Professional bragging rights were once the preserve of top earners. Those with massive salaries, huge bonuses, and in some cases, even bigger egos. Money equals success – technology has shifted that long held view. Today flexible working, in terms of hours, location and role, has become an embraced reality and chief workplace priority. Technology has blurred the lines between work and life. The new “digitally native” workforce now expect a flexibility and access in every aspect of their lives. More than ever, work is seen as an adventure which is to be explored, rather than accepted.
Young people today are expressing less appetite for both pain and pay – according to our research, only six in 10 millennials see salary as one of the top three priorities for a job. The first is hardly surprising, the second less and less so. Work is increasingly connected to how we live, where we live, how we interact, and with who. It is utterly entwined with our lives.
The market also plays its part. Such is the ongoing skills crisis that talented candidates in tech for example can more or less take their pick of jobs. This means they have more influence in the terms of their employment. In other words: no more staying in the rat race, doing someone else’s bidding and picking up a cheque.
Workers – especially younger ones – are placing less value on money, and more on flexible working options
Survey after survey reveals that workers – especially younger ones – are placing less value on money, and more on flexible working options. They put variety, learning opportunities, and choice as priorities at work.
Research by Powwownow found that three quarters of UK employees say that they’d be more likely to consider a job that provided flexible working, while a third would prioritise greater flexibility over an increase in pay. Another study by HSBCmeanwhile found that 73 per cent of younger full-time employees are currently working flexibly, while 69 per cent of those that aren’t would like to do so.
This is news to no-one except, it seems, those employers and recruitment agencies that cling on to outdated preconceptions about what truly motivates people today, who remain the majority. Businesses that fail to factor in candidates’ demands for greater flexibility are playing a dangerous game.
They are failing to make themselves attractive destinations for the most talented workers on the market. Recruitment agencies, meanwhile, are perpetuating the fallacy, focusing on remuneration over other, more-valued aspects of employment.
Ultimately, companies are inadvertently stunting their growth, development and diversity.