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When Salary Stops Working: What Candidates Really Want · Edan Haddock - Total Talent

• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to another episode of Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Eden Haddock, Head of Talent and People Experience at Movember.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: As always, no guests, no sponsors, no vendor agenda.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Just one practitioner still on the tools, talking about talent, talent acquisition, workforce strategy, leadership, and the future of work.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And today I want to talk about something that sits at the center of almost every hiring conversation: money, salary, compensation, remuneration.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: The thing we all pretend isn't the most important thing.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the thing we we secretly know matters, right?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to ask a different question today.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: A harder question?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: A more uncomfortable question.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when money stops being enough?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Not because it doesn't matter.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not because we've somehow transcended the need for income.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And not because we've all become enlightened.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But because eventually most people reach a point where another pay rise doesn't fundamentally change their life.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where things get interesting.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think talent acquisition has spent 20 years obsessing about compensation while largely ignoring motivation.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: We've become brilliant at benchmarking salaries, fantastic at producing market insights, and excellent at understanding REM.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm not convinced we've become equally good at understanding human beings.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the problem.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because humans are complicated.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Humans are emotional, humans are irrational.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Humans don't always make decisions based on spreadsheets.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, neither do we.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: So let me start with a confession.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I've never really been driven by money.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And before you start typing an angry LinkedIn comment and calling BS, let me explain.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, money matters.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a mortgage, I've got responsibilities, I've got bills, I've got all the realities that everybody else has.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't some privileged argument that compensation doesn't matter.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: It absolutely does.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when I look back over my career, the moments that changed my life weren't driven by money.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: The organizations I joined, the opportunities I accepted, the risks I took, the challenges I pursued.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: These rarely came down to who offered me the biggest paycheck.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, some of the most important career decisions I'd ever made weren't the most financially attractive.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: They were the most exciting, the most meaningful, the most uncertain, and often the most uncomfortable.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a strange thing when you think about it.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because if salary was truly the thing that drove me, I should have made different decisions.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I didn't.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I suspect I'm not alone.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think many people listening today would say the same thing.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about the best role you've ever had, the role that shaped your career, was it the highest paying role?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Or was it something else?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: The best job you ever had.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about that for a moment.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: The best job you've ever had.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not the highest paying, the best.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: The role where you felt energized.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: The role where you felt valued.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: The role where you learned.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The role where you grew.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: The role where you looked forward to a Monday morning.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Why was it the best?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the salary?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or was it the people?
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: The leader?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: The mission?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: The culture?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The trust?
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: The opportunity?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I suspect most people don't tell stories about compensation.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: They tell stories about experiences.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's incredibly revealing.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest traps our profession falls into is confusing attraction with motivation.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Salary attracts attention.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: But attention and commitment are not the same thing.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: A salary might get someone to answer your call.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: A salary might get somebody into an interview.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: A salary might get somebody to consider an opportunity.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: But does salary create engagement?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: Does salary create loyalty?
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Does salary create purpose?
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Does salary create trust?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Does salary create belonging?
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure it does.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where things for me become quite fascinating.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because many organizations continue to spend enormous amounts of money trying to solve retention problems through compensation.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And yet people continue leaving.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: They continue disengaging.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: They continue burning out.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: They continue quietly quitting.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Which suggests the problem might not actually be compensation.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe compensation is just simply the easiest thing to change, but not the most important thing to change.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: The thought that's been rattling around my head for the past few weeks is really maybe people aren't looking for more money.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're actually looking for less misery.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Less misery, less bureaucracy, less politics, less micromanagement, less pointless meetings, less pretending, less performance, less theater, less corporate nonsense, and more trust, more honesty, more autonomy, more humanity.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the real battle happening in the talent market right now.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe we've completely misunderstood it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now you've all heard about the Sunday night test, and it's my favorite test.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Forget compensation, forget benchmarking, forget EVP, forget employer branding.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: Ask yourself one question.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: How do you feel on a Sunday night?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Because that answer tells you almost everything.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel energized?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Excited?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Interested?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Curious?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you feel dread, anxiety, frustration, resignation?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because if somebody is lying awake on a Sunday night feeling miserable, an extra ten thousand dollars probably isn't solving the real problem.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And that's an uncomfortable truth.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think salary has become what psychologists could describe as a hygiene factor.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: When it isn't there, it's a problem.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: When it isn't competitive, it's a problem.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: When it isn't fair, it's a problem.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: But once it reaches an acceptable level, something interesting happens.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Its power starts to diminish.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: And other things begin to matter more.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom, growth, purpose, leadership, belonging, identity, meaning.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's where the battle is won or lost.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to explore what those things are.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not through the lens of theory, not through the lens of consultants, and certainly not through the lens of corporate buzzwords.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not my vibe.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But through the lens of what candidates actually tell us, what employees actually experience, what leaders often misunderstand.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, what I've observed after working in talent across different organizations, industries, and countries, because I truly feel we're at a fascinating moment.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: A moment where salary still matters, but salary alone is no longer enough.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the organizations that understand what comes next will win.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the organizations that don't simply won't.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that brings us to what I believe has quietly become the most valuable thing in modern work.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And that's freedom.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not flexibility, freedom.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a massive difference between the two.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom is the new currency.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about freedom, not flexibility, as I said, freedom.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think we've spent years talking about flexibility when what people are actually looking for is something much bigger.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Control, agency, trust, ownership.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: The ability to have some influence over how work fits into life.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's become one of the most powerful forces in the modern talent market.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe even more powerful than salary itself.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before anyone jumps in and thinks people have always wanted flexibility, sure.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Right, I agree.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that's what's happening.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: I really think something more fundamental has changed.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: For decades, work was structured around control.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: You arrived at a certain time, you sat in a certain place, you worked in a certain way.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And along the journey, we convinced ourselves that visibility was productivity, that presence equaled performance, that attendance equaled contribution.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: But something happened.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: We all know what happened.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, at that point, people proved they could deliver outcomes without being watched.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: And once people experience that freedom, it's very difficult to take it away.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because freedom changes how people think about work.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: The conversation shifts.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: It stops becoming can I work from home?
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And starts becoming, do you trust me?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is a completely different conversation.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because trust is emotional.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: Trust is personal.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Trust is human.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And candidates feel it immediately.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I've spoken about before on this podcast is work-life integration.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I am a true advocate for work-life integration.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Not work-life balance, integration.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because balance suggests everything sits neat neatly in these separate buckets.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Work over here, life over there.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Never touching and never overlapping.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, for most professionals, that's not reality anymore.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not in global roles, certainly not in talent.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not when you're supporting teams across multiple countries and multiple time zones, as I highlighted in a previous episode.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I've lived that reality.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm living it now.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Many of you that listened reached out and they are living that reality as well.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: You take a call early in the morning, you jump on another call late at night, you answer messages after dinner, you review something on a Sunday.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And that's been recruiter life for quite some time, if we're honest.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not because somebody forced you to.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's because that's the nature of the work.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge isn't preventing overlap.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge is creating sustainability.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And sustainability comes from control, not restriction.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: I remember seeing the comments from our members in the talent, total talent community on Facebook discussing their global portfolios.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there were stories of 12-hour days, 14-hour days, 18-hour days between the first call and the last call.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what really struck me there wasn't the workload.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was the loss of control.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because high performers can handle hard work.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: But what destroys people is feeling trapped.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Feeling like every one of those hours belongs to somebody else.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: And feeling like they have no autonomy, no say, no ownership.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what burns people out.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily the effort, but the absence of agency.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where I think many organizations are getting attraction completely wrong.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're advertising flexibility, but candidates are looking for freedom.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're offering hybrid policies and putting that front and center.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: But candidates are actually looking for trust.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're advertising about days in the office.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: But candidates are actually asking themselves, will I be treated like an adult?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's a big difference.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a huge difference.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: And increasingly, I think candidates can feel that difference.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: The strongest organizations I've seen don't obsess about where people work.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: They obsess about what people achieve.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: They focus on outcomes, not optics.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Contribution, not attendance, trust and not surveillance.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this matters is because freedom has become part of identity.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: People don't want jobs that fit around work anymore.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: They want work that fits around life.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's a profound shift.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And organizations that don't understand it will increasingly struggle to compete.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody can deliver from home, why must they sit in traffic?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody consistently performs, why are we still measuring attendance?
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the future of leadership isn't more control, maybe it's less.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because the future belongs to organizations brave enough to trust their people.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because freedom isn't a perk.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Freedom is becoming part of the employment contract.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, once people experience freedom, something else starts happening.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: They begin thinking about growth.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because when survival isn't the issue, and freedom isn't the issue, the next question becomes Am I still becoming somebody?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: Gets really interesting.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Growth purpose and leadership.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: I think growth is the most underrated attraction strategy in the world.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not compensation, not culture, not employer branding, growth.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And here's why.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Most people don't leave because they're unhappy.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: They leave because they've stopped moving.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: They've stopped learning.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Stopped stretching, stopped evolving.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And human beings aren't designed to stand still for long.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're wired for progress.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're wired for development.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: We're wired for momentum.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is many organizations mistake retention for engagement.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just because somebody stays doesn't mean they're thriving.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Just because somebody hasn't resigned doesn't mean they're growing.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one of the biggest blind spots in talent today.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about career pathways and advancing up the ladder.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Certainly not.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Think about the people you know who seem most energized in their careers.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: What's usually happening?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're learning, building, creating, expanding.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're moving towards something.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And now think about the people who seem disengaged.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: The people who appear flat.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: The people who seem frustrated.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Often they've stopped growing.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: The role hasn't changed.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge hasn't changed.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing is stretching them anymore.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually boredom becomes louder than loyalty.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's when people leave.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not always for money, for movement.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: I sometimes wonder whether we've accidentally created workplaces that are too comfortable.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that sounds strange.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because comfort sounds positive.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: But comfort does have a shadow side.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Comfort can become stagnation.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: Comfort can become complacency.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Comfort can become drift.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: And before you know it, someone has spent three years doing the same thing and wondering why they feel stuck.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Growth is uncomfortable.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Growth creates uncertainty.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Growth creates challenge.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: Growth forces us to become something different.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And deep down, I think we all know that.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: And this is why opportunities win over compensation.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because opportunity represents possibility.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about purpose too, but this is where I want to be careful.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because purpose has become one of the most overused words in businesses.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is purpose.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: Every organization has purpose, right?
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every presentation has purpose.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Every EVP now has purpose.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yet many people still feel very disconnected from their work.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: And why?
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because purpose isn't a statement.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Purpose is an experience.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: People don't feel purpose because it appears on a slide or a poster on the wall.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: People feel purpose when they understand why their work matters.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's different.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons I've really loved working with Movember is that connection to me is obvious.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and it's obvious to all of us.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: You can see it, you can feel it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: The impact is tangible.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: But purpose isn't exclusive to charities.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: You can find purpose in technology, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, logistics, recruitment, anywhere.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because purpose isn't about industry.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Purpose is about contribution.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's understanding how your work improves something for somebody.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's what people are looking for.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Not slogans, but meaning.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: And now let's arrive at leadership.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: The most underrated EVP in existence.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: I genuinely believe this.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: The strongest EVP in the world can't survive a bad manager.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: The strongest EVP in the world cannot survive a bad manager.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can have amazing benefits, amazing branding, amazing working spaces, amazing technology.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: But if somebody reports to a leader who destroys their confidence, trust, and energy, none of it matters.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually they will leave.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Think about your own career.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I guarantee there are leaders you still remember years later.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Some inspired you, some changed.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some changed your trajectory.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, some probably damaged your confidence.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Leadership leaves fingerprints long after somebody leaves an organization.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Which is why candidates are increasingly evaluating leaders and not companies.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: People want to know who will I work for?
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Will they support me?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Will they challenge me?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Will they invest in me?
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: Will they trust me?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those questions often matter more than salary.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because great leaders create growth.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And growth creates loyalty.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Which then brings us to perhaps the biggest shift of all.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: The move from careers designed around jobs to careers designed around life.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think we've entered the age of the lifestyle career.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean that people are less ambitious.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think the opposite.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: People are becoming more intentional.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're asking different questions, not what job do I want, but what life do I want?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a big shift.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because once somebody designs their life first, work just becomes one piece of that puzzle, but not the entire puzzle.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: For decades, career success was relatively simple.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Aggression is in higher title, more money, bigger team, larger office, corner office if you were lucky.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was the formula.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: But today, not so much.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody might choose flexibility over promotion, remote work over prestige, purpose over pay, balance over title, experience over status.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a lack of ambition.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's a different definition of success.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think our younger generations understand this instinctively.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: But increasingly so do us older generations.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people are asking, is this sustainable?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: Does this align with my values?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Am I becoming the person I want to become?
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: Can I still have a life?
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: These aren't career questions.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: They're human questions.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: And talent leaders need to understand that, because candidates certainly do.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll go back to where we started today.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've talked a lot.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Money, salary, compensation.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: The thing we spend so much time talking about.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: So to summarize my view, salary matters.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: It absolutely matters.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: But salary is rarely the whole story.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: Salary gets attention.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning gets commitment.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Salary starts conversations, leadership sustains them.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Salary attracts people, but growth retains them.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: So salary matters.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually something else matters more.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the challenge I want to leave you with today.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine if salary disappeared tomorrow.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Imagine every organization paid exactly the same.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: What would you compete on?
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: What would candidates choose?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Would they choose your mission, your culture, your leaders, your flexibility, your growth opportunities, your trust, your purpose?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Or would your EVP collapse entirely?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because the only thing differentiating your organization is compensation.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: If that is the only thing, that's not a talent strategy.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's an auction.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody can always outbid you.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: The organizations that win the next decade will not necessarily be the ones paying the most.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: They'll be the ones creating environments that people genuinely want to be part of.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Places where people can grow, contribute, belong, learn, lead, and importantly, build meaningful lives.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's the future.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Not more money, but better work.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the real question, not what do candidates cost, but what do candidates value?
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because once salary stops being enough, that's the only question that really matters.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining me for another episode of Eden Haddock Total Talent.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you've enjoyed today's discussion, please follow, subscribe, and share the podcast with others in the talent community.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, I'm Eden Haddock, and this has been Eden Haddock Total Talent.