Dive Brief:
- Economic anxiety is causing many workers to stay in their current jobs, despite dissatisfaction, according to Monster's State of the Candidate survey, released Jan. 21. While 89% of respondents said they feel secure in their job, 35% said they "believe their job would be at stake if the U.S. were to experience a recession."
- Monster found that salary remains the chief motivator for making a job change, followed by time off and vacation, flexible work schedules, retirement benefits and workplace benefits and perks, according to survey results emailed to HR Dive.
- Twenty percent of respondents also said they were willing to exaggerate their credentials on resumes and in cover letters to land a job. Double that amount said they were willing to take a second job to make up for a low salary, a finding that was especially true among minorities.
Dive Insight:
Retaining millennials will require a high base pay and strong leadership, according to a 2019 Mercer study. In fact, the higher the base pay, the more likely millennials will remain on board, the study showed. Millennials were more likely to stay when they report to a highly rated manager, or a female boss, said Mercer. Also, they were shown to take their own professional development more seriously than their performance reviews, although they were willing to leverage reviews and promotions to advance their careers, the report found.
With millennials making up the bulk of the labor force, it likely pays for employers to understand what matters most when recruiting, retaining and engaging this generation of workers.
Monster also researched candidates' comfort level negotiating salaries, finding an upward turn from a mid-2019 survey in which 67% of respondents said they were unable to negotiate their pay. Women, in particular, said they struggle to negotiate, but employers are increasingly conducting pay audits to watch for gender-based pay gaps. Tech is working to solve this puzzle, too: A new salary negotiating service from Ascend, for example, aims to give women in tech the courage and skills needed to work out a satisfactory level of pay.