Workplace Climate Index 2025: Employees give their workplace high marks

Overall, 70 percent or more of respondents rated most of their workplace like workload, work content and collaboration with colleagues and supervisors as “very good,” “good,” or “satisfactory.”

Collaboration among colleagues, work–life balance, and cooperation with supervisors received especially positive ratings, with at least one-fifth of respondents regarding them as “very good.” Employees were most critical of their development opportunities: with more than 20 percent “poor” or “very poor” grades.

An Arbeitsklima-Index (work climate index) was created from the individual ratings. It shows a clearly left skewed distribution, as employees predominantly award good grades. Only about three percent experience their overall working climate as poor or very poor, while around six percent give an average grade of “very good”. The working climate is linked to job satisfaction, engagement, and intention to change jobs. Employees with a low work climate index are less satisfied with their work, feel less engaged, and more frequently consider changing employers.

Results differentiated by employee characteristics show: men and women assess their working conditions similarly. Larger differences appear across age groups. Older employees rate their development opportunities more critically but are more often satisfied with teamwork, workload, work content, and work–life balance. Employees with higher educational qualifications tend to give better ratings, particularly regarding scope for decision-making and compensation.

With the European Commission’s planned Quality Jobs Act to promote high quality workplaces, the debate about job quality in Germany is gaining renewed relevance. However, against the backdrop of a weaker labor market, the conditions differ from those of the previous decades of employment growth. Although economic uncertainty weighs on the working climate, the generally positive overall sentiment does not indicate a need for regulatory action. New standards for “high quality” jobs could instead establish additional barriers in the labor market, potentially hindering a recovery in labor demand.