Insurance Talent Blog | The Jacobson Group

Polling Results: How Are Professionals’ Job Expectations Evolving? | The Jacobson Group

Written by The Jacobson Group | Feb 29, 2024 5:55:48 PM

As workforce dynamics evolve, professionals’ priorities and expectations have also undergone shifts. Throughout the past few months, we’ve polled our LinkedIn audience on a number of talent topics, including their sentiments around exploring new roles, work flexibility and more. Consider the below information as you build out your own recruiting strategies in today’s landscape.

With the "Great Resignation" behind us, we’re hearing an increasing number of insurance leaders share the challenges of recruiting passive candidates. However, 64% of professionals both actively and non-actively job-hunting said they are very likely to explore a new role and 17% said they were “likely” to explore a new opportunity. While some professionals may still be hesitant to make a move, there are several ways to ease candidates’ concerns and help them feel more    comfortable learning about a new position and even accepting an offer.

Over the past four years, many insurers have adapted to remote and hybrid work environments; and flexibility in work location remains key for job seekers. We polled hiring managers about candidates’ preferences, and 42% felt flexibility in work location is their top priority, surpassing monetary compensation (30%), flexible work hours (24%) and career development opportunities (4%). When we asked this same question in 2021, 42% said flexibility in work location was most important, followed by monetary compensation and career development (tied at 22%). 

Asking employees to be in the office even once a week is posing a hiring challenge. A substantial 73% of employers polled find it more difficult to attract talent when requiring employees to come into a physical office once or more a week. While hybrid work may seem like a reasonable compromise between fully remote and fully in-person, it often still limits candidate pools to shrinking local markets, especially as many professionals have taken on remote positions with companies in other parts of the country.

When it comes to relocation, candidates have varying preferences: 54% are open to moving for the right job, 32% are exclusively seeking remote roles and 14% are only looking for local opportunities. In order to avoid severely limiting your candidate pool, it’s important to first evaluate whether a role really must be performed in person. Then focus on how you can best communicate the attributes of both the role and organization to appeal to qualified individuals. 

For more of our LinkedIn poll results, view our past posts on professionals’ expectations and  insurers’ insights on the talent marketplace. To share your thoughts in our future polls, follow us on LinkedIn