In over 20 years as a recruiter, I\u2019ve only twice persuaded a candidate to move for less money. One was a KPMG partner who took a role with a not-for-profit and the other was a successful investment banker who wanted to move back to his native South Africa. But if I had a dollar for every time I\u2019ve heard a candidate say something along the lines of \u201cof course, money\u2019s not the most important thing\u201d, I\u2019d probably have retired from recruitment many years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, it rather seems as though money is the most important thing. This paradox is worth investigating for two reasons. Firstly, much of the world is suffering a cost-of-living crisis. Secondly, there is an opinion abroad that the various lockdowns have endowed us all with a more enlightened view of life and work. According to this narrative, we now care less about money and more about such things as culture, inclusivity and corporate purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But how true is this paradigm? Can hiring managers really attract top talent without offering top pay? And if so, what specifically are candidates looking for instead? We attempted to answer these questions by asking 200 candidates a simple question: If you were offered a new role, what would be your most important consideration \u2013 the pay, the brand, the role or the culture? The results, we think, make for interesting reading. Here are our top five takeaways<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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1.<\/mark><\/strong> Money is most likely to be a candidate\u2019s top priority, but workers are still three times as likely to prioritize something other than money.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A cynic might interpret the graphic above as proof positive that the world\u2019s workers are still primarily motivated by cold, hard cash. And it\u2019s true, \u2018money\u2019 was selected by our source pool more times than any other answer. But two things are worth pointing out. Firstly, the results are pretty damn close. Secondly, if we flip the results on their head, we observe that 69% of respondents said something other than money. That means any employer looking to attract top talent merely by paying top whack, could be in for a nasty surprise. Nearly three quarters of their candidate pool is likely to be more interested in . . . well, what exactly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is where the results get really interesting. The fact is, there is no runaway winner (or distant loser) among the four rival options \u2013 brand, pay, culture, role. That places recruiters in a quandary because they are unable to predict candidate sentiment with any degree of reliability. Pick a job applicant at random and there is a roughly even chance that he\/she will primarily motivated by any one of those four key factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The conclusion is simple: in crafting an employee proposition, hiring managers must now give equal weight to every aspect of a role. Yes, it needs to pay well, but it also has to be a genuinely challenging opportunity with nice friendly colleagues at a strong, culturally progressive brand. Easy, right?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
2.<\/mark><\/strong> Although younger workers are the ones driving workplace evolution, they are actually far more likely to be motivated by money; meanwhile older workers place more value upon the role itself.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Social change is often created by the young. In the last half century or so, youth movements have highlighted such important issues as racial justice, gender equality and concern for the environment. In the corporate world, it is the junior ranks who have most often agitated for a more caring and inclusive workplace. But now they\u2019ve got it, they don\u2019t seem to want it very much. Or rather, they want other things slightly more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Among workers with fewer than five years\u2019 experience, just 7% said culture was their most important consideration when assessing a new job. In contrast, 48% opted for money. Admittedly, the statistics shift slightly when we look at workers with between five- and ten-years\u2019 experience but even among this cohort money is comfortably the most popular answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are we to make of this? Surely it can\u2019t be the case that every young person who speaks up about culture and purpose is merely virtue signaling. No, a more plausible narrative is as follows: Our least experienced cohort (those with five years\u2019 experience or less) will likely be in their first or second job. They may have college debts and they\u2019re almost certainly paying high rents. Naturally, money is important to them. In addition, being at the start of their career, they are likely to view their current job as merely a steppingstone to better things. As a result, workplace culture is less of a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By contrast, older workers are likely to be homeowners, possibly with substantial savings and relatively affordable mortgage repayments. So while money will be important to them (they\u2019re also likely to have kids and college fees), it won\u2019t be as urgent an issue as it is to a debt-ridden graduate. Also, having long since passed the job-hopping phase of their career, older workers are more likely to view their current role as a longterm thing. Ergo, they value it more highly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3.<\/mark><\/strong> Employer efforts around EVP may be misconceived if they\u2019re simply aimed at attracting talent: culture is the top priority of less than a fifth of our source pool.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Out Talent Intelligence practice has worked on dozens of perception analysis studies, typically for clients who want to find out how their EVP lands with a particular candidate pool. At the outset of every project, we ask the same question. \u2018Why do you want to know this?\u2019 Often, it transpires that the client believes they will attract more and better candidates if their brand is associated with certain cultural values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our experience is that this more often works in reverse. That is, a company with a toxic culture will certainly fail to attract and retain top-level talent. But a company with a strong culture will not be noticeably more successful in hiring people than any of its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The results of our survey support this observation. Just 18% of the source pool said culture would be their primary concern when considering a new job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, it\u2019s important not to misinterpret that statistic. It does not mean that 82% of workers don\u2019t care about culture. It just means it\u2019s not their first priority. In seeking to explain this further, we can draw again upon multiple perception analysis studies. One of the findings that emerges repeatedly from such projects is that most people believe they already enjoy their working environment. They may not be happy about every aspect of their job, but they typically think their employer is fair-minded, inclusive and culturally progressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In other words, a good corporate culture is now considered a given, just like central heating. You wouldn\u2019t expect to attract more candidates because your office has double glazing and adjustable thermostats; nor should you imagine your hiring figures will significantly increase because you offer a gender-diverse workforce or an active network of in-work support groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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4.<\/mark><\/strong> Women are far more likely than men to be motivated by workplace culture.<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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