Survey says: Motivations for taking the new job don’t align with why you left the old job
We had over 500 respondents (85% SaaS employees) for our survey pertaining to job entrance priorities and exit reasons. The results are in – some are obvious, and some lead to learnings we thought we’d share.
Unsurprisingly, almost half of our respondents stated they would or have left their jobs largely due to their leadership (our data says 42.1%).
However, those results don’t align with how they said they evaluate a new role. Our results tell us (full interactive data set here) that the two most important things people want in a new job are opportunities for growth and a healthy work-life balance. Strangely, great leadership fell down to #4 on the list, falling behind career growth, work-life balance, and money.
If the largest reason to leave one’s job is due to poor management, why is it not a higher priority when looking at new opportunities?
Do people really not evaluate the leadership in new opportunities, or do they not know how to evaluate it? We think it is the latter. In a hot job market, great candidates have the ability to choose and equally interview (at the right time, of course) their hiring manager to understand if this is someone worth working for. Good leaders will offer up time to ask them questions. This is the time to ask. Great leaders will proactively provide you many answers in advance. If you find yourself in an interview path, or just in general, thinking about your own leadership philosophies, are some good questions to ask:
What’s your role as a leader?
Tell me about someone you have managed you’re proud about?
What leadership philosophies do you follow?
What was the last leadership book you read? What was the biggest take away?
What’s your favorite leadership book you’ve read and why?
Which leader do you want to emulate and why?
Tell me about your worst employee experience?
Where do you feel you can develop someone?
What skill or asset are you hiring for that can compliment you?
Who has followed you here, or at your last company?
Which employees have you managed would be your strongest references? What would they say about you?
So next time you find yourself in the job market, be sure to consider everything and know that it is critical you get a chance to reciprocate the interview process to not only the scope of the company and role, but also your leader.
Lastly, we’ll be posting more survey results in the next month, so make sure to follow Bespoke Talent so it lines up in your feed.