Salesforce, Bain among top 25 UK firms for senior leadership

The saying goes that ‘employees don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad managers’, and recent research from Glassdoor proves this might just be the case.

The Glassdoor Economic Research team found that the quality of senior leadership is one of the main drivers of employee satisfaction in the UK, and ranks above salary, work-life balance and career opportunities – coming second only to culture and values.

Employees in France, the US and Canada also rated senior leadership as critical, but like the UK, second to culture and values, the study found; while for German employees, senior leadership was the leading driver of workplace satisfaction.

This research comes as the Great Resignation rages on, with employees looking to leave a role and company if the conditions do not meet their satisfaction.

What does strong leadership look like in a post-pandemic world?

In analysing the reviews of 370,000 employees, the research team found workers describe strong senior leadership in five keys: supportive, friendly, approached, flexible, and dependable.

While, in reviews of weak leadership, traits such as bullying, micro-managing, rudeness, neglectful, unappreciative, directionless and disconnection were all used.

The pandemic transformed the workplace, forcing senior leaders to redefine how they run their companies and support their people and it is these leaders who are winning with employees today.

“The pandemic tore up the traditional management rules, and it is the leaders who have embraced this change who have seen their companies thrive,” says Lauren Thomas, the Glassdoor Economist who compiled the list. “Inspirational senior leadership is a sign of a united company with an engaged, motivated, and happy workforce. 

Top 25 UK Companies for Senior Leadership

As Glassdoor’s latest list of top UK companies for senior leadership reveals. The employers on this list have all fostered a “culture of support, friendliness and flexibility and stand out for their transparent approach to management”, adds Thomas.

Among the big firms on the top 25 list are Salesforce, Bain & Company, Checkout.com and Barratt Developments. While Bain & Company is the only consulting firm on the list, Salesforce is one of nine tech companies listed, the most of any industry, and includes Awin placed #4, Auto Trader UK #14 and ServiceNow #3, the latter also ranking number one on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work in 2022 earlier this year.

Tech giant Salesforce is the only employer to be recognised on Glassdoor’s top senior leadership rankings for the UK, France and Germany.

The list of 25 companies includes employers across 13 different industries, including utilities (Octopus Energy #10), construction (Barrratt Developments #11), hospitality (Dishoom #19), tech (Awin #4) and healthcare (VetPartners #1).

Headquartered in York, and with several thousand people across 500 sites in the UK, veterinary healthcare provider VetPartners claimed the number one spot.

Among the other top 10 companies:

1.     VetPartners Limited

2.     GTB

3.     ServiceNow

4.     Awin

5.     Taboola

6.     Robert Walters

7.     MongoDB

8.     Randstad Sourceright

9.     Softcat

10.  Octopus Energy