Profile research

Research: Top recruits want to work for companies with visible leaders

In a world where companies will succeed or fail by the quality of their teams, new research finds that top recruits want to work for organisations with visible leadership teams.

Top recruits want to work for companies with visible leadership teams, according to new research commissioned by Profile and conducted by polling agency OnePoll.

The research also shows that the majority of employees think that their current leadership teams are not visible enough, putting companies with visible leaders at an advantage to win the battle for talent.

The polling, which is based on a survey of 2,000 British adults, was conducted in December 2022. The results underline the importance of undertaking thought leadership PR.

Visible leaders hire better talent.

According to Profile research, nearly three in four people (74%) said that they would prefer to work for a company with a visible leadership team, a result that was resilient across all genders and age groups.

This result comes at a time when the war for talent in intensifying. Last year, Britain's unemployment rate fell to its lowest point in over 47 years, with more companies chasing a smaller talent pool. A trend that is replicated in the United States and elsewhere.

At the same time, organisations are increasingly chasing potential recruits with in-demand skills: digital marketing, social media, programming, agri-food, green industries, health and life sciences, data analytics, graphic design and creativity, and much else besides.

The results show that companies with visible leadership teams are at an advantage when it comes to tapping into the competitive graduate market. In particular, 65% of respondents aged between 18 and 24 said that, all else being equal, they would choose to work for a company with a visible leadership team.

Leadership team not visible enough.

The research also shows that current employees and team members do not feel that their companies are taking sufficient steps to increase the visibility of their leadership teams.

Half of respondents said that the leadership team of their current employer should be more visible, with 20% saying that they thought their leadership team should be much more visible.

There is a marked difference between what employees want and what employees are actually getting: recruits want to work with companies with visible leadership teams, but many existing employees feel unsatisfied with the visibility of their current employer's leadership team.

This provides employers with visible leadership teams with opportunities to poach top talent from other companies. It also means that the majority of companies are susceptible to poaching and losing their talent to other companies.

Visibility will be trend of 2023.

These results should not be surprising given that, over the last 12 months, there has been increasing demand from consumers, employees, and the public at large for more visible, public leaders – not only in companies, but charities and other organisations as well.

In related research conducted by Profile, polling found that 76% of respondents said that they thought companies and brands should have visible leadership teams, with 40% saying that they strongly agreed with this claim.

In a world where companies will succeed or fail by the quality of their teams, building the profiles of a organisation's leadership team could make or break a company's recruitment strategy, as well as their wider success.

Profile is an award-winning thought leadership agency. We create visible leaders. If you would like to discuss building the profile of your leadership team, book in a no-obligation strategy call.

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