Offer shopping in niche sectors seems to be returning as employees assert their preference for higher compensation and a better work-life balance.
Staffing firms have observed a rising percentage of job offer rejections in the past 2-3 months compared to earlier periods.
Offer shopping is when a candidate with more than one job offer in hand seeks to extract better compensation and perks at other companies or even from the current employer. This leads to a low offer-to-joining ratio at companies.
Specialist staffing company Xpheno said this trend has been noticed within a niche talent pool. There is now one dropout for every three offers made compared with a typical dropout rate of one in five offers made during the 'employer market phase' from the second half of 2022 to late 2023.
However, the trend is limited to information technology products, tech global capability centres, engineering research and development, and automotive firms.
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Talent company Randstad India noted that offer rejection rates escalated to 75-80 percent in 2023 from 65-70 percent in 2022.
“We've tracked an average of 29 percent offer dropouts every month for the past two quarters. This is reinforced by a noticeable spike in offer declines starting from January 2024, when offer declines crossed nearly a third of all offers made. This trend coincides with the emerging green shoots for hiring we are seeing in the job market,” Anil Ethanur, co-founder of Xpheno, told Moneycontrol.
In the IT segment, Randstad observed that the current demand in the job market is primarily centred on data management, analytics, and cloud computing, along with a significant emphasis on customer experience. Skills in high demand include UI/UX designers, data scientists, data analysts, and proficiency in AI and machine learning.
Seniors more inclined
The trend of offering shopping is not confined to a certain level of professionals, and seniors are more inclined to follow it as demand for niche job roles shoots up.
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According to IT and tech staffing company TeamLease Digital’s data, while junior to mid-level employees’ rejection rates are about 15-20 percent, senior-level employees’ rejection rates are about 23-25 percent.
The reasons for rejection for most of the junior to senior levels are mainly expected compensation, shift schedules, and the absence of hybrid or work-from-home flexibility.
“The rejection rates are much lower for CXOs currently as most organisations roll out offers only after all due diligence,” said Neeti Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Digital.
The Randstad Workmonitor 2024 report showed that work-life balance, compensation, and job security are the three factors driving decisions by candidates.
The survey showed that job rejections were high if the respondents thought it would negatively affect their work-life balance (63 percent), if there was no flexibility around working hours (61 percent), and if the organisation wasn’t proactively improving its diversity and equity (59 percent).
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“Employers must understand that today, the job market is extremely talent-driven, and candidates command an exercise of choice when it comes to choosing between multiple offers,” said Anjali Raghuvanshi, chief people officer and senior director of business innovation at Randstad India.
Xpheno observed that talent is more discerning, seeking opportunities that align closely with their brand, role, industry, money and people (BRIMP) criteria, though the weightage given to each parameter can vary. This variation depends on factors like demographic characteristics, career trajectory and work experience.
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