Attracting and Retaining Arts and Culture Professionals

ABA launched The Compelling Employer, a groundbreaking research initiative examining the employment preferences of arts and culture employees across genres and geographies, between October 2024 and January 2025. Staff acquisition and retention remain core industry-wide concerns. prompting ABA to revisit its 2022 Compelling Offer initiative in an effort to understand how staff preferences have changed and what organizations can do develop a compelling employee value proposition.

Our Compelling Employer survey uses conjoint analysis (also known as trade-off analysis) to give arts and culture leaders a much clearer picture of what employees want in a job, and what they are willing to trade off to get it. ABA surveyed over 800 arts and culture professionals across 40 organizations worldwide to determine what attributes matter most. In addition, we profiled best practices in improving manager quality, cultivating culture change, and creating a positive office environment from both inside and outside the arts and culture industry.

The Compelling Employer study answer these key questions:

• Which job attributes are most important to my staff?

• Which investments in employment attributes yield the greatest reward?

• How do preferences differ among demographics and roles within my staff?

• What can we do as an organization to attract and retain the best talent?

• How can we equip managers for success?

For more information, including the research methodology, see the FAQ section.

For any further questions, please contact survey@advisoryboardarts.com