The late, great Aretha Franklin once sang those famous letters, calling for “respect.” Our apologies if the song is now stuck in your head, it’s stuck in ours too! While Aretha was singing about getting respect from a lover, new survey findings show that jobseekers and employees want respect from employers … and not just a little bit.
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Sock It to Me
Monster.com’s second installment of its ongoing research series “State of the Candidate Report 2019,” focuses on respect and threats to current jobs. The research reveals that 14% of jobseekers did not feel respected in their last job search. Monster dug a little deeper to find out what would make jobseekers feel respected during the job search and discovered that the following actions would show just a little bit of respect:
- Being told why they weren’t moved to the next stage (32%)
- Recruiters following up in a timely fashion after the interview (31%)
- Company acknowledging receipt of application (28%)
- Knowing if the application had been seen by a recruiter or hiring manager (27%)
- Recruiter/hiring manager sending a rejection in a timely fashion (23%)
- Jobseeker was told if he or she was being considered for future opportunities (23%)
As the research reveals, communication (or lack thereof) plays a huge role in the respect department. In order for jobseekers to feel respect, recruiters and hiring managers must be more communicative during the initial application phase and after the interview process.
As we continue to see, communication is key to providing a good candidate experience and now we know that jobseekers feel more respected when there is constant communication.
Chain, Chain, Chain … Wait … Wrong Song
While some jobseekers may feel disrespected during the hiring process, actual employees are feeling threatened with their current roles, and may become jobseekers themselves. According to the findings, 77% of respondents believe there are threats to their current job. Respondents listed the following as perceived threats:
- New management (20%)
- Toxic boss or working environment (19%)
- Layoffs (17%)
- Recession (16%)
- Younger coworkers (15%)
- Industry changes requiring new skills (14%)
- Automation/technology replacing jobs (10%)
What’s surprising, Monster found that 62% of Americans think a recession in the next 2 years is likely—but only 16% expect it to directly threaten their job. Furthermore, 33% believe that searching for a job today is harder than when they first started in their career.
The findings indicate this sentiment to be true, when you factor in the fact that 72% of employees believe the jobseeker has the upper hand in terms of having job options and negotiation power. And younger jobseekers may be disproportionately benefitting from the modern search process. Monster finds that 83% of 18- to 24-year-olds and 84% of 25- to 34-year-olds say they have the upper hand, vs. just 64% of 35- to 65-year-olds who feel this way.
All I’m Askin’ Is for a Little Respect
So we’ve got jobseekers who want respect, employees who feel like their jobs are being threatened … is there any good news from these findings? Yes, there is! For employees who said they were happy with their jobs, Monster asked respondents what made them happy, which include:
- Benefits (48%)
- I feel respected (45%)
- Salary (45%)
- I have a sense of belonging (45%)
- Perks (27%)
- Growth opportunities (26%)
- Office culture (22%)
What’s surprising here is that respect is more important than culture, but can’t we have both? By building a company culture that focuses on respect you can feed two birds with one scone and ultimately retain top talent. Plus, you can showcase how you respect your workforce to prospective jobseekers by constantly communicating with them, which will make jobseekers feel respected and help boost the overall candidate experience.