It’s long been a leadership trope that people don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.  The scale of this truism (in tourism and hospitality at least) was underlined by a recent study from the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The researchers trawled through nearly 300,000 reviews left for around 12,000 firms over a 10-year period on Glassdoor to try and understand what ails employees across the tourism sector, and especially what prompts people to leave their job.

It was also able to quantify the impact job satisfaction had on the bottom line of each firm.  Indeed, the authors believe that an increase in satisfaction corresponds to growth in profitability by around 1.3%.

“Skill shortages and high employee turnover are key challenges in the tourism and hospitality sector, and the problem is of high economic significance for firms due to the costs associated with severance, training and replacement. Job satisfaction is a critical factor in attracting and retaining a skilled workforce, but also plays a vital role in the customer experience,” the authors explain.

Valuable information

The researchers believe that the feedback provided by sites like Glassdoor is invaluable to businesses wishing to attract and retain staff.  Indeed, more enlightened firms could set up channels for this kind of feedback to be given internally rather than posted in a pique of anger online.

This kind of psychologically safe environment is something that Harvard’s Amy Edmondson has written extensively about, but it appears it’s a culture that is lacking in the tourism sector.

“These platforms offer unprecedented opportunities to extend our understanding about the factors that increase job satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and employee turnover and attrition,” the authors explain.  “Our results show that satisfied employees cite work environment, culture, leadership, and career opportunities as key things their companies offer, and that these factors reduce employee turnover.”

Interestingly, it appears that male workers are generally happier than their female peers, whilst companies with higher revenue also seemed to have happier employees.  This profitability tended to favor larger companies, who can also offer better compensation and benefits, with career opportunities foremost among them.  Where these large firms lag behind their smaller peers is in terms of their culture, leadership and work-life balance however, which all contribute to lower employee satisfaction levels.

Platforms like Glassdoor gives a telling glimpse into this kind of information, but it’s far less clear whether organizations take the information on board, or merely try to massage their image on such sites instead.  It’s perhaps no surprise that recent research found humility to be so important in leaders, and being able to accept such feedback is a key part of that.  It’s perhaps a quality that’s lacking in the tourism industry.