We asked our candidate network a simple question: What do you want to change in 2022?
We wanted to understand what candidates have in mind for 2022 because we’re witnessing significant departures from companies and some difficulty in attracting new talent. Before launching recruitment processes, there may be important groundwork to be done within your existing teams.
Here are the 4 major trends that emerged from our survey.
1. Salary (32%)
Top of the list is salary. Unsurprisingly, our respondents want to see a salary increase in 2022. However, we observed a significant projected salary increase at the end of 2021 (as a reminder, estimated at over 10% for talent staying with the same company according to Les Echos Start). Yet for some, there’s still ground to cover. We mustn’t forget that with inflation, everything becomes more expensive—from everyday shopping to home purchases, prices have risen. Candidates need reassurance through a salary that aligns with their life goals and provides better work-life balance.
Advice:
As an employer, if you haven’t already, you should establish salary grids that correlate with current market rates, which will help you identify employees who feel undervalued.
Don’t wait for your employees to directly ask for a raise—anticipate their needs! These conversations will be smoother and your team will feel heard.
2. Place of Residence (29%)
Ranking second, place of residence is a change many candidates want to prioritize. We’ve discussed this before—following the first lockdown, many city dwellers decided to seek fresh air to combine quality of life with professional fulfillment. Since this lifestyle change often requires either negotiating remote work or finding another job in the provinces, some haven’t completed their move immediately. This is why this topic remains relevant in 2022. The health crisis has transformed the workplace, so we must adapt as best as we can.
Advice:
To retain your talent while easing their frustration about wanting to relocate, establish a remote work policy with clear objectives. This will allow you as an employer to set boundaries around remote work and deliverables. It will also enable your employees to pursue their relocation plans or simply create a schedule that balances their commitments, desires, and goals!
Where possible, tailor remote work opportunities based on different employee groups. This is a difficult balance for companies to find since organizational frameworks are often set at the collective level, creating dissatisfaction for some employees. The ideal is to move toward customized arrangements, particularly for hard-to-fill positions. Refusing to adapt risks losing them to other opportunities.
3. The Company (24%)
Some candidates naturally want to change companies. This can be explained by the reasons mentioned above: a move or salary-related motivation. But not exclusively… Other reasons may involve career advancement, different working conditions, curiosity about another sector, etc. The list can be long.
We’re hearing a lot about the “Great Resignation,” a phenomenon observed in the United States. There are many reasons: a desire for change, better alignment between personal values and those of the employer, or simply a shift in professional horizons post-pandemic.
In any case, a departure stems from either a desired change in professional or personal life, or from dissatisfaction that pushes an employee to leave their employer.
Advice:
To prevent departures caused by misalignment between employee and company vision, you must establish dialogue and build trust. To achieve this, you can take several internal actions:
- Implement a feedback culture. Now that remote work is established, it’s important to create new touchpoints with your employees to maintain social connection.
- Conduct surveys within your teams and analyze the results. These insights will enable you to make necessary changes that benefit all employees (work organization, CSR policy, etc.).
- Highlight and practice your company values. It’s important that all employees experience a genuine employee experience aligned with your company’s values.
4. Career Change (16%)
In fourth place, we find career change. Some of our candidates want to start a professional transition if they haven’t already. The health crisis prompted many people to reflect, and the reasons behind this trend are varied: seeking meaning, discovering passion, lifestyle change… Work-life balance has never been more important. This is why many people want to better align their professional and personal lives by changing careers—with different hours than office work, an inspiring environment, new responsibilities and skills. It’s no longer unusual today to see a management consultant become a butcher or an art director become a yoga instructor.
Advice:
When an employee tells you they want to change careers and lifestyle, their decision is usually well thought out and nearly impossible to reverse. The best you can do is help them through the transition. For both your employee and your employer brand, it’s important to allow the change to happen and help the employee validate their new professional project. You might even propose a few months of internship in their area of interest to ensure this is really the change they want. Or offer coaching to help them understand the impact on their life (different hours, schedule incompatible with personal commitments, different salary, etc.). This way, you ensure they choose the right path, and if not, you’ll be pleased to keep them on your team—and they likely will be too.
Companies can barely control all these changes. It’s easy to influence frustrating factors for employees, like salary for example. When it comes to a radical life change, employers aren’t always positioned to impact an employee’s decision.
In any case, it’s important to be flexible, create social connection, maintain dialogue, and listen constantly. These will only be assets in retaining your teams and attracting new talent.