Companies in Greater London and London city were scored by employees as the highest in the UK for job satisfaction, according to research by Glassdoor.
Greater London scored a job satisfaction score of 3.89 out of 5.
Sheffield performed the worst, with an overall job satisfaction of 3.75.
However, whilst Greater London scored the highest job satisfaction score, London city only ranked highest for career opportunities (3.64) and positive business outlook (68%).
Employees in London are some of the most satisfied in the country. Workers rated companies across the Greater London region with the UK’s highest scores for 7 of the 8 Glassdoor workplace factors – and over two-thirds of employees (67%) are positive about the region’s business outlook.
Manchester and Bristol were shown to score the highest rating for senior leadership. Brighton also scored highest for diversity & inclusion and work-life balance.
What values in the workplace are employees most concerned about?
‘Mental health’ featured heavily in the pros section of reviews by employees from the North West, Scotland, South West and Yorkshire & Humber regions and individually in Manchester and Bristol
This positive sentiment suggests that companies in these areas are prioritising wellbeing and employees are feeling the benefits of this in the workplace.
‘Hybrid’ and ‘flexi’ emerged as a keyword in the pros section in employee reviews across the West Midlands, Wales, Northern Ireland and the North East, and specifically in the cities of Liverpool and Bristol.
This implies that companies in these areas are providing flexible working conditions enjoyed by workers.
While ‘bureaucracy’, ‘political’ and ‘transparent’ were words unique to Greater London, Brighton was the only city or region to include ‘creative’, ‘favouritism’ was frequently used in the West Midlands, ‘expensive’ in Oxford and for workers in Wales, it was ‘annual leave’.
What does this mean for HR?
With job vacancies high and the skills shortage rife, attracting and training local talent is set to remain a key focus of employers this year.
Understanding what company values prospective employees seek will therefore be essential. Promoting certain key values which are in line with employee wellbeing will be an effective staff recruitment and retainment strategy.
It’s clear that the major concerns are not all focused around the salary. Flexible working, attention on employee wellbeing, and diversity & inclusion all feature amongst the important values employees hold when analysing job satisfaction.
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
