It’s no secret that the new year, ‘fresh start’ effect is a catalyst for self-reflection and personal resolutions, but what if we told you a similar phenomenon is happening in the job market?
From “The Great Resignation” to “quiet quitting”, the priorities of employees and job seekers have undeniably changed since the start of the pandemic in 2020, with a heightened interest in work-life balance and more competitive benefits. But with the added complexity of a cost of living crisis, employers are facing even more pressure when attracting and retaining talent.
With economic uncertainty comes a bigger concern for financial stability, with almost three in four people in the UK worried about their financial situation. For instance, many employees will be expecting salaries to match up to inflation, as well as increased transparency and fairness in remuneration.
According to Sarah Marrs, Director of Qualtrics “Pay has always been a key hygiene factor for employees, and, unsurprisingly, we’re seeing them place even more importance on it this year. Businesses will need to find ways to address this importance, particularly for their high performers. With constrained budgets (…) getting really clear about the fairness of pay and performance evaluation will be beneficial”.
This economic instability also comes with a recession-fuelled hesitancy to change jobs, which could temporarily play in favour of employers – but only as long as they make active efforts towards developing and offering a solid benefits package.
Despite remuneration remaining the first detail people will look for in a job advert, it’s important to remember that salaries and bonuses are not the only ways to attract or retain talent. Indeed, the days of a bare-minimum-25-day-leave-and-3%-pension-contribution deal are over.
If there is one thing we’ve witnessed when speaking with candidates in the past couple of years, it’s the higher turnover and general staff disengagement linked to poor work-life balance that concerns them. Even if you’re scaling down your hiring plans or shrinking your recruitment budget ahead of a potential recession, we cannot emphasise enough the importance of a supportive benefit package, including things such as:
While we’ve considered the above benefits to be employer “green flags”, it’s worth mentioning that some others might now be considered obsolete from a candidate perspective. Some of these “check the box” benefits may include:
If you’re unsure about where your recruitment strategy is heading in 2023, make sure to kickstart the year by speaking to one of our specialists at Sitka Recruitment. Simply email us at info@sitka.wales, call us at 029 2048 4520 or get in touch with us by clicking the button below.
The experience of working with Sitka was really enjoyable. It was like talking to a friend who knew all the answers to my future career.
Sitka wanted to know about the organisation, our culture, our plans and aspirations. This meant they could be really confident talking about us and I’d like to think they were proud to be working on our behalf.
My recruitment experience with Sitka has been brilliant. I was dealing with Karen who is so friendly and attentive. She really listened to what it was I was looking for and put me forward for a role I am now in and love.
I felt like they truly cared and weren’t just trying to fill vacancies as quick as possible. Other agencies kept suggesting roles I had already said I wasn’t interested in. This wasn’t the case here, and they really wanted to find the right person.
I was thrilled when I was offered my new job, which I felt was down to Sitka’s support and proactivity. Karen kept in contact and made sure I was happy in my new role. This personal and professional service is second to none. I would highly recommend!
Sitka was honest all the way through and went above and beyond to make me feel prepared and ready for the interview. Everything went really smoothly and I had regular communication from Ita who made sure I knew everything I needed to along the way. I felt equally as important to the agency as the client and knew I could trust Sitka to represent me as a candidate.
I just want to say a big thank you to Ita for believing in me and being so supportive from the first LinkedIn message until I started my first week!
In a difficult market, Sitka were able to introduce us to several candidates who were suitable for our vacancies. Karen was so passionate about making sure both Drive and their prospective candidates got a great service and I knew she’d do an excellent job when future roles came up.