Thriving Workplaces How Employers can Improve Productivity and Change Lives 2025

The data analysis did not reveal clear global trends explaining why certain industries outperform others.53 Nor did any single aspect of health drag down the average of low-performing industries, such as may be expected of jobs that are physically or emotionally demanding. Instead, scores were generally low or high for all four dimensions of health. The data also returned some examples that run counter to global trends. For example, while the health of front-line workers is generally worse than that of managers, people working in construction report high holistic health.54 In education and administrative support services, employees report low burn-out symptoms with high job security, possibly offsetting higher financial instability. The absence of consistent patterns across industries suggests that for both highly and poorly performing sectors, the drivers of workplace health are multifaceted and not easily attributable to specific roles. Minority demographic groups form the majority and are scoring worse on overall employee health A much clearer story emerges from an analysis of demographic data, such as gender, sexual orientation, neurodivergence, age, education and income. Responses were not assessed for ethnic diversity because of restrictions in certain countries.55 This report reflects survey responses only; further contextual research is required to understand the underlying causes.56 Respondents who self-identified as women, LGBTQI+,57 lacking a high school diploma,58 neurodivergent59 or low-income60 reported lower holistic health and higher burn-out symptoms compared to other respondents. Notably, these groups make up most of the sample, not the minority.61 Only 20% of the employees surveyed did not identify with at least one of these groups – groups which are often underrepresented on executive leadership teams. This report can only report outcomes; more research is needed to understand the reasons behind those outcomes. Specific demographic findings include the following: Gender: Women were 8 percentage points more likely to report exhaustion symptoms than men (46% versus 38% for men), despite similar holistic health (55% versus 58% for men) and burn-out symptom scores (23% versus 21% for men). Although women constitute half of the global population, they remain underrepresented at all work levels, regardless of race or ethnicity,62 suggesting a need for targeted strategies to increase workplace inclusivity and reduce exhaustion. Among the many health conditions affecting women, two notable ones are endometriosis and menopause. Improving access to and effectiveness, delivery and uptake of treatments and care for those two conditions alone would give an annual boost of $130 billion to the global economy by 2040.63 Reported employee health based on gender: Men and women report overall similar health outcomes, although women show more exhaustion symptomsFIGURE 6A Demographic group1 Men2Global sample Women3Percentage of global population in groupHigh holistic health reports, % of respondentsHigh burn-out symptoms reports, % of respondentsFaring well reports, % of respondents reporting good holistic health and low burn-out symptoms 57% 22% 49% 50% 47%21% 23%0% 100% 0% 100% 0% 100% 58% 55%100% ~50% ~50% Notes: 1. Not all possible demographic groups analyzed, e.g. transgender woman, transgender man, gender queer or other excluded due to too few data points given it was not surveyed in all countries, 2. Individuals self-identifying as cisgender man, 3. Individuals self-identifying as cisgender woman Source: MHI Employee Holistic Health Survey 2023 Thriving Workplaces: How Employers can Improve Productivity and Change Lives 17