Talent Demand Spurs Recruiting and Retention Focus on Employee Job Criteria

According to the recently released annual MetLife Employee Benefits Trend Study, recruiting and retention have emerged as top concerns for employers in 2006 with nearly

one-quarter (22%) of all employees changing jobs over the past eighteen months and

74% of businesses expecting competition for talent to escalate over the next 18 months.

In this increasingly competitive job market, employees report that their top consideration when deciding whether to join and/or remain with an employer is "the quality of coworker and/or customer relationships," cited by 58% of employees overall and 62% of women.

Young Baby Boomers age 41-50 (61%) and pre-retirees age 61-69 (67%) are most likely to cite relationships as a deciding factor.

Among all age groups, the opportunity for work/life balance was cited as the second most important recruitment/retention criterion.

More than half (56%) of today's employees rate work/life balance as a key job selection criterion, with a roughly equal percentage of men (56%) and women (58%) listing "balance" as critical.

Rounding out the top three criteria for recruitment/retention is

"working for an organization whose purpose/mission I agree with,"

cited by more than half (54%) of the employees surveyed.

At a time when employees are looking to create greater balance between the physical demands of work and life, many are also seeking an inner sense of balance between personal ideals and employer mission.

The survey found that traditional job selection criteria including "the opportunity for financial growth and advancement" (cited by 52% of employees), and "the opportunity for skill building and professional growth" (cited by 51% of employees) ranked as least important by the 2005-06 survey respondents.

This shift in what employees value and seek in a job puts demands on employers to create a work environment that reflects their employees' life-stage needs and values.

To retain top talent in today's competitive job market, employers need to understand what motivates and inspires loyalty among experienced high performers. The key to the executive washroom and other perks of yesteryear just don't cut it today. The opportunity to work for a company that fosters strong workplace relationships and inspires a sense of balance and/or purpose attracts top talent today.