Caroline North, a market research manager for Seek, has been researching what Australians want from their workplaces for more than a decade. Right now, even as the world experiences monumental change, she believes our psychological motivations behind choosing a job remain much the same.
“Despite the pandemic, when we’re looking for work, we’re still attracted by the same sort of elements,” North says. “Whilst our lives were really disrupted, fundamentally as human beings, what we do and why we do it wasn’t.”
North is the brains behind Seek’s Laws of Attraction, a study that delves into what candidates look for in a role. She previously helmed the research project in 2012 and then again in 2016. With Australia currently in the midst of a great job boom it’s more important than ever for employers to pay attention to the data. Various Covid-related factors have caused an increase in the number of jobs being advertised, and a decrease in the number of Australians actively looking for new roles.
To attract the best staff, you’ve got to understand what they want.
What jobseekers want
North and her team identified 12 key drivers that attract jobseekers to a role. The top factor is, perhaps unsurprisingly, salary and compensation. The second is a good work-life balance and third is the potential for career development.
“We’re talking about these very fundamental needs that we as human beings experience,” North says.
To attract top talent, employers need to know how to speak to those key drivers. With salaries rising, remuneration obviously matters. But there are more ways to acknowledge that than just dangling the biggest carrot.
“The data we collected has helped people understand, OK, I need to talk about salary and compensation,” North says. “But it’s not just about getting more money – it’s actually about understanding what the salary is i.e.. are there other ways of packaging up perks and benefits such as paid parental leave? Is there a profit share? There are lots of different things that you can say other than ‘we offer more money’.”
When it comes to work-life balance, the biggest change Seek saw in this year’s data was around remote work.
“People have gone from thinking that working from home is a nice-to-have to now believing it’s a must-have,” North says. That means if you’re hiring in an office-based industry, you’ll want to talk up the flexibility you can offer staff.
Know your industry
Each industry has its own unique drivers of attraction. While every candidate cares about remuneration, here are some other, industry-specific factors that can attract a jobseeker to a role.
Trades and services
In trades and services, one of the industries experiencing the biggest boom in 2022, it’s vital for employers to highlight the work-life balance they can offer staff. This is the number one driver for jobseekers in the industry, North says. Driven by women in the industry, nearly one in five workers consider the ability to work part-time ‘mandatory’.
Paid overtime is also important to jobseekers in the trades and services industry. And mentioning your business’s profitability or the long-term contracts you have locked in will give jobseekers confidence around salary and payment, North says.
Flexible working hours, additional leave and time in lieu are great perks for employers to highlight when seeking staff. Even in a standard Monday to Friday business, that could mean offering the option for staff to start early and finish late, or work a four-day week or a nine-day fortnight.
“There are so many tactical ways behind it, but communicating the opportunity for flexibility, or additional leave or time in lieu will definitely help,” North says.
Hospitality and tourism
Work-life balance is also crucial in hospitality and tourism, another industry experiencing a job boom in 2022. That’s because while some candidates may see your position as a career role, others are likely using it as a stepping stone to elsewhere.
“If you are aware or have a sense that this role is seeing them through a period of their life while they are still studying, for example, talk to the fact that there’s flexibility, which is really important,” North says.
Healthcare and medical
In the healthcare and medical industry, meanwhile, factors such as being able to take additional leave, time in lieu, the ability to buy leave, flexible working hours and chance to go part-time are all highly valued by jobseekers, North says.
Little things matter too. “Talking about parking is important – especially if people are in shift work, and perhaps working at different hours of the day or having to leave work at unusual hours, then being able to talk to the ease of driving and ease of parking can help,” North says.
Understand who you’re trying to hire
Personal factors will affect what an individual wants from their job.
“It’s not just industry that matters – where someone is in the seniority level of the organisation also determines drive and what’s important to them,” North says. “And then you’ve also got things like contract type, generation, or gender, which all play into it. Not everyone who wants a job in trades and services, for example, is going to want the same thing.”
To better understand how you can attract the sort of candidates you want, North recommends having a look around the Laws of Attraction portal to really drill down and identify the factors that matter to candidates in your industry.
Ultimately, the challenge for employers right now is communicating what assets your workplace can offer jobseekers.
“To attract the best candidates, you’ve got to speak about what you’re going to do for them – not the other way around,” North says. “Why can your job opportunity make a difference to them? What is it about your job that is actually going to connect with their lives?
“And once you have worked out what you need to focus on, you can use this information to support the process of interviewing and onboarding successful candidates – making sure you are consistently delivering the key messages as well as delivering on the promise.”
Explore Seek’s Laws of Attraction portal and find out what jobseekers are looking for.
