Workers pick work-life balance over better pay: Gartner

Employees would forego a job with a 10 percent pay rise to choose a job with a better work-life balance according to a new Gartner survey.

A recent Gartner survey, noted 53 percent reported they would forego 10 percent higher pay for either a more interesting career path or more opportunities to learn new skills.

Another consideration for candidates is flexibility where 86 percent of candidates who can work remotely now, whether hybrid or fully remote, prefer to work remotely more than 50 percent of the time.

Nearly half said they would forego 10 percent higher pay for flexibility in where they work, according to the Gartner survey.

Jamie Kohn, director in the Gartner HR practice said though candidates may prioritise certain aspects of work over pay, companies should still be transparent about pay in job postings.

He said, “Nearly 50 percent of candidates stated they have decided not to apply to a role in the past 12 months because the job description did not include the salary.”

To recruit and retain talent in today’s job market and recruiting environment, Gartner noted that organisations must be responsive to candidate needs and wants, while also being transparent about what they are able to offer early in the hiring process.

Nearly 60 percent of candidates who recently accepted a job offer reported that they would make the same choice, the survey said.

Gartner revealed that candidates who reported they would repeat an offer decision reached a peak of 83 percent in 2021, after increasing steadily in 2019 (60 percent) and 2020 (70 percent), before decreasing dramatically this year.

The same survey found that nearly half of surveyed candidates said they are still open to other offers, while 28 percent said if they had to make the decision again, they would stay at their previous employer.

“Not only are candidates keeping their options open, but they are more likely to back out of offers after accepting,” Kohn said.

“Our June survey of over 3,600 candidates found that 44 percent of respondents had backed out after accepting an offer, compared to 36 percent in 2019.”

Reason for job changes

One-quarter reported their reason for seeking a new role was feeling unappreciated in their current job.

Candidates also said they started exploring new job opportunities due to believing they could command better compensation elsewhere (25 percent) and feeling burned out in their current role (25 percent).

“Job changes appear to be motivated more by negative experiences with the current job than by the perception of opportunity elsewhere,” said Kohn.

However, once candidates start looking elsewhere, they have high expectations. Of respondent who said they have backed out after accepting an offer, 46 percent said they did so because they received a better offer.

“Competition for talent remains fierce with candidates still coming to the table with multiple offers –one in three candidates have turned down multiple offers during their recent job search,” Kohn ended.