New report reveals hiring challenges amid employees' salary, benefit expectations
More than three in five employers in Australia found hiring to be competitive in the past year in the wake of evolving salary and benefit expectations among employees, according to a new report.
Morgan McKinley's 2025 Salary Guide revealed that 65% of Australian organisations found hiring to be "very" or "quite" competitive in 2024.
This comes as 75% of employers admit to losing potential talent due to their uncompetitive salary and benefits packages.
"The Australian job market continues to see strong hiring activity, but employers are struggling to secure top talent due to salary and benefit expectations," said Dominic Bareham, Managing Director, Morgan McKinley Australia, in a statement.
According to the report, employers are expecting this highly competitive landscape to continue in 2025 as their hiring intentions persist.
It found that 50% of organisations are looking to recruit in the next six months, coinciding with 49% of professionals who are planning to look for new opportunities in the same period.
"As nearly half of professionals are looking to change jobs in the next six months, organisations must act strategically to attract and retain the best candidates," Bareham said.
The director's advice came amid a prevailing disconnect between what employees want and what employers offer, especially on flexibility.
The report found that 50% of companies have increased their in-office mandate expectations over the past year, despite working from home being one of employees' highly desired benefits. Their other desired benefits are:
On the other hand, the report saw some improvement when it comes to pay, as it found that 75% of employers are planning to increase salary offers for hard-to-fill roles after 36% kept their salary bandings unchanged in the latter half of 2024.
"Competitive salary packages, improved benefits, and flexible working arrangements are key to securing and retaining the best talent in the market. Companies that don't align with these expectations risk losing talent to more adaptable competitors," Bareham said.
