69% of Candidates Reconsider Job Offers if The Company Culture Looks Toxic

In case you haven’t noticed, we’re pretty invested in employee experiences and showing corporate culture how to step into the new world of work. Company culture can make or break the organizational success of your business and we’ve got the stats to back it up, confirming that overworked employees are the largest turn-offs for potential new hires. 

On behalf of us – HiBob! –  we conducted a new national survey through Pollfish. We surveyed 1,000 employees age 18 and up in the United States to find out what your potential people want out of company culture and which attributes you can spotlight to make job offers more desirable. 

69% of candidates will reconsider a job offer if the company has high employee turnover or if the workers look burnt-out. Why? Because the incoming workforce prioritizes overall happiness when deciding whether to accept a new role. Furthermore, 77% feel that company culture is extremely important, while 56% ranked opportunities for growth as more important than salary. 

It is true that showing off a company’s unique attributes in recruitment marketing can attract strong candidates. However, nearly 30% of people said the way a company presented itself online was misleading and that really bugs them. As always, though, honesty is the best policy; especially since the majority of job candidates base their perceptions of information provided by the company. Around one-in-three candidates look at a business’s website (32%) or contact current employees (29%) to understand the office experience, and one-in-five (19%) scroll through social media pages to understand a company’s influence and public perception. 

What are your potential people looking for in today’s corporate culture?

Companies competing for top talent in the tightest labor market to date can cater their offerings to the needs of modern workers. Addressing the 50% of workers dissatisfied with their current jobs could give recruiting companies a leg up on the competition if they remember the following: 

• Positive work environments filled with happy employees make potential new hires want to join a company and stay there. Factors like competitiveness among team members, or a boring culture, make more than 30% of candidates reconsider a job offer, although overworked employees or high turnover are still the largest deterrents.
• The opportunity for professional development is a top priority. 56% of employees rank opportunities for growth as more important than salary, underscored by the fact that only 25% of employees left their previous role because they felt underpaid.
• The amount of vacation time offered (45%) and commute distance (35%) hold a strong influence over someone’s decision to join a company. 
• Employees need more than a weekly happy hour. They’re looking for benefits that matter like flexible working hours and unlimited vacation time. Interestingly enough, survey respondents ranked pets in the office as the least important perk. 

“Poor culture and employee dissatisfaction are driving away more than two-thirds of candidates. In order to thrive in today’s quitting economy, companies must create workplace experiences designed to retain today’s workforce by promoting a clear work/life balance,” said our CEO, Ronni Zehavi.

“While popular trends in perks have come and gone, culture and opportunity are key drivers of employee happiness and support collaboration and productivity. At HiBob, we give managers the tools they need to build strong cultural foundations, which our latest survey shows are vital to employee retention.”

As it turns out, appearances do matter, perhaps just as much as first impressions. Positive company culture isn’t an offering you can fake to job candidates, and it certainly isn’t something you can pretend to have in a world where social media acts as a single source of truth when it comes to branding and image. Keep your people content and prioritize their growth, and from within, their happiness will stand testament to the next interview you take on a tour through your office. Deciding whether or not to accept a job offer shouldn’t be difficult when the reasons to do so are appealing to your potential people who can see that you will put them first.