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Global job seeking trends

07/06/2022 2022/06

The job situation in Europe

The job situation in the European Union has changed significantly as a result of the corona pandemic. The unemployment rate in Germany is 2.9% in March 2022, putting Germany in second place in the European Union behind the Czech Republic. The last two places are occupied by Spain and Greece. The pandemic had previously caused a lot of tension, but the consequences were more positive than expected. The creation of 5.2 million jobs in 2021 was decisive. This enabled almost 3.5 million more people to find work. What is very positive news for employees means an economic standstill for companies because companies are already having to turn down orders due to a lack of skilled workers. As a consequence, applicants have the best chance of gaining a foothold in companies, even as career changers. 

For companies, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill vacancies. The labor market has evolved from an employer's market to an employee's market, so that in the future companies will have to apply to potential candidates and position themselves as attractive employers. After all, there is plenty of choice on the labor market.

how can businesses win over the best candidate

In contrast to this is the emerging digitalization, due to which job profiles will change, and numerous jobs will be eliminated. So, the world of work is changing, and with it the way people seek employment. Therefore, how do applicants find the right job for them? How willing are applicants to change jobs today? And how flexible are they when it comes to the location of the job? We get to the bottom of these questions.

Despite job-satisfaction, people in employment are willing to switch

Although most employees are satisfied in their jobs, they remain open to attractive job offers. According to studies, 61% of workers would change jobs if they were offered a better salary or benefits, or if there were better career opportunities. 56% would change their employer if the new job offered more security, and 54% would change for a more pleasant work atmosphere. Lastly, 51% would change jobs for a better work-life balance. According to the survey, an employee's emotional attachment to the company has also changed over time. Many employees simply no longer commit themselves for many years or even decades, but take advantage of opportunities to change, seize new opportunities and gain experience. Not only are many employees willing to change companies. Many of them would also move to another country to work. In the aviation industry, for example, France offers many attractive career opportunities. According to an Indeed survey, the reasons for moving to another country are both professional and personal. 20.8% of respondents said they emigrated for personal reasons. Almost as many respondents left their home country for an exceptional job offer.

ARTS, for example, enables its employees to work on a wide variety of projects across national borders within the company network - even on a temporary basis. In addition, employees can also work 100% remotely and are therefore not tied to a specific location. For most of the respondents, the reasons for leaving the country were of a professional nature. Interestingly, those who stayed in their home country stated that they did not want to move for private and family reasons.

Employees’ emotional attachment – a requirement for high performance

Whether employees only change jobs or change jobs and countries, the question of why remains. Why do some companies lack employee loyalty? Why do employees change jobs? Apart from the economic reasons why employees are laid off, the reasons for a voluntary change are also of interest. Almost 75% of the employees surveyed said they changed jobs because of their direct supervisor. Lack of appreciation, lack of feedback and not being involved in decisions are the main reasons given. This often leads to internal resignations among employees. These changes will increase in the future due to the generational shift. Generation Z has different demands than previous generations and is not shy about demanding them. This will lead to new movements in the world of work.

While companies are now more frequently trying to optimize the additional benefits for employees, expand them and adapt them more specifically to their employees, employees often leave their employers because of the behavior of their superiors. This means that in order to retain employees for a longer period of time, this is the place to start. In many cases, supervisors are hired because of their outstanding professional competence, but not because of their outstanding leadership skills. Basic soft skills such as the ability to deal with conflict, the willingness to communicate and the ability to take criticism are indispensable. If these factors were improved and fewer employees quit as a result, the German economy could save up to 105 billion euros a year. This is because motivation, productivity and quality fall as a result of internal resignations. Problems are not addressed, and suggestions for improvement are not made. Companies should therefore do everything in their power to ensure that their employees are satisfied and motivated. A change in leadership must take place. This is often referred to as the change from managers to leaders. A manager delegates and supervises, while a leader motivates his employees, helps them to develop and discover their full potential. These are the expectations of employees in the future, because they are well aware of how much of their lives they spend working. Therefore, they are also correspondingly critical when it comes to their employers. 

Motivated, satisfied employees offer the highest levels of productivity

What candidates value in an employer

Many companies point out the benefits for their employees and try to attract applicants in this way. Companies have come up with quite a few ideas in this regard recently. When choosing a new employer, it is particularly important for applicants to be able to combine their professional and private lives, to have flexible working hours, and to be able to work from home. According to surveys, 25% of applicants still consider a company's reputation to be particularly significant. However, a large proportion of potential candidates attach particular importance to facts, such as salary, place of work and the requirements placed on the applicant. The high acceptance of employer rating portals can be derived from this. Hardly any applicant does not look at portals such as Glasdoor or Kununu before submitting his or her application to check the image of possible new employers and to learn something about corporate culture and benefits.

How do you market your benefits?

There are several ways to do this. On the one hand, they can be mentioned directly in the job ad. In order to achieve the highest possible success and reach there, multiposting is worthwhile. With multiposting, your job ad is displayed on several platforms which at the same time are fitting to your target group. In addition to including these benefits in the advertisement, they can also be listed again on the website. This way, potential candidates can view them independently of current job advertisements. Finally, these can also be mentioned in the job interview. However, you run the risk that fewer people will apply for your jobs due to the lack of visibility of these benefits. The best way is a combination of all these possibilities to market the benefits as broadly as possible. 

Sources: Statista | DESTATIS | careerbuilder.com | FAZ | EC | Xing | zeit.de

About the Author
Milana Schreiber
Teamlead HRaaS & HR Consulting

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