Article
Salary alone no longer wins the offer
If you’re building or growing a marketing team, you’ve probably felt it: candidates today are asking different questions than they used to. Not just “what’s the salary?” but “what will I learn here, and where can this role take me?”
Salary still matters. But it’s no longer the only thing that matters. And for a growing portion of the marketing talent pool, especially younger professionals, it’s not even the deciding factor. This is one of the clearest signals from The House of Marketing’s 2026 Marketing Salary Guide, built on real hiring situations, candidate conversations, and market observations across the Belgian marketing landscape. For HR and Marketing leaders trying to attract and retain talent, understanding this shift is no longer optional.
“There is a noticeable change in the priorities of employees across generations. While Millennials tend to focus more on job titles and advancing their careers, Gen Z is more interested in the opportunities a job offers for their personal growth.”
Charlotte Oloton, Consultant at The House of Marketing
The numbers back this up. According to LinkedIn Talent Solutions and the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report, cited in The House of Marketing’s 2026 Marketing Salary Guide, 70% of employees consider learning and development a key factor when accepting or staying in a role. That’s not a marginal group. That’s the majority.
Job mobility is driven by progression, not pay
Here’s where it gets interesting. According to the same LinkedIn sources, rising job mobility is driven less by pay dissatisfaction and more by limited progression and lack of challenge. Growth perspective has become a decisive factor earlier in the hiring process.
Think about what that means in practice. A candidate is weighing two offers. The salaries are close, maybe a few hundred euros apart. One role offers clear learning opportunities, access to training, and a defined path forward. The other offers slightly higher pay but limited development. When salary positioning is close, non-financial elements increasingly tip the scale.
This does not mean employers can offset below-market pay with vague promises of growth. Our research makes clear that non-financial benefits rarely make up for misaligned compensation. However, when salary offers are similar, they can strongly influence candidates’ decisions and increasingly support retention.
What Gen Z values most
So what does this look like in practice? According to the 2026 Marketing Salary Guide, this shift is particularly visible among junior profiles and Generation Z, who place greater emphasis on growth mindset, skills development, and future employability, rather than on linear career paths.
That’s a meaningful distinction. It’s not necessarily about climbing a fixed ladder from Specialist to Manager to Director. It’s about whether a role keeps building transferable skills and keeps someone employable, whether that path is linear or not.
Candidates increasingly assess roles based on the full value proposition: scope, autonomy, career progression, personal development, and access to training, rather than salary alone. Together, these form what’s often referred to as the Marketing Employee Value Proposition, in other words, everything beyond the paycheck that determines whether a role is genuinely attractive: how much ownership someone gets, how their role can evolve, and what they’ll walk away having learned.
Transparency in job descriptions matters more than ever
Candidates want to know: What will I learn here? How can this role evolve? What does progression look like? Generic job descriptions that focus only on responsibilities and requirements miss the point. Gen Z candidates especially are asking: What’s in it for me? How does this role build my skillset?
“Beyond pay, candidates increasingly value learning opportunities and clear progression paths. Visibility on how a role can evolve has become a key driver of attraction and retention.”
Stefanie Daenen, Consulting mManager and Talent Search Lead at The House of Marketing
3 things to remember
Organizations that recognize this shift, and act on it, gain a real advantage in attracting and retaining marketing talent. In a market where skilled profiles are scarce and role requirements keep evolving, the employer value proposition can be just as decisive as the salary on offer.
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Be specific about learning opportunities.
Vague promises of “growth” don’t hold up if salary positioning is off. But when compensation is competitive, clear and concrete development paths become a genuine differentiator.
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Make progression paths visible…
…even when they’re not linear. Growth doesn’t have to mean a fixed ladder toward a management title. For many candidates, especially Gen Z, it means building transferable skills and staying employable.
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Recognize that employability and skills matter
As much to younger talent today as job titles and career advancement mattered to previous generations.
Are you looking to strengthen your marketing team?
At THoM Talent Search, we’re marketers who recruit. By combining marketing expertise with recruitment know-how, we help HR and Marketing Managers find talent that brings the right skills, mindset, and cultural fit to their team.
Let’s discuss how we can help you build a talent strategy that goes beyond salary