Key findings

The key findings are for the Victorian public sector.

Work-related wellbeing

Overall work-related wellbeing was similar in 2022 compared to 2021.

Work-related stress

Respondents who experienced high to severe stress:

  • fell to 25% from 26% in 2021
  • reported workload and time pressure as the leading causes.

Feelings at work

How work made respondents feel often, very often or always:

  • enthusiastic stayed at 48%
  • happy rose to 54% from 50% in 2021
  • miserable stayed at 19%
  • worried fell to 33% from 37% in 2021.

Safety at work

Respondents who feel their organisation and leaders support their psychological and physical safety at work was 56% in 2021 and 2022.

Employee engagement

Employee engagement fell to 68 index points from 70 in 2021.

 

Work-related stress

Work-related stress describes an employee’s stress response to work-related factors.

These responses may be physical, mental, emotional or behavioural, such as:

  • physical, like headaches, indigestion, tiredness, slow reactions, shortness of breath or illness
  • mental, like difficulty in decision-making or forgetfulness
  • emotional, like irritability, excess worrying, feeling worthless, anxiety, defensiveness, anger or mood swings
  • behavioural, like diminished performance, withdrawal behaviours or impulsive behaviour

Lower work-related stress is linked to positive organisational outcomes, such as job retention and performance.

 

 

Main causes of stress in 2022

In this graph, respondents who experienced stress reported on what work-related factors contributed to their stress.

The results may add up to more than 100% because respondents could choose more than one answer.

 

 

Emotional effects of work

Emotional effects of work are the positive and negative feelings respondents experienced in the 3 months before the survey.

Positive feelings may lead to higher wellbeing and job satisfaction and a lower chance of burnout.

Respondents whose work made them feel enthusiastic in 2019, 2021 and 2022

This graph shows the percentage of respondents whose work made them feel enthusiastic.

The results combine the answers of often, very often or always.

 

Respondents whose work made them feel happy in 2019, 2021 and 2022

This graph shows the percentage of respondents whose work made them feel happy.

The results combine the answers of often, very often or always.

 

Respondents whose work made them feel miserable in 2019, 2021 and 2022

This graph shows the percentage of respondents whose work made them feel miserable.

The results combine the answers of often, very often or always.

 

Respondents whose work made them feel worried in 2019, 2021 and 2022

This graph shows the percentage of respondents whose work made them feel worried.

The results combine the answers of often, very often or always.

 

 

Psychological and physical safety climate

A safe workplace is a key outcome of Leading the way and the Victorian public sector mental health and wellbeing charter.

This graph shows the percentage of respondents who feel their organisation supports their safety at work.

 

Psychological and physical safety climate

The results combine agree and strongly agree answers to these statements:

  • Senior leaders show support for stress prevention through involvement and commitment
  • Senior leaders consider the psychological health of employees to be as important as productivity
  • In my workplace, there is good communication about psychological safety issues that affect me
  • All levels of my organisation are involved in the prevention of stress
  • My organisation provides a physically safe work environment
  • My organisation has effective procedures in place to support employees who may experience stress.

 

Engagement index

A high employee engagement rating indicates employees are enthusiastic and energetic about their work.

The employee engagement index is a score out of 100.

This graph shows how engaged respondents are with their organisation because of the work they do.

 

Data set

This .CSV file has the data for each survey question on this page.

Stress, wellbeing and engagement 2022 (2kb)

Reviewed 17 October 2023

Published 24 April 2023