Changing work

The challenge of attracting talent? It is played out between well-being, leadership confidence and work life balance

Professionals' demands focus on work-life balance, corporate transparency and employee welfare

24 June 2025

4' min read

The needs of professionals have stabilised and revolve around work-life balance and well-being. Priorities change from person to person, as is only right and normal, but there is one recurring theme in the answers given by the more than 50,000 workers who took part in the 2025 edition of the global "Talent Trends" study by PageGroup, one of the leading international companies in the field of specialised recruitment. What is this recurring theme? The need for clarity.

Although people's desires for work have stabilised in recent years, many professionals have a number of unknowns about the future, mainly related to hybrid work and the increasingly pervasive spread of artificial intelligence. The other side of the same coin is the ability of companies to attract and retain talent: everything is played out, once again, in the field of transparency.

Salary, flexibility, technology, culture and values, as the survey shows, are the five pillars on which the work of the future is built. And it is precisely on these aspects that, for managers and employers, the opportunity to be competitive in terms of transparency and gain an advantage over other companies comes into play. To seize this advantage, however, it is necessary to give clear indications of what companies are able to offer in order to attract talent in line with their values.

A good salary and the opportunity for career advancement have long been the main desires of professionals, then - five years ago - the pandemic changed everything, reshaping the personal and professional priorities of many people. It is certainly no coincidence, therefore, that workers today seek, more than any other factor, a work-life balance, even at the expense of their own careers. "The last five years," says Tomaso Mainini, PageGroup's Managing Director for Italy and Turkey, "have completely changed the labour market, and this change, while bringing with it numerous opportunities, can create hesitations and uncertainties that also have a considerable impact on the recruitment and selection processes. Hiring talented people is now becoming the real challenge for all companies, of all sizes, types and sectors'.

No compromise on work life balance

The work life balance, in this changed scenario, assumes an important relevance, so much so that it can no longer be considered just an 'accessory benefit' but something that all workers expect and on which they do not intend to compromise. Companies that want to be successful, this is the vision of the PageGroup manager, cannot therefore limit themselves to taking note of this change, but must actively intervene to avoid losing talent, perhaps attracted by realities that offer greater flexibility or are more attentive to people's well-being. This latter thesis is supported by the data: 58% of professionals currently working in hybrid or fully remote modes have in fact declared that they would look for a new job if the request to increase the number of hours/days to work in the office were to arrive.

Then there is the economic aspect, historically one of the parameters underlying the decision to embark on a new professional adventure. Although no longer a priority, it remains an aspect that should not be underestimated, although there remains a situation that the report's authors define as one of 'watchful waiting': 42% of those interviewed have in fact asked for a pay rise in the last twelve months, while the percentage of Italian professionals who try to negotiate a pay rise (successfully) is lower in Italy than elsewhere and stands at 13%, compared to a global average of close to 21%.

And it is precisely when it comes to salary that professionals want to have all the information clearly. "We are well aware," Mainini points out, "that in order to manage any negotiations it is essential to have clear reference points, even more so when we are talking about pay. The implementation of the EU Directive on pay transparency, which requires companies with more than 100 employees to report any differences in pay and take steps to close them, will certainly reduce the gap, but we cannot deny that the road to equality is still a long one".

Salaries, still high gender gap

The 'Talents Trend 2025' speaks very clearly in this respect: one third of employees believe that a gender pay gap exists and this perception increases at management levels and among women, with 45% of female employees reporting a gender-related pay gap in their company, compared to 24% of men.

Lastly, there is one last piece of data that emerged from the report that once again puts the human factor at the centre of working relationships: one professional in five declares that they have little trust in their managers and this shows how crucial transparency and open communication are to creating a serene climate in the company and reducing the propensity to seek new professional opportunities. "From our observatory," confirms Mainini, "it emerges that the credibility of leadership is currently under scrutiny. Without decisive action, employees may assume that their managers do not have their best interests at heart and this may lead to less commitment and, in the most extreme cases, to resignation'. Although the level of employee 'trust' may seem fragile, there are positive signs that companies are making efforts in this regard: many respondents to the survey stated that the companies they work for are fairly or very transparent about key issues, starting with business objectives and financial information.