Matt Phelan, co-founder of The Happiness Index, shared key findings from the Global Workplace Happiness Report 2026 at a Work.Life Leaders Circle session: 12 years and 250 million data points show the top driver of workplace happiness is relationships, not perks, and younger workers are less happy than prior generations mostly because of a lack of genuine human connection.

Leaders should focus on the conditions for happiness – psychological safety, real relationships, meaningful work – rather than chasing a score. Irrational Capital uses employee happiness as an investment signal and has been outperforming the S&P 500, showing the business case is no longer soft.

Paul Dutnall, CEO at Work.Life, argues that most career pages are just marketing fluff that hide the numbers candidates actually care about.

Work.Life just relaunched their careers site and made their internal People Hub public, sharing real data like tenure, attrition, pay gaps, and promotion rates. If you want candidates to trust you, consider publishing the stuff you’d normally keep internal.

Elliot Gold shares that work.life are officially launching a hub in Victoria, London.

… and 10 years in the making. Jamie Brown shares how he started with a tour by work.life cofounder David Kosky. He got a hot desk in Camden, then an office 12 months later, then moved to Soho in 2019 – growing through 4 different offices as their team grew.

As another bonus, the workspace brand has also worked with Jamie’s firm (Two Boys) for all their design and marketing for over 6 years.