A survey has found that Singapore performs the worst in employee diversity, and that the proportion of workers bullied at workplace is the highest in the world.

Bullying, stress and anxiety in Singapore workplaces

The Kantar Inclusion Index (KII) seeks to compare employee feedback and experiences based on factors such as diversity and inclusion (D&I).

It was conducted by Kantar, a data, insights, and consulting firm.

18,000 people across 14 countries were polled, including 1,050 people in Singapore, reported The Straits Times.

24 industries were covered in the survey, including health, education, legal services and accountancy, retail, wholesale and e-commerce, financial services, and the public sector.

And Kantar found that workplace bullying appears to be the prevalent issue here.

The survey revealed that 24 per cent of Singapore employees had been bullied at the workplace in the past year — the highest percentage in the world.

32 per cent of employees were also made to "feel uncomfortable" by their employers, a number much higher than other countries polled.

KII findings also showed that many employees in Singapore were reportedly struggling to deal with pressure—44 per cent were grappling with issues such as anxiety and stress, which is five per cent higher than the global average.

Singapore was also the second-worst in terms of workplace diversity and inclusion practices.

Canada and United States the most gender-inclusive

Overall, Canada came in at the top of the index, reported a press release by Kantar.

This was due to the country's equal gender representation at workplaces — over 40 per cent of senior roles at companies were occupied by women.

65 per cent of Canadian employees also said that they felt their bosses were trying to be more inclusive.

However, one-fifth of workers stated they had been bullied in the past year.

Coming in at second place was the United States, where gender representation and ethnic diversity were key factors.

Senior positions in companies reportedly had 30 per cent of ethnic representation, KII found.

Meanwhile, 60 per cent of U.S. workers believed their employers were attempting to be more inclusive.

Workplace bullying does appear to be less of an issue in the U.S. though—only 17 per cent polled said they had been bullied in the past year.

Singtel ranked 79 in list of world's most diverse and inclusive firms

Financial markets data provider Refinitiv also just released their latest list of the world's top 100 most diverse and inclusive firms.

Refinitiv's D&I index measures the relative performance of more than 7,000 companies that represent 70 per cent of the global market cap.

The index calculates each firm's score using four pillars — diversity, development, people development, and controversies.

The top 100 companies with the best scores are then selected.

Telecommunications firm Singtel was the only Singapore company that made it into the list, ranking 79 globally.

23 firms from the Asia Pacific were selected for the top 100, while the U.S. dominated the index with their firms occupying the top 25 spots.

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