Morgan McKinley, the global professional recruitment firm, has launched its 2022 Salary Guide. As part of the guide, research was conducted to find out how organisations are trying to combat the Great Resignation and whether there are mismatches in expectations between employees and employers in the current hiring climate.

The ‘Global Hiring Realities’ survey of 4,134 professionals and key hiring decision makers from 62 companies across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Japan and Mainland China revealed:

Attraction and Retention

• 84% of UK professionals are considering a career move in the next 6-12 months

• 42% of UK professionals don’t know what their employer is doing to try and retain them

• 45% of global employers outline ‘increased salaries/compensation’ as their most effective form of talent attraction

Hiring Process Length

• 50% of UK professionals have declined a job offer because the hiring process was too long

• 65% of global employers have lost their preferred candidate due to a lengthy hiring process

Flexible Working

• 71% of UK professionals would consider leaving an organisation if they didn’t provide their preferred flexible working options

• 90% of global employers have changed their policies on flexible working compared to pre-pandemic

David Leithead, Chief Operations Officer of Morgan McKinley UK, commented:

“There are definite signs of upward pressure on salaries caused by competition. As yet, the expected impact of hybrid working in reducing salaries (for non-commuters) has not materialised, which is a further sign of it being a jobseeker’s market.”

“Across the board of professional job categories, technical skills are in demand as companies face more market, organisational, and regulatory complexity. Overall the pandemic has accentuated the value of the technical specialist and there is a sense of the continued devaluation of the generalist. The high demand isn’t matched with the availability of skills, so organisations need to plan ahead to know how and when they can compromise, and when they need to activate a plan B to look at alternative solutions.”

“A dangerous factor in the Great Resignation is that it fuels itself. Change breeds change; attrition in one organisation causes it to hire from another. The biggest thing fuelling this is the breaking of bonds between employers and their employees that happens when the in-person, in-office interactions and communications are at a low ebb. Some employers don’t like to admit it, but video interactions are simply not the same from a relationship and retention point of view.”

“The question is whether it will slow down or whether the pandemic has caused a more seismic shift, bringing the concept of gig employment firmly into the white collar professional world.”

“Hirers need to try to limit the number of stages in an interview process and be up-front and clear from the beginning about what the process will involve and how long it will take. When a process is vague, the timetable drifts, or a hiring organisation is not transparent about other applicants (particularly internal) being in play, jobseekers will often quickly lose engagement and interest.”