Employee welfare and job satisfaction in the Sri Lankan hotel industry

The study investigated the impact of welfare facilities provided by the Sri Lankan hotels, on employee job satisfaction. Mixed methods research approach consisting of a questionnaire survey and a series of interviews were used in the study. The questionnaire was distributed among 120 non-executive employees working in six five-star hotels located in Colombo City. The response rate was 66%. The collected quantitative data were analysed using Relative Importance Index, Correlation Coefficient, and t-test, while the collected qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. The study findings are an eye-opener to the Sri Lankan hotel industry because they reveal that only 47.5% of the non-executive employees of the industry were satisfied with the welfare facilities provided to them. The study proposed several strategies to uplift the standard of the employee welfare facilities provided in the hotel industry. The study contributes to policy, theory and practice by presenting the current level of employee job satisfaction and the strategies that will uplift the satisfaction level.