Employers Competing for Executive Talent and Compensation is Rising

Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) is an economic indicator that looks at job expectations, vacancies, compensation of new hires, and competition for recruits. Featured recently on the SHRM.org site and quoted by ExecuNet in its latest executive compensation survey, the latest figures seem to bode well for executives in career transition.

As the supply for talent tightens and demand increases, more and more organizations are using employment contracts, guaranteed bonuses and severance, and stock options to recruit candidates. Forty-five percent of packages offered in 2006 included a guaranteed first-year bonus, versus 27% in 2005. Thirty-nine percent included signing bonuses in 2006, versus 34% in the previous year. Stock options and equity were included in 50% of offers for 2006, in contrast to 42% in 2005.

Clearly companies are finding that they must raise the stakes in order to attract talent in an increasingly hot executive job market in which recruiter activity has increased for ExecuNet’s network by more than 20% this past year. During 2006, most executives held expectations of a 15% or more increase in compensation should they change jobs.