Digital Talent in greatest demand. [REPORT]

Company executives struggling to attract and retain top talent may find that the challenge is even greater than they fear, according to the results of a new survey.

The third-annual 24 Seven Job Satisfaction and Salary Survey found that a majority of creative industry employees soon could be on the move, as a result of declining job satisfaction and increased expectations for salary growth. With loyalty extremely low, two-thirds of these employees plan to make some change in their career in the next year, either within their company or externally. Nearly one in four plans for the career change to include working for a new company. Of those, Millennials, Gen Xers and creative talent are especially open to changing companies.

“While talent is restless, companies are still cautious about hiring,” said Celeste Gudas, CEO and Founder of 24 Seven, Inc. “The one robust sector is digital. Employers across markets and industries are seeking employees with deep digital skill sets. These are the employees who are in the drivers seat today and are in a position to move into both new and more senior roles.”

The survey queried more than 5,000 professionals across the United States in creative business industries, including digital, fashion, retail, beauty, design and marketing. Highlights include the following:

Employees Value Salary First and Foremost

Compensation topped the list of job satisfaction drivers and is also the primary reason employees make a career move. Non-traditional benefits that help employees achieve work/life balance were the most highly regarded (summer hours/comp days and flex-time/telecommuting), while besides medical insurance, no other traditional benefit was particularly valued.

Lack of Clear Career Direction Is Major Issue

Employees cited a lack of career direction as the number-one concern keeping them up at night. The survey found that there is a huge perception gap between executives, managers and talent in the area of “career pathing.” Talent said that executives don’t place enough importance on helping employees define career paths, and managers think they are doing a better job of helping guide careers than talent perceives.

Companies Need Formalized Talent Management Strategies

The majority of executives identified finding and attracting game-changing talent as the most challenging talent issue their organizations face, with four out of five executives feeling under the same amount of pressure or more to attract and retain talent, compared to a year ago. Only a fifth, however, have formalized talent management strategies in place. Of those that do, a personalized strategy for each top performer is most frequently implemented.

Digital Function is Most Difficult to Recruit

Executives perceived talent in the Design & Creative, Digital & Interactive and Sales functions as the most in-demand and hardest to recruit. Digital and Account roles had the biggest median salary increases, at 5.6% and 5.4% respectively.

Freelancers Don’t Want to Return to Full-time Jobs

The survey found that the longer one works as a freelancer, the less likely they become to accept traditional employment with a single company. Most freelancers said they chose the freelance work style because of the freedom and flexibility it offers, even those who initially turned to freelance work after being laid off by their companies. Freelancers have a similar level of satisfaction with their current positions as traditionally employed staff, but are significantly more likely to be optimistic that their satisfaction will increase over the next year.

To access report CLICK on link below;
http://www.24seventalent.com/2012salarysurvey>