A study by the HayGroup, to I recently had access, applied a questionnaire to around two hundred managing directors and directors of human resources in Spain and confirm what was obvious: a professional does not live on salary alone!

The study intended to rank, on a scale from 0 to 10, the aspects that most motivate a professional in his or her job:

Continuing training	8.8
Sharing a mission	8.7
Career development	8.3
Balance between personal life/professional life	8.2
Working with people they like	8.1
Attractive pay	7.6
Work in a prestigious organisation	7.5
Using advanced technologies	7.0
Social recognition	6.9
Job security	5.8

I think that these results may help us all to manage better! Given that we live in an era in which the rarest asset is talent, I believe that the clearest mission of any company seeking success will increasingly revolve around “attracting, hiring and retaining the best talent”.

If this is the case, and looking at the table of results, it can be seen that professionals are prepared to pay to continue to learn and to assume more responsibilities, and they are also prepared to pay to be more happy. To have a balanced personal life is more important than to earn a few more shillings.

Two observations about these results. The first concerns the “sharing a mission” factor. It is evident that today professionals can no longer bear being just one more employee, they can no longer bear doing something without knowing its objective.

The second observation concerns the “weak score” for “job security”. There is no doubt that what we are increasingly most sure about is change. It is good that professionals reflect this reality. The paradigm is changing and the lifetime job is no longer possible.

In another questionnaire addressed at the same directors, when questioned about which kind of talent most needed in their companies, the results were:

Innovative / Entrepreneurial Talent	7.16
Management Talent	6.76
Commercial Talent	5.85
Technical Talent	5.06

Here, the conclusions are even more evident! It is clear that this confirms the result of the previous study, since innovative and entrepreneurial talent, being the rarest of all, is undoubtedly that which is more easily motivated by challenges, by learning and by development!

On my part, as an Executive Search consultant, these studies confirm the obvious. Over six years and hundreds of interviews, it has been possible to see changes in the old public employee-style mentality of candidates affected, whose no attitude is longer “What is the goal and how much do they pay for it?”, adopting an attitude of “Which challenge?”, “What are the next steps?”, “Which is the Team?”, “What resources are there?”.

To be in the “New Economy” is also, and above all, to know how to deal with NEW MOTIVATIONS!

The new challenges faced by managers are obvious:

 
To attract!
“To design” the recruitment project, clearly defining the challenges, mission and goals of the positions to be filled.

To Recruit!
Companies and us as consultants in this area are responsible for not “sweetening the pill” or overselling the position, and instead we should explore the motivations of candidates and grasp the “design” of the position, in order to match values, or to clear up the mistake that the hiring would turn out to be.

To retain!
To study the climate / motivation.
To stop setting purely economic goals. To involve people in the development of the enterprise. To respect people's personal life and above all to not stint on training and development.