What Do Job Candidates Want?

The Execu|Search Group has released its 2016 Hiring Outlook: Strategies for Adapting to a Candidate-Driven Market.
The report provides insights into how companies can attract and retain talent in today’s highly competitive job market and discusses the massive impact of Millennials on how companies hire and manage their employees.
“As the job market continues to improve, we are hearing from clients that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to both find and retain high-quality employees,” says Edward Fleischman, Chairman and CEO of The Execu|Search Group.
“Compounding the problem, we’re seeing a disconnect between what employees want in a job and what employers believe they want.”
The report’s findings were taken from a survey of 226 employers/hiring decision-makers from companies across a number of sectors such as financial services, healthcare, and nonprofit.
In addition to the employer survey, the report also incorporates findings from a survey of 591 job seekers and working professionals, shedding light on what is valued by today’s professionals both within a job and when job-searching.

• The demand for talent is high: 66% of employers surveyed plan to hire additional staff in 2016.
• There is a disconnect between what employers think job-seekers are looking for and what they really want: Employers ranked salary and benefits higher than advancement opportunities when they were asked what they thought was important to prospective employees, but 51% of employees said that the opportunity for professional development was their number-one priority.
• There are more options for job-seekers, which means more competition for employers: 56% of employees said they interviewed for two or more roles during the interview process for their current position.
• Job hopping is real: 50% of survey respondents reported that they expected to have 6-plus employers over the course of their career.
• Companies are increasingly turning to temporary staff to meet talent demands: 27% of hiring managers surveyed plan to increase hiring of temporary, freelance, consulting, or contract employees in 2016.