Leadership more vital than salary for talent retention

Australian knowledge workers rate having a good manager above salary when it comes to choosing whether to keep working at a company, new research published by Slack suggests.

A survey of 1000 Australian employees found that stability (51%) and having a good manager (29%) are valued more highly than salary (28%) in the ongoing war for talent.

With nearly half (45%) of Australian knowledge workers considering moving jobs in the next year and 60% reporting experiencing burnout, this fight for talent acquisition is set to grow even more intense, the survey found.

Respondents believe that teamwork and collaboration (47%), flexible work (38%), employee wellbeing (37%), and transparent and trustworthy leadership (36%) are the top factors driving successful organisations.

Meanwhile nearly two-thirds of Australian knowledge workers see collaboration tools as being of major importance to their organisation. But 42% of respondents gave only low scores to the quality of training in how to use these tools they have received.

Slack country manager for ANZ Nicole Woodley said leaders should heed the lessons of the research and focus on developing soft skills, while figuring out how to meet the changing expectations of employees.

“The rhythm of work already had an irregular heartbeat before the pandemic — we just weren’t aware of how much time we were, and still are, spending on non-productive tasks,” she said.

“We are continuing to go through one of the biggest workplace experiments in the last 100 years as we move from offices to hybrid work, and see factors like trust, wellbeing and soft skills take on as much meaning as financial success and salary.”

Image credit: iStock.com/NiseriN