Australia at risk of losing top talent, survey finds

Jo Faragher

Almost 70% of Australian candidates would consider a job opportunity overseas – putting Australia at risk of losing talent.

A survey by the Australian division of global recruitment company Morgan McKinley in found that career progression is the key factor behind looking a new job, and many candidates feel they will get this plus international experience and new challenges if they left Australia.

Most respondents to the survey said they would prefer to stay in the Asia Pacific region, with Asia the most popular choice. Many cited Singapore and Hong Kong as their preferred locations.

Only 16% of respondents said that they would leave a job purely because they were dissatisfied with the salary. And where salary was a motivating factor, the majority of respondents expected a 20% pay increase. A broader job remit (such as managing more people or a bigger territory) was more attractive, cited by almost 30%

Other reasons for leaving were related to problems or dissatisfactions with their current role, such as issues with their manager, wanting more work-life balance or a desire to discover new challenges.

Louise Langridge, joint managing director of Morgan McKinley Australia, said: “The Australian workforce is still characterised by its talent shortages and with nearly 70% of respondents willing to consider an overseas opportunity to progress their careers, we are at risk of losing top talent to overseas markets.

“Our own survey indicates that overwhelmingly, more than 60% of respondents cited career progression as their main reason for leaving their job, significantly higher than salary. This illustrates that career progression is much more of an important consideration, so we need to take a broader view of contentment at work.”