How to Hire and Keep High-Salary Workers in Today’s Market

Here’s what high-salary workers really want, according to a new Indeed-commissioned Harris Poll survey, and how you can use those insights to rethink the hiring experience.

Key takeaways

• High-salary candidates are motivated more by the promise of opportunity than by dissatisfaction with their current jobs, but both are meaningful drivers in the job search.
• The most successful hiring strategies are human-centred and focused on transparency, flexibility, and growth opportunities.
• Outdated hiring mentalities and failing to prioritize employee retention can be major pitfalls for employers in the high-salary market.

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of those seeking high-salary jobs say it’s hard to get hired right now, according to a recent Indeed-commissioned Harris Poll survey of U.S. and Canadian workers and employers. It’s clear why hiring high-salary workers is more difficult. But besides a shorter time to hire, what do these candidates actually want?

Survey responses from job seekers reveal their priorities during the job search. With that, the data spotlights an opportunity for employers to return to a more people-centric mentality in their hiring and retention strategies — something they may have lost sight of in recent years. 

“Studies show that when you put people first, business follows,” Indeed Senior Talent Strategy Advisor Kyle M.K. notes. “The best results don’t come from squeezing every drop out of people — they come from creating a garden where people can grow and thrive.”

In this article, we’ll examine the top motivating factors that drive high-salary candidates in their job searches, what employers can learn from the data, and how organizations can modernize their hiring strategies to better attract and retain highly paid workers. 

What Motivates High-Salary Workers in Their Job Searches?

When asked what drives them in their job searches, survey participants had 16 options to choose from. Their responses depict a mindset in which high-salary workers are running towards opportunity, more so than they are running away from problems: 

Primary motivations = opportunity gain

Unsurprisingly, money ranked highest on the list of motivations: 3 out of 5 candidates (60%) report higher pay as a key motivating factor in their job searches. Similarly, 2 out of 5 candidates (40%)** cite better benefits as a top driver. Flexible hours, company culture, and flexibility to work remotely round out the top five.

[DATA VISUALIZATION 1]

Top factors motivating high-salary candidates in their job searches
Higher pay	60%
Better benefits	40%**
More flexible hours	36%
Better company culture	32%
Ability to work remotely	30%

What the data tells us: The top five things highly compensated candidates seek are all characterized by opportunity gain, suggesting that high-salary workers are driven by a desire for more and better, above all. It also feeds into the narrative that employers are unable or unwilling to budge on key issues, as the gap between job seeker expectations and employer offerings continues to widen.

[CALLOUT BOX]

🔍DATA DEEP DIVE: Benefits matter more to Americans than Canadians **The 40% figure represents an average across all survey respondents who say they’re looking for better benefits. A closer look at the survey data by country reveals that a notably higher percentage of Americans (47%) selected it as a factor compared to Canadians (33%).

Secondary drivers = reasons to leave

A lack of growth opportunity ranked as the next highest driver (23%) among survey respondents. Meanwhile, just over 1 in 5 (21%) candidates say they’re looking for a career change, which is tied with high stress levels (21%). Boredom follows close behind at 19%. 

[DATA VISUALIZATION 2]

Top factors motivating high-salary candidates in their job searches
No opportunity for growth	23%
Seeking a career change	21%
7. High stress levels	21%
9. Boredom in current role	19%

What the data tells us: Whereas the top motivators represent job seekers’ desire for greater opportunity, these secondary drivers are rooted in unhappiness with their current employers. These findings, alongside key insights from the 2025 SHRM State of the Workplace, indicate a need for employers to prioritize retention efforts in their hiring strategies. 

Taken together, the data is clear: People want jobs and employers that meet them where they are. Work should fit into people’s lives, not the other way around. But following years of global disruptions — from COVID and the Great Resignation (especially in the U.S.) to artificial intelligence (AI) and economic volatility — many employers have built hiring strategies that are overly complex and increasingly disconnected from the people they aim to serve. 

As M.K. notes, many simply “haven’t really had time to sit down and redesign their candidate and employee experiences.”

4 Hiring Mistakes That Turn Off High-Salary Candidates

An outdated hiring process that doesn’t put people first costs employers more than just time — it undermines your ability to land top talent. And if the way you hire is less than ideal, chances are your employee experience and retention strategy could use a refresh, too. Here are four common pitfalls employers get stuck in when hiring and retention efforts have stalled, and what you can do to address them.

Mistake #1: You’re using outdated hiring criteria and metrics for success

This might be an issue if… You prioritize credentials above all and filter candidates based primarily on years of experience, alma mater, or generic leadership titles. 

How to fix it: Shift to a skills-based hiring approach that prioritizes capabilities over credentials. Consider how a candidate’s technical and relational skills may help them perform in the role you’re trying to fill, with a focus on how they think, as opposed to what they’ve done. 

[CALLOUT BOX:]

💡Indeed user tip: Skills-based hiring is 2.5x more predictive of job performance than screening for experience alone. To ensure you’re not missing out on top talent who can bring real value to your organization, use Indeed Smart Sourcing to filter candidates by skills and other criteria that allow you to match and make quality hires faster. Learn more →

Kyle M.K. says: Try scenario-based interview questions tailored to actual challenges they might face in that role to assess how the candidate thinks, problem-solves, and applies their skills in context. Here are some examples:

• Tell me what you would do if a senior stakeholder disagreed with your recommendation, even though you believe it’s the best option for the business.
• You’ve just been hired to improve a process that no one has touched in two years. How would you assess what’s working and what needs to change?
• You’re working cross-functionally with a team that doesn’t fully understand your role or goals. How do you build alignment?

Mistake #2: Your candidate experience dates back to pre-COVID times  

This might be an issue if… Candidates ghost you throughout the hiring process, your talent attraction (TA) team spends most of its time writing job descriptions, or it feels like a chore for recruiters to manage candidate communications.

How to fix it: Refresh your candidate experience, keeping in mind that job seekers want transparency, flexibility, and speed throughout the hiring process. Rethink the candidate journey from first touchpoint to final offer — and use AI to streamline the tedious administrative tasks so your team can shift its focus to building high-value human connections.

Kyle M.K. says: Always follow the job seeker behaviour. Use data and feedback from previous hires to inform what’s working — and what’s not. If your candidates are more responsive to texts but the majority of your communications are still through email, it’s time to make a change.

Mistake #3: You haven’t prioritized learning and development

This might be an issue if…Training is an “as-needed” afterthought, you expect new hires to “plug-and-play” and hit the ground running, or you don’t provide employees with ongoing support to grow and upskill. 

How to fix it: Treat learning and development as a core part of your hiring strategy and employee experience. Skills audits for new hires and employees can help identify gaps and opportunities among your workforce. Allocate time and resources for ongoing employee training, and normalize learning as part of the company culture. 

Kyle M.K. says: Hire for Day One, train for Day 90 — and beyond. Don’t expect candidates to meet 100% of your requirements; plan to invest in training for new hires while also providing ongoing learning opportunities for all employees.

Mistake #4: You’re too focused on attraction without thinking about retention

This might be an issue if… Your hiring goals are “complete” once you’ve made the hire, without consideration for long-term employee engagement or growth opportunities, or employees who seem eager at the start leave within a year or two.

How to fix it: Design a more complete hiring strategy with back-end retention efforts built in. Design clear paths for growth and development, and be upfront with candidates and employees about what internal mobility looks like to reduce attrition in the long run. Your retention strategy should balance employees’ need to feel challenged with their desire for recognition and reward. 

Kyle M.K. says: Dual-track promotions — based on the idea that employees can advance their careers on a management track or as individual contributors — allow for more growth where traditional career ladders often reward only those who move into management.  Don’t think about your org structure as a pyramid with limited room at the top — reimagine it as a skyscraper.

Hiring with Purpose  

The challenges of hiring high-salary talent aren’t going to disappear, but the ways you can hire with a more human-focused mindset are well within reach. Employers who slow down just enough to hear what job seekers are asking for can build stronger hiring strategies that attract top talent today and develop their potential for tomorrow. 

“Job seekers want to contribute to something meaningful — to join a company with a mission they believe in, that helps them achieve their own personal goals and dreams,” M.K. says.

“Nobody can predict where we’ll be in five years, but we can navigate it with purpose, as long as we’re guided by a north star that puts people first.”

Indeed provides this information as a courtesy to users of this site. Please note that we are not your recruiting or legal advisors; we are not responsible for the content of your job descriptions, and none of the information provided herein guarantees performance.

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