91% of employees in Switzerland are either happy or very happy with their working conditions, a rate which is only beaten by Denmark, the UK and the Netherlands, according to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO).
A survey by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions shows that workers in Switzerland enjoy far more flexibility in terms of determining their working hours than their counterparts in other European Union countries.
The results were analysed by SECO, which provided the survey summary to Staffing Industry Analysts¸ showing that Swiss employees have more room for negotiation and receive greater social support at work than most EU employees. They are also included more often in decisions which impact their work and are more regularly encouraged by superiors to take part in important decision-making processes.
Training also ranks at the top as over half of the people surveyed in Switzerland had taken part in a further training course in the past 12 months which had been financed by their employer, beating the EU average of one third. And indeed, no country in the EU had a higher proportion than Switzerland of employees who took part in a further education course.
But there also some downsides. Working hours and deadline pressure are higher than average and workers in the country also complain more often about being bullied at work, contributing greatly to stress levels at work. It also showed that physical stress factors in Switzerland have increased in general, while European average levels have hardly altered.
Women are also less frequently found in management positions when compared to neighbouring countries as within a five-year period from 2005 and 2010, the level stayed flat at 20%.
Overall, the results show that working conditions are positive but the SECO warned that more can be done to improve problem zones, especially as work-related stress factors are on the increase in the country.