Each year, the Hays Salary Guide offers a useful snapshot of what is shaping career decisions across Australia and New Zealand. The FY26/27 edition surveyed more than 7,000 professionals and hiring managers, and one finding stands out: salary and career progression are now almost equally influential in decisions to leave an organisation.
Among people who changed employers in the past 12 months, 31% cited pay and 29% cited the absence of a clear career path. That narrowing gap matters because it suggests professionals are not only asking whether they are being paid fairly. They are also asking whether they can see a future for themselves, whether their contribution is recognised and whether there is room to grow.
For leaders, professionals and organisations, this has implications well beyond remuneration.
Career direction is also a visibility question
The report highlights a strong relationship between career clarity, job satisfaction and retention. Where promotion structures are clear, job satisfaction is higher and active job seeking is lower. Where progression feels uncertain, employees are more likely to look elsewhere.
That is an organisational issue, but it is also a professional one. Many capable people wait for their contribution to be noticed before they begin to articulate what they want next. They assume career direction will become clear through performance alone. Sometimes it does, but often it needs to be made more visible.
This does not mean self-promotion for its own sake. It means being able to describe your strengths, experience, ambitions and contribution with enough clarity that the people around you can understand where you are heading. Your LinkedIn profile is one place where that professional story becomes visible.
Most professionals are already in some form of transition
The Hays data suggests that a significant proportion of the workforce is either actively looking for a move or open to one. That does not mean everyone is dissatisfied, but it does mean professional mobility has become part of the landscape.
People are reassessing what they want from work. They are considering salary, flexibility, leadership, culture, development and the kind of contribution they want to make next. For professionals in this position, LinkedIn is not simply a job-search tool. It is often the place where your professional story is assessed before a conversation begins.
A prospective employer may look at your profile before contacting you. A board recruiter may review your leadership experience. A former colleague may be considering whether to refer you. A client, collaborator or industry peer may be deciding whether to connect. Your profile is quietly doing work on your behalf, whether you are actively tending to it or not.
A profile that no longer reflects you is not neutral
Many professionals have a LinkedIn profile that reflects an earlier version of their career. It may list roles and responsibilities accurately enough, but it no longer captures the scale of their work, the quality of their thinking or the direction they are moving towards.
That is not a failure. It is simply a sign that the profile has not kept pace with the person. But an outdated profile can create a gap between the contribution you are making now and the impression others form when they search for you.
A current, well-considered profile can help close that gap. It can make your experience easier to understand, your expertise easier to find and your professional direction easier to recognise.
Career narrative matters more than ever
The narrowing gap between pay and progression points to a broader shift. Professionals increasingly want more than a salary increase. They want a sense of direction, development and purpose in their work.
Your LinkedIn profile is one of the most visible places where that career narrative either lands or gets lost. A profile that reads only as a list of job titles and responsibilities may describe what you have done, but it may not help people understand what you have built, the environments you have led in, the problems you help solve or the kind of work you are ready for next.
That is especially important for senior professionals and executive leaders, whose contribution is often broader than their title suggests. A strong profile does not need to tell your whole story, but it should help the right people understand the thread running through it.
Visibility is not the same as job seeking
One of the most persistent misconceptions about LinkedIn is that updating your profile signals you are looking for a new job. In reality, maintaining a clear and current profile is simply good professional practice.
It helps ensure you are findable for relevant opportunities, credible in your field and easier for others to understand. For leaders, it can also support internal visibility, industry reputation, speaking opportunities, board pathways and stronger client or stakeholder relationships.
For organisations, current LinkedIn profiles can help make leadership capability more visible beyond the Company Page. A visible leader profile does not need to signal public job seeking. It can simply show that a professional reputation is being represented with care.
Skills and AI are reshaping professional credibility
The report also points to ongoing skills shortages and the increasing influence of AI in the workplace. Many professionals are already using AI regularly, while formal training and organisational support have not always kept pace.
This is a useful reminder that professional credibility is not only built on past experience. It is also shaped by the skills, capabilities and questions you are developing now.
Your LinkedIn profile can reflect that evolution through updated skills, clearer descriptions of emerging responsibilities, useful insights from your work or thoughtful participation in conversations about the changes affecting your sector. You do not need to become an AI commentator overnight, but it is worth considering whether your profile reflects the professional world you are working in now rather than the one that existed several years ago.
The importance of alignment
The Hays report refers to the importance of alignment between pay, progression, skills and AI. That idea applies to LinkedIn too.
Your profile, your work, your skills, your professional network and the contribution you want to make next are not separate streams. They are part of the same professional story. When they are aligned, LinkedIn becomes easier to use. Your profile feels more natural, your activity feels more purposeful and the opportunities that come your way are more likely to fit the direction you are genuinely moving towards.
When they are not aligned, the cost tends to show up quietly in missed conversations, unclear positioning, overlooked opportunities and a profile that no longer reflects the professional you have become.
A useful question to ask
The Hays data is a reminder to look beyond salary alone. Career direction matters, professional visibility matters and the ability to explain your contribution matters.
A useful question is whether your LinkedIn profile reflects the professional you are now and signals where you are heading. If the answer feels uncertain, that is not a problem. It is simply where the work begins.
