Being interested in the job and having good relationships with colleagues makes employees happiest, according to a new City and Guilds survey.

The Happiness Index finds 57% of workers stay with their current employer because they are motivated by their work, while 56% say it is down to their colleagues. Nearly half (48%) appreciate their work life-balance.

This contrasts with attitudes to salary, with only 44% of respondents saying this made them most happy at work. The survey also found that while 43% of companies offer bonuses to employees, only one in 10 managers allow staff to work from home.

"The Index provides a call to action for business to rethink its reward and recognition strategies and consider employees' needs on an individual basis," says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University, who helped analyse the findings of the Index. "From now on a flexible approach is needed if businesses are to create a happy and, by association, productive workforce."

Results show that the UK's happiest worker profile is a 60 year-old female beauty therapist from the North East, while the unhappiest is a Northern Irish 45 year-old male builder.

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