Randstad Study Reveals What Employees Want Most from Their Employers

According to a Randstad survey of more than 11,000 U.S. adults, honesty, reliability, and security outranked every other workplace trait workers are looking for when seeking a new employer. A few traits that respondents didn’t care about were state-of-the-art technology, environmental commitment, and willingness to take chances.

Top ranked “corporate personality” traits were:

• Honesty — 78 percent

• Reliable — 71 percent

• Secure — 62 percent

• Commitment to long-term employment — 55 percent

• Well-respected — 51 percent

• Pleasant work environment — 49 percent

• Work/life balance commitment — 43 percent

Bottom-ranked traits:

• Concern with environmental and societal well-being — 9 percent

• On the tech cutting edge — 9 percent

• Global career opportunities — 7 percent

• Daring — 6 percent

• Robust — 6 percent

• Masculine — 4 percent

Although work/life balance was at the low end of the most sought-after corporate personality traits, employees still showed a keen interest in achieving it.

“The concept of work/life balance highly influences why workers remain with their current employers,” Randstad said in a release. “When asked what would motivate them to work more years for their company, employees named ‘a more relaxed work schedule’ as the top motivator, and ‘the possibility to adapt work hours’ ranked third. Women more often see their work/life balance put at risk by long work days, while men cite too many deadlines.”