Well, starting with millennials, it’s a well-established fact that this group is motivated by jobs that allow them to learn and grow. In fact, a regularly quoted Gallup poll showed that 87% of millennials identified this as a key reason to accept a job. Meanwhile, an EagleHill report on how business culture impacts business performance showed that 77% of millennials surveyed believed that workplace culture impacted their ability to do their best work, with 76% saying it impacted their productivity and efficiency. And, surprise surprise, the same exhaustive survey found that people who were happy at work stayed with their organization longer. Want more data? Stats provided by Zipdo in 2024 report that 95% of employees believe culture is more important than compensation.

Interestingly, Lithuania’s work culture is very much in line with many of the ingredients that comprise a healthy workplace.

If you are supported, you’ll grow.

It makes sense that those who feel supported will have the confidence to spread their wings and take the chance to develop their careers. Mentorship programs are key here. They provide young professionals with the opportunity to test themselves in more challenging roles under the guidance of more experienced colleagues. In Lithuania, it’s not uncommon to find companies providing mentoring and training initiatives. In fact, a famous local unicorn, the cybersecurity player NordSecurity, has a whole Learning and Development department dedicated to this.

Healthy colleagues are happy colleagues.

A company that looks after both the physical and mental well-being of its employees is not only demonstrating its commitment to its people. It is also building a bond of trust with its employees, which helps to retain talent. Having a gym on site is a great start, as is having showers for those who want to go for a run before work, or cycle in. But what about hiring fitness trainers, and even fitness consultants? This is something that a company like Oxylabs, a young, dynamic and quickly expanding tech business in Vilnius, is committed to providing. But with levels of stress, especially among millennials seemingly on an endless upward trend, it’s never been more important for companies to provide support for emotional well-being as well. Here, you’ll find that workers are equally well catered for in Lithuania, with companies like software solutions developer NFQ providing the Mindletic app, a solution that has been purpose-built to help maintain stable emotional well-being.

Having a healthy hybrid working environment is great for productivity (and the soul)

The pandemic delivered a seismic shift in how we work. Working from home became not the exception, but the rule. And what’s more, people realized that they liked it. A report put together by Accenture found that a massive 83% of the people polled globally said they preferred a hybrid working model. But it’s not just what floats their boat, but also what delivers better results. Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey found that of the 5,000 employees surveyed, only 36% of those who worked exclusively from the office were high performers, compared to 55% of those who worked from home.  With all this in mind, it should come as no surprise that a hybrid working culture is actively promoted in Lithuania. A great example of this would be Vinted, the used clothes marketplace and tech unicorn that calls Lithuania its home. They actively promote a policy that encourages employees to work in whatever setting allows them to perform at their best.

If you feel trusted and a stakeholder in what you do, you’re more likely to excel

A lot of the time it’s not just about how happy you’re made to feel, or whether or not you can work from home that determines how satisfied you are with your work. More than that, it’s whether or not you feel a sense of accomplishment after you’ve finished a job.  It’s about having pride in your work. And that comes from being given responsibility and being a stakeholder in what you do. This is something that was established more or less definitively by a Gallup poll that found employee engagement was one of the biggest drivers of employee satisfaction. The report found that companies that were able to effectively engage their employees with clear expectations, the opportunity to do what they do best, a clear development path, and a culture of opinion-sharing were able to deliver 23% higher profitability than those that didn’t.

Again, in Lithuania, this understanding lies front and centre of the culture of companies like the rising star of the Health Tech sector Kilo Health. The company’s culture is engineered to put control in the hands of its employees, with it even stimulating an entrepreneurial spirit by supporting and funding start-up ideas that are generated by employees within the company.

At the end of the day, it’s all about work-life balance

We’ve already seen the many things that companies can do to improve overall employee satisfaction. And we’ve also seen that companies in Lithuania tick most of the boxes here. But if we really want to have a fulfilling and happy working life, there is one thing that we need more than anything else – a healthy work-life balance. In a 2022 article published in the Harvard Business Review, titled “The Surprising Benefits of Work-Life Support”, the writers crunched data gathered from 800 companies in the US over 30 years. Their findings? Companies that promote a healthy work-life balance not only boost productivity, reduce turnover, and improve employees’ mental and physical health. They also increase organizational diversity.

Lithuania is very much a country where companies, both international and local, recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between work and life. Here’s what Bhashini Pathirana, an analyst from Adform, a Danish tech company with a large presence in Lithuania, has to say on the issue:

“What’s great here is the work-life balance. You have the flexibility to dictate how you would like to structure your day, be it working from home, going to the office, or having a hybrid routine. And most importantly, after 5/6pm, you’re done with work”.

Lithuania: a happy place to live and an even happier place to work

With all this in mind, it should probably come as no surprise that in the 2024 World Happiness Report, Lithuania was ranked as the happiest country in the world with respect to those in the under-30 category. This is, after all, the group that the newest generation of young professionals is coming from, and it is this group that is harvesting the benefits of the strong work-life balance culture that has been created.  If you are looking for a great working environment, maybe it’s time to consider Lithuania.