Steps to Workplace Happiness, which includes Reward & Recognition, which are integral to retaining talent. Developed by behavioural scientists, data analysts, psychologists, business leaders, academics and other independent parties, the survey accurately monitors employee engagement and wellbeing in the workplace. 

To achieve a high overall engagement score, a company must consistently perform well across its six-step framework, encompassing: Reward and Recognition, Instilling Pride, Information Sharing, Empowerment, Wellbeing and Job Satisfaction Each of WorkL’s Six Steps consists of between three and five key elements, which are measured on a 0-10 scale.