Norway - A country with happiest workforce

If a new report is to be believed, Norwegians enjoy one of the shortest workweeks, but still manage to place second in the ranking of the world's most productive countries.

According to another study, Norway also has the happiest workforce in Europe.

The second annual Global Productivity report, released by Expert Market, has investigated levels of productivity in over 35 countries across the world. Norway ended up in second place, only beaten by Luxembourg. Following close behind were Switzerland, Denmark and Iceland.

Despite Norwegian workers enjoying one of the shortest workweeks at 27 hours, they still manage to yield a productivity sum of 39.72 GBP (337 kroner) per person for every hour worked, and the output per person has grown by nine percent over the past year.

"Our data has shown, both this year and last year when we first ran the study, that there is a definite correlation between a shorter working week and productivity. Countries that have shorter working weeks in general are more productive, whereas countries which have a culture of presenteeism and long desk hours actually get less out of their teams," said Adelle Kehoe, lead researcher at Expert Market.

"This suggests that in Norway and Denmark, the move to shorter hours must have come with a very clear cultural shift about what you can get done in a shorter space of time, and a focus on focusing and delivering while at work and then having more time away from the office to reboot in between," she said.

This also corresponds with another study done by HR Norge and Ennova.

As per Global Employee and Leadership Index, Norway and Denmark have the happiest workforce in Europe.

The reason why Norwegians claim to be thriving in the workplace may be attributed to high level of job security, and feeling motivated and a high sense of well-being at work.

In addition, many Norwegian employees experience a lot of self-determination; they can organize the work as they perceive appropriate, which contributes to feeling more comfortable in the work place. 

-ANI