5 Factors that Drive Job Hopping More Than Any Other

online applicant tracking system for small businessAs per An Exploratory Study on Job Hopping, researchers have shown that Generation Today (Let’s call it Generation Y) has become less loyal towards their employers and the reason is “EXPECTATIONS”.  Generation Y’s expectations have grown extremely high as they have become more achievement & team oriented, challenging, tech-savvy, and family-centric. If you need to replace talent because of job hoppers, our online applicant tracking system for small business hiring can really help you out. Click here to use Recruiteze. We make online recruiting and hiring easy.

This generation strives to strike a work/life balance, aims for a better lifestyle, and excellent opportunities for overseas travel and career development more than other generations. In short, they are more freedom focused. This is something which we have already discussed in 5 Hiring Lessons We Can Learn from Microsoft.

The Situation That Is Today

Fresh candidates start their career expecting a long and permanent journey with their new organization, but no matter how lavish the onboarding experience is, there still exists a gnawing sentiment, “If the company isn’t loyal to us then why we should be loyal to it?”

Every day a new company comes to life, but the really long corporate ladders have disappeared resulting in fewer growth opportunities. The ultimate way by which employees can advance is by job hopping.

The problem is that employers want to retain their good employees and lessen the attrition rate but all the good employees seek recognition and wish to get rewarded for their hard work and effort, so they job hop.

Being digitally equipped with so many job websites and referral campaigns, employees are determined to switch if they are not satisfied or feel their skills are not being utilized.  The salary factor is indeed an important factor, but other factors such as soft benefits, education, and recognition have pushed it down the chain.

Many hiring managers across the top organizations are using software algorithms to predict employee turnover. Strange but true, by the time their software identifies the employees who are on the verge of leaving the company, it is often too late. A savvy recruiter from another organization has already approached them with a great job offer.

Let’s drill down into some factors that influence job hopping. Have a look.

Beginning with the End Already in Mind

When an employee in this current generation Y joins an organization, he already has some propensity “I am not going to stay forever!

Only a few aim to stay in the company for a long time, the rest all  inclined to job hop.  We’ll discuss over this later in the article.

How does education influence job hopping?

It’s been evident that job hopping is more prominent in cases where the workers are overqualified, underpaid, or underemployed. Qualification is a major factor influencing Generation Y these days. Let’s take a closer look at how education plays an important role in job hopping and who is affected by education the most.

1.    Highly educated workers tend to job hop more.

Job hopping is now a trend witnessed in almost all industries, but it’s more common in the professional services, media & entertainment, and non-profit industries.

The scenario changes drastically when a grad gets a job out of university and stays there until his/her retirement – or layoffs. According to Forbes, “Millennials can earn a higher salary, grow their career, change locations more frequently, and find a better cultural fit from job-hopping.”

According to a study by livecareer, employees with an average qualification like high school graduation tend to stay longest with an organization (around 4.4 years) and the ones with an associate degree tend to stay for 4.1 years. This figure is further lowered with respect to employees with a PG or a bachelor’s degree as they tend to stay a maximum of around 2.5-3.7 years with any organization.

2.    Education is overemphasized in nonprofessional occupations.

Be it a professional or a nonprofessional occupation, employers look forward to recruiting qualified candidates for the available job roles. Talking about nonprofessional occupations such as cashiers, servers, bartenders, etc where the core skills are learned and gained on the job, studies have shown that education is overemphasized in these occupations. As a result, job seekers tend to list their higher education degrees and certificates over their resumes more often than described in the job ads.

3.    Older workers tend to job hop less than younger workers, but only up to a point.

As per the findings of an  Exploratory Study on Job Hopping, the average number of years an employee stays in any organization is 3 years. The main reasons for job hopping as per Forbes are remuneration, career growth, soft benefits, the reputation of the company, work environment & culture, and job security.

The study also reveals that with growing age and career maturity, job hopping decreases but education and certification still remain the key indicators of job-hopping propensity.

Female employees criteria for job hopping was a bit different from that of male employees. Female employees prioritize working hours, personal matters, and work from home options quite a lot over the salary factor and tend to stay with the same company for a long time.

On the contrary, male employees tend to job hop more than females in their career. The initial fight for females, however, is found to be more as they tend to switch around a number of companies when they start their careers so as to find the one that suits them the most but stop thereafter. The more the employees are educated and skilled the more they hop.

4.    Blue collar vs. white collar.

We all know that professionals, especially the ones in the IT sector, job hop more than individuals in other industries. According to the study, a software professional serves his company for only 2.4 years on average. While, on the other hand, administrative assistants, teachers, and store managers tend to stay the longest.

All in all, the workers who require more employer specific knowledge tend to stay longer as it takes many years for them to become proficient.

5.    Use your school wisely.

A good education buys you more options, opportunities, and mobility if played right. The higher educational qualification signals that you are very competitive in the market. But for some occupations which are known to have high job hopping rates, it might make you look overqualified.

You must, therefore, be careful while presenting your educational background as it can send both positive and negative signals to your future employer.

Review your job ads carefully and use your credentials well. For the job roles where the job skills are transferred relatively easily, there might not be any need for degree/certificates unless otherwise stated in the job advertisement.

Essential Tips for Job Seekers

  1. Downplay your educational achievements and credentials in cases where you are applying for jobs which require a specific skill set for that role. For the roles which can easily be transferred to other employers/employees (non-professional), you should never show off your professional credentials. This will help in creating the impression that you are not overqualified for the job role and you are more likely to stay with the organization for a longer period of time.
  2. When applying for jobs that require highly skilled roles such as nurses, software developers, teachers, or accountants, you must make sure that you have certain professional certifications or licenses to fall back on. This is because the first round of elimination is generally based on that. In order to make your resumes effective, you may consider highlighting the certification/s as they act as a game changer.
  3. Do not just copy/paste or forward your resumes blindly to employers or HR teams. Carefully review the job openings and draft a resume that suits their requirements. Write the latest and most relevant achievements first, thereafter, highlighting the certifications relevant from the job perspective.

What you must always remember is that having a degree may not necessarily qualify you for the job profile. So, it is favorable to think and design your resume keeping in mind the skills your next employer values the most.

Some Final Words

After analyzing all the traits of Generation Y and their reasons for job hopping, a close relationship can be observed. There is no doubt that the employees in Generation Y are better performers compared to the previous ones but they job hop more frequently.

As per Deloitte, the employees today value opportunity more than anything else and it is the duty of employers to understand and get the best out of them. Furthermore, the relationship between job hopping and education is closely linked to the level of expectations of the employees.

There is a big difference between the expectations of an employee with a degree and an employee with an advanced level qualification. As a result of this increased level of expectations of the degree holders, they tend to look out for better job opportunities with a good salary hike and other soft benefits. But, the highly qualified employees hesitate to job hop during the start of their careers as their competition is high when compared to degree holders. Thus, the organizations have high chances of retaining these employees for a longer time.

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