Employers have made no bones about it: They want highly qualified staff members, the more qualified, the better, both in hands-on experience as well as book savvy. In fact, many of the positions that used to require a standard four-year degree now demand a post-graduate diploma.
But what about employees? What do they want out of their workplace? As is so often the case, it depends on whom you ask, the answers largely depending upon where workers live.
ManpowerGroup, a human resources and outsourcing services firm, recently released its latest report on what today's workforce is looking for in a potential employer. Respondents hailed from all over the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico and China.
As one would expect, generous compensation is a perk that knows no borders. What a position pays has a way of sparking interest. But some of the more interesting findings were in other arenas, the themes largely dependent on where workers came from.
For instance, in the United Kingdom, over three-quarters indicated that the type of work offered was one of the most important factors in dictating their career decisions, the poll found. In the U.S., though, only 58 percent cited profession as being an influential variable. And in China, less than 1 in 3 considered type of work to have great significance on their career choices.
In the world's most populated country, what really matters to workers was what they're earning, as 81 percent cited compensation as the top factor.
Jim McCoy, vice president at ManpowerGroup, indicated that the almighty dollar – or in this case yuan – gets top billing in China.
"It still comes down to compensation [in China]," McCoy explained.
U.K. workers most desire a well-defined role
He added that this contrasts sharply with what people in the United Kingdom most want out of their job, as only 27 percent cited earnings. For them, 76 percent place the most emphasis on what their job requires of them, or more specifically, what their role is.
There was considerable variation in what today's employees most want in their professional careers. For example, as it pertained to the importance of geographic location, more than half of participants from the U.K. considered it to be key, versus just 27 percent of respondents from China.
Virtually everyone wants quality benefits
Where there was relative consistency was in employee benefits offered. Approximately 50 percent of the Chinese workforce highly valued workplace perks, 49 percent of Americans said the same as well as 45 percent of those from the U.K. The country whose workers put the least amount of weight on benefits was Australia. But even in the Land Down Under, nearly 33 percent considered benefits to be important. This compared to a low of 17 percent valuing company brand or reputation and just 8 percent citing industry. In both instances, the percentages represented workers from Mexico.
Meanwhile, in the United States, nearly 50 percent of workers polled pointed to benefits as being a compelling element to staying with a company or pursuing a new one, the poll found.
The Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law and went into effect a few years later, mandates that employers provide employee benefits to their workers, depending on how many staff members they have. Since its implementation, the uninsured rate in the U.S. has fallen, down to just under 12 percent, according to a recent Gallup poll.
However, it looks the number of people insured by their employers may level off in the coming years, based on a recent government forecast. By the end of 2017, close to 155 million employees will have employment-based health insurance, Business Insurance reported from the Congressional Budget Office. By 2018, though, that number is expected to dip to 153 million, then to 152 million by 2019.
As to the reasons why, the CBO cited more employers pointing their eligible employees to Medicaid. It may have also had something to do with the rescinding of a mandate that would have required companies with at least 200 workers to automatically enroll in a health plan for workers who don't sign up, Business Insurance reported.
