Money no longer top priority
After a decade in pole position, salary is no longer the top priority for job seekers, according to a survey by recruitment agency Randstad.
Work-life balance is the top priority for people when considering a job, followed by salary and benefits than job security.
The latest Randstad Employer Brand Research is based on a survey of more than 4000 people, conducted by Kantar.
Randstad country manager Katherine Swan said Covid-19 had had a significant impact on what people were looking for in a new position.
Work-life balance was different for each person but at its core, it was about flexibility that allowed people to live their lives as well do the work, she said.
While work-life balance had become increasingly important for job seekers, they were looking for that on top of competitive salaries.
In a talent-short market, companies needed to be clear about how they were attracting, and retaining, staff, Swan said.
According to the survey, 45 per cent of white-collar workers considered it important for a potential employer to provide them with the possibility to work from home, while 66 per cent of blue-collar workers consider job security an important driver.
Another trend following the pandemic was the growth in loyalty towards employers.
According to the survey responses, 66 per cent of respondents felt more loyal based on the way employers supported them during the pandemic and the number of those looking to change jobs, or who had done so over the past year, has also dropped.
Swan said the survey findings told a nuanced story about how employers had stepped up and supported workers since the pandemic began.
‘‘Being able to work remotely, keeping people employed and ensuring good health practices appear to have increased loyalty,’’ she said.
Over the past year 12 per cent changed employers and 13 per cent changed in the second half of last year with those aged 18 to 24 more likely to have switched (21 per cent).
‘‘If someone’s employment situation has been impacted in some way due to Covid-19, there’s a slightly higher intention to change jobs [28 per cent] than those who just intend to change employers for general reasons [20 per cent],’’ Swan said.
The survey also found a general feeling of job stability among workers, with 54 per cent not worried about losing their job this year.
Of those worried, more were men than women (22 per cent versus 18 per cent), even though men were more likely to have continued working as normal during the pandemic.
Government agencies took out four of the top 10 places people wanted to work, with Customs in the No 1 spot followed by the Department of Conservation and the Ministry of Business,
Work-life balance is the top priority for people when considering a job.
Innovation and Employment. The Ministry of Health was in seventh spot.
Seek, Trade Me and job boards were still the biggest goto-source for jobs advertised online, but Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Snapchat were rapidly rising, according to the survey.
More than double the number of candidates searched Instagram for jobs over the past year compared to the year before, while Twitter jumped from 12 per cent to 29 per cent for the same period. Facebook had an increase of 3 per cent but Snapchat more than doubled from 12 per cent to 27 per cent.