Key Findings
- Drivers of employee satisfaction have not changed, despite the COVID-19 pandemic and many discussions about how workers have reevaluated their priorities.
- Diversity and inclusion – Glassdoor’s newest workplace factor – matters more than pay (compensation and benefits) to employees in the U.S., Canada, UK and Germany.
- Using employee ratings on Glassdoor, the three most important workplace factors for overall employee satisfaction in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France and Germany are:
- The culture and values of the organization
- The quality of senior leadership; and
- Access to career opportunities within the organization
- For every additional star an employer receives in their D&I rating, the likelihood of an employee recommending the employer to a friend increases by 26 percent in the U.S.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has changed how work is done, it’s sparked many conversations about how and what employees value in the workplace. With such shifts in the economy, have the drivers of employee workplace satisfaction changed during the pandemic?
Glassdoor research previously found that culture and values, senior leadership and career opportunities were the most important factors for overall workplace satisfaction. Despite all that has changed amid the pandemic, including workplaces with partial or fully remote environments, we find that the same three workplace factors still drive employee satisfaction across the five countries in our study – the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Our analysis also examines Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), Glassdoor’s newest workplace factor introduced in 2020. More than 3 in 4 employees and job seekers consider a diverse workplace an important factor when evaluating companies and pending job offers, Glassdoor survey data shows, so how does it factor into workplace satisfaction once they’re in a role?
What We Did
For this analysis, we used Glassdoor’s unique database of millions of employee reviews across five countries – the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany. In addition to overall employee satisfaction, each review asks employees about different aspects of work, including:
- Career Opportunities
- Compensation and Benefits
- Culture and Values
- Senior Leadership
- Diversity and Inclusion
- Work-Life Balance
- Business Outlook
We examine which of these factors are the strongest predictors of employees’ overall 1-to-5 star satisfaction with their jobs, as well as how diversity and inclusion (Glassdoor’s newest workplace factor) stacks up against all other workplace factors. To do so, we use a technique known as “Shapley value” analysis to show which workplace factors have the most explanatory value in their relative contribution to the R-squared of a regression of overall satisfaction on the seven workplace factors. We also use the bootstrap method to construct confidence intervals to test whether any one workplace factor is significantly more important than another.
What Are the Strongest Predictors of Employee Satisfaction?
United States
First, we look at which factors are the strongest predictors of employee satisfaction in the U.S. The figure below shows all workplace factors (out of 100 percent), from the strongest predictor to the weakest predictor, that drive employee satisfaction in the workplace.
The three main drivers of employee satisfaction in the U.S. are culture and values (19.1 percent), senior leadership (18.0 percent) and career opportunities (15.6 percent). U.S. employees prioritize diversity and inclusion (11.3 percent) over compensation and benefits (10.8 percent), showing that what attracts employees to a job is not as important as ensuring they are well-represented and feel included once hired.
Canada
Next, we look at the workplace factors driving employee satisfaction in Canada. Similar to the U.S, the three main drivers of employee satisfaction in Canada are culture and values (19.2 percent), senior leadership (18.4 percent) and career opportunities (15.4 percent). Canadian employees also prioritize diversity and inclusion (11.7 percent) over compensation and benefits (10.6 percent).
United Kingdom
Next, we look at the workplace factors driving employee satisfaction in the United Kingdom. The three main drivers of employee satisfaction in the United Kingdom are culture and values (19.3 percent), senior leadership (18.3 percent) and career opportunities (15.1 percent). United Kingdom employees prioritize diversity and inclusion (11.6 percent) over compensation and benefits (11.3 percent).
France
Next, we look at the workplace factors driving employee satisfaction in France. The three main drivers of employee satisfaction in France are culture and values (21.3 percent), senior leadership (19.9 percent) and career opportunities (13.1 percent). For employees in France, diversity and inclusion (12.0 percent) is prioritized over Work-life Balance (11.4 percent) and business outlook (10.0 percent). France is also the only country in our study to prioritize compensation and benefits over diversity and inclusion.
Germany
Next, we look at the workplace factors driving employee satisfaction in Germany. Most distinct from the other countries on our list, Germany’s three main drivers of employee satisfaction are senior leadership (20.1 percent), culture and values (19.0 percent), and career opportunities (14.3 percent). For employees in Germany, diversity and inclusion (12.1 percent) is prioritized over compensation and benefits (12.1 percent), work-life balance (11.6 percent) and business outlook (10.8 percent).
Industries Most Impacted by Pandemic
Although the top three workplace factors contributing to overall job satisfaction for employees remain the same at the industry level, there are slight differences in worker satisfaction among industries like retail, restaurants and healthcare, which were particularly impacted by the pandemic. While some industries like tech quickly adjusted to remote-work, Retail and Restaurants, Bars, and Food Services, among other industries, couldn’t adjust as easily and experienced massive layoffs leading to record high unemployment levels. Health workers faced long hours, inflexible schedules and peaks in demand.
The figure below shows the workplace factors that stood out the most for employees in the Retail, Restaurants, Bars, and Food Services, Health Care and Tech industry, and how they compare to the U.S. national average.
We find that in demanding industries that are less equipped to quickly adapt to a remote-work environment, such as Retail, Restaurants, Bars and Food Services and Health, employees value work-life balance more than the national average. This is likely due to inconsistent working hours, which the pandemic has only exacerbated.
In Tech, work-life balance is not nearly as important. With ample job opportunities and areas for growth in the organization, employees are more likely to devote longer hours to compete for a raise or promotion. As for the Retail, Restaurants, Bars and Food Services, and Health Care industry, career opportunities matter less as it is very uncommon for an employee to remain in one role or job function for extended periods. Employees in these industries experience relatively higher turnover rates and a lack of stability that makes keeping top talent difficult. Compensation and benefits are less important but equally prioritized in all of these industries, showing the rare consistency in employee preference across workplace factors.
Where Does Diversity and Inclusion Fit in?
When considering how much employees and potential employees value an organization’s D&I efforts, in five countries in this analysis, D&I performance is valued over compensation and benefits. The figure below shows the likelihood of an employee recommending their employer to a friend in Retail, Restaurants, Bars and Food Services, Health Care and Tech, given their company’s D&I rating. We find that employees across the board are more likely to recommend their job to a friend as the D&I rating for their company increases.
Employees across the U.S. are 26 percent more likely to recommend their job to a friend for every additional star their employer receives in their D&I rating. For employees in Retail, with every additional star their employer receives in their D&I rating, the likelihood of recommending their job to a friend increases by 20 percent (6 percent lower than the national average). For employees in the Restaurants, Bars & Food Services industry, with every additional star their employer receives in their D&I rating, the likelihood of recommending their job to a friend increases by 18 percent (8 percent below the national average). For employees in Health Care, with every additional star their employer receives in their D&I rating, the likelihood of recommending their job to a friend increases by 21 percent (5 percent below the national average). And, for employees in Tech, with every additional star their employer receives in their D&I rating, the likelihood of recommending their job to a friend increases by 22 percent (4 percent below the national average).
The relationship between D&I ratings and the likelihood of recommending a company to a friend is an important indicator for employers cultivating more diverse workplaces, and demonstrates clearly how workplace D&I must be an important discussion point among employers and employees today. Employees at companies with high D&I ratings could be a strong asset and secret weapon in helping the employer bring others on-board who share similar values.
Conclusion
In this analysis, using Glassdoor’s global database of employee reviews, we revisited the topic of which workplace factors matter most to employee satisfaction. We find that throughout the pandemic, despite labor shortages and high employee turnover, the same three workplace factors remain a top priority for employees: culture and values, senior leadership and career opportunities. We also found that Glassdoor’s newest workplace factor, diversity and inclusion, while not a top driver of satisfaction, nevertheless matters more than compensation and benefits for employees across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany.
As the workforce adapts and recovers from the pandemic, employee retention remains a significant challenge for employers. Understanding the importance of identifying what truly matters most to employees can help companies across the globe attract top-talent and remain competitive in this dynamic environment.
