Digital Recruitment – what are candidates really looking for?

We want to talk about your digital recruitment strategy. In particular, we have one question…how much do you really know about the candidate market? A lot has changed in the last two years. Now, candidates are not only after a generous salary alone.

We want to help you attract and retain the best digital talent. This entails knowing exactly what they want from a role in 2022. Our 2022 Digital Salary Survey report has launched! While it is full of industry-wide insights, today we are focusing on what we call ‘role essentials’. In our questionnaire, respondents ranked what is important to them.

These essentials will help you design a fantastic approach to talent attraction. All you need to do is weave them into your strategy and branding…let’s reveal the top essentials! (Note: we asked respondents to rank each essential out of ten. The number displayed is the average score.)

The essentials in digital recruitment

• Flexible Hours and working: Our number one essential in 2022, with an average score of 8.5! We would argue that flexible working is not just about allowing employees more freedom. It builds a huge trust between management and the team. Look at your staff benefits as they are now – are your employees allowed to complete work around their life priorities? Ultimately, lockdown allowed people to see more of their loved ones. Furthermore, they acquired more time for themselves be it a new hobby or more time for wellness. So, candidates will be attracted to a company that recognises this.
• Working from home: A close second, with an average score of 8.4 – does this surprise you? At TechNET Digital, we can’t say it is surprising to see this high up the list. The pandemic gave people a view of what working from home offers. As hybrid working grows, we expect this to continue. If you are not offering any remote working to employees or candidates, it could affect your team greatly.
• Opportunity to progress: Rounding off our top 3, with an average score of 7.9! However, this has often been a top pick in our previous salary survey editions. As such, it is once again not surprising to see it high on the list. 2020 changed the outlook of many digital professionals. Career plans were stalled and uncertainty was high. Employees and candidates do not want to feel like that again – show that your company would not let this happen.

It’s interesting to note that all other role essentials did not score above 5. These include office environment, salary, management and company culture.

Download the Digital Salary Survey report!

We’re sure you already know that these essentials are important in digital recruitment. However, seeing how important they are for digital professionals should give you some food for thought. Do you want even more industry insights? Download the full 2022 digital salary survey report for so much more. You can also submit a recruitment enquiry should you need to talk to our team.