Corporate employers would be wise to offer interesting work, regular recognition and rewards, and clear advancement opportunities to recruit top talent because job seekers value traditional benefits and personal growth over increasingly common corporate citizenship and diversity programs.
That’s according to the findings of a global recruitment survey released by Accenture, which polled more than 4,100 job seekers in 21 countries in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region to identify the most-valued career goals of both entry-level and experienced job seekers.
The findings indicate that challenging and interesting work is the most important characteristic that job seekers look for in prospective employers, selected by 60% of all respondents.
The potential for recognition and reward for their accomplishments was a close second, selected by 58% of respondents.
Rounding out the top five characteristics of greatest interest to job seekers were opportunities for fast career growth (44%); indications that the employer is well-established and is likely to have long-term prosperity (42%); and indications that a company has a particular focus on its people (42%). ?
“We found that what is considered important to potential recruits was remarkably consistent across geographies,” says John Campagnino, Accenture’s global director of recruitment.
“Also notable was the fact that while we know from our own employees that corporate social responsibility and diversity are important employer characteristics — things our employees demand and place high value in — the research also validated what many of us intuitively know: namely, that more tangible benefits such as rewards and recognition are most important from an external recruit’s perspective.”