As you seek talent to grow the ranks of your company, it’s important to understand the growing changes in workforce expectations.
Successfully attracting and retaining employees now requires you to go beyond sharing what it is you do. Now, you need to communicate your why, your how, and who makes up your team. Additionally, economic uncertainty, the rising cost of living, and the impact of AI are affecting how individuals consider their careers and futures.
Personal Alignment
One of the trends noted in Randstad’s Workmonitor 2025 study is that employees are looking for more than just a paycheck. In fact, 48% of respondents would not accept a job with a company whose values don’t align with their own. This is up from 38% in 2024. Of the different jobs polled, blue-collar workers who perform manual labor or work in skilled trades felt most strongly about having value alignment (50%).
The percentage of respondents who would leave an organization if they disagreed with the viewpoints of the leadership team has also grown from 33% in 2024 to 44% in 2025. The generations that feel the most strongly about this are Millennials and Gen Z at 53% and 52%, respectively.
Also, for the first time in the study’s 22-year history, work-life balance overtook pay as employees’ leading motivator at 83%. This is particularly important for Gen Z, as they ranked work-life balance (74%) over pay (68%).
In the Workmonitor 2026 study, it was found that work-life balance (46%) is the main reason employees choose to stay in their current role.
Another reason respondents listed for leaving a company is a lack of career progression, with 31% saying they have quit a job due to a lack of opportunities.
Opportunities To Expand Skills
As technology and AI innovations continue to become more widespread, providing employees with skill development opportunities in these areas is critical.
In the 2025 study, 44% said they wouldn’t accept a job without opportunities to develop future-relevant skills, an increase from 22% in 2024. Additionally, 41% said they would quit if no learning and development were offered.
Yet in the report, only 34% of blue-collar workers experienced increased access to training and development opportunities. The top-ranked skills the workforce listed an interest in learning included AI (40%), IT and technological literacy (30%) and management and leadership skills (20%).
This is important as AI has become more embedded in businesses’ everyday workflow. In the 2026 report, 54% of employers found AI had increased their workforce’s productivity in the last year, and 62% of employees said AI made them more productive at work.
A Sense of Belonging
Lastly, candidates want to work for companies where they have a true sense of community and can be their full selves.
More than 8 in 10 answered that a sense of community helps them perform better, and 55% said they would leave a company if they didn’t feel they belonged, up from 37% in 2024. In 2025, 44% of respondents said they had quit due to a toxic workplace, up from 33% the previous year.
Blue-collar workers specifically said they would rather be unemployed than unhappy at 40%.
Across generations, employees expressed a desire for their workplace to feel like a community. This comes in the form of socializing at work, considering some of their work colleagues as friends and socializing with co-workers outside of work.
Trust is another major priority for employees, with 31% saying they have quit because they felt they couldn’t trust the leadership team. More than half (52%) said they would leave if they didn’t get along with their manager.
Managers are particularly crucial in an unpredictable economy, as they are key to providing employees with a sense of community and stability. In the 2026 report, 63% of employees said they felt more connected to their manager than to the company as a whole.
External volatility has also been driving 60% of team members to seek clarity and reassurance from their managers, as 71% believe their managers have their best interests in mind and 69% trust them with their career progression.
When managers actively check in with their direct reports, this can also help mitigate attrition. It has also been found that failing to nurture collaboration can impact a company’s ability to retain talent. Nearly a third of employees (31%) have left organizations due to a lack of collaboration.
As the workforce continues to evolve, attracting quality talent goes far beyond compensation alone. Review whether you are clearly communicating your values, providing clear career paths and maintaining a workplace that is supportive of team members. These are the keys to positioning your business in the job market moving forward.
