Employers who offer interesting work, regular recognition and rewards, and opportunities for quick advancement are the most popular targets for job seekers.
But programmes such as corporate citizenship and diversity are not valued as much, according to a survey by Accenture.
The purpose of the survey, which questionned more than 4,100 job seekers in 21 countries in North and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, was to identify the most-valued career goals of both entry-level and experienced job seekers.
Challenging and interesting work was considered the most important characteristic that job seekers look for in prospective employers, selected by 60 per cent of all respondents.
The potential for recognition and reward for their accomplishments was a close second selected by 58 per cent of respondents.
Other characteristics of interest to job seekers were:
- Opportunities for fast career growth (44 per cent).
- Indications that the employer is well established and is likely to have long-term prosperity (42 per cent).
- Indications that a company has a particular focus on its people (42 per cent).
- Offering flexible working arrangements (41 per cent).
- Innovative (33 per cent).
“Interestingly, we found that what is considered important to potential recruits was remarkably consistent across geographies,” said John Campagnino, Accenture's global director of recruitment.
“Also notable was the fact that while we know from our own employees that corporate social responsibility and diversity are important employer characteristics – things our employees demand and place high value in – the research also validated what many of us intuitively know: namely, that more tangible benefits such as rewards and recognition are most important from an external recruit's perspective.”
