Employers that want their troops to be both happy and productive should focus on the happy part first, and then wait for the productivity to materialize.

That, in a nutshell, is what a Manpower survey found when it sampled more than 1,000 workers worldwide to get insight into what they wanted from a job.

Nearly half (45 percent) listed good work-life balance as the chief career goal, and the No. 1 definition of workplace “success” was finding enjoyment and happiness on the job.

Only 10 percent said they’d consider their careers to be successful if they were productive and were among the highest performers.

“As employers struggle to find skilled and motivated individuals to meet performance goals, these findings indicate an ongoing disconnect between employee aspirations and the performance demands of employers worldwide,” Manpower said.

Here are the key findings of the survey:

Employees rank work/life balance higher than performance, with 45 percent of employees seeking that balance as their primary work objective compared to 17 percent who aspire to be the best at what they do.
Millennials (14 percent) are least likely to aspire to be the best at what they do compared to baby boomers (22 percent) and Gen X (17 percent).
Only 3 percent of employees globally aspire to achieve a prominent position.
26 percent of employees define success in the workplace as enjoyment/happiness, followed by salary (19 percent), doing the best work (18 percent), respect and recognition (15 percent) and high performance (10 percent).
53 percent of employees say respect for their knowledge and experience is their top expectation of leadership, followed by mutual trust (51 percent), transparency (37 percent), learning and development (32 percent) and a relationship of equals regardless of job title (30 percent).
59 percent of employees want mutual trust from their colleagues at work, followed by respect for their knowledge (48 percent), a relationship of equals (46 percent) and transparency (41 percent).
Baby boomers worldwide expect mutual trust (65 percent) from their colleagues, compared with Gen X (61 percent) and millennials (51 percent).
Top reasons for leaving one job for another were work/life balance and higher compensation (both 35 percent), followed by seeking a different work culture and wanting more challenging assignments (both 25 percent).

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Focus on work-life balance will drive higher productivity

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