Buying & Merchandising: Top 3 reasons to look for a new job

Do you know what your targeted Buying & Merchandising talent pool is looking for? We recently surveyed 450+ professionals to create this year’s 2020 Salary & Benefits Guide. Our survey sought to find out the reasons people look to change jobs and what benefits attracted them to a new employer. In this blog we’re going to take a look at what prompts Buying & Merchandising employees to think about looking for a new position.

We asked participants in our survey this question:

“What would make you look for another job?” And here are the top three rated factors voted for by Buying & Merchandising professionals based on their first-choice selection (selected from a list of 10). Buying & Merchandising professionals surveyed placed these three influential factors in order of importance;

1st Uncompetitive Salary 2nd Feeling undervalued in their current role 3rd Company Culture / ethos.

This was also reflected in our survey results for “What do you value most when looking for another role?” Perhaps unsurprisingly, “Salary” topped the list (with a “Challenging/purposeful role” second). Salary levels in general in Buying & Merchandising have remained static, reflecting the challenging conditions on the UK high street for retailers.

The second placed choice also stands out, with a number of candidates selecting “Feeling undervalued in current role”. As specialists in Buying & Merchandising, we are seeing a lot of movement in the junior level market, but less so in senior roles. It is too much to suppose from this that people are staying in roles where they feel they have job security, even though at the same time they feel undervalued?

Job satisfaction results back this up: Buyers and Merchandisers were least satisfied with their current job of all our specialisms, with many unhappy with their career progression (66%) and over half (56%) feeling that their performance isn’t recognised.

Want to find out if Buying & Merchandising professionals are worried about AI & Automation? Download our Salary & Benefits Guide