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How short is too short?
Millennials and Gen Z, also known as the job hopping generations, are changing jobs potentially more than three times as frequently as previous cohorts according to research from Gallup. Where longer tenures were once the norm, and shorter tenures a perceived sign of restlessness or disloyalty, new generations are seeing the value in switching jobs for a bump in pay or a more senior title.
Who can blame them? Without feeling tied to their organization or institution, employees are unshackled from stunted growth, commitment to a single decade-long career in one occupation, or risks of real-term pay cuts when employers don’t stump up pay rises in line with inflation.
Of course, there are limits, and even the most patient hiring manager will look unfavorably when workers consistently switch jobs without having contributed any meaningful results to their team or company.
This prompts HR teams and employers to consider their stance on job hopping for prospective hires, and what it may mean for employees exiting the business sooner than expected.
Should hiring teams still be keeping an eye out for red flags? Are longer tenures now the recruitment red flag? Is job hopping a sign that your company has poor career development opportunities?
What the job hopping trend means for your recruitment strategy
Some companies and recruitment teams may still cling to the idea that job hopping can only be explained by restlessness. As a former recruiter, I can say that as recently as 2022, leading U.S. employers were still asking me to justify short stints and declining to interview candidates whose resumes included more than one tenure under two years. Equally, other recruitment processes may have seen a complete role reversal (no pun intended) and view longer tenures as a sign of poor ambition or motivation and a lack of adaptability.
As ever, the best path forward lies somewhere in the middle of these extreme and antiquated viewpoints. “It doesn't depend on the clock,” said Microsoft’s ex-VP of HR in a recent interview with Business Insider. “What matters in your job tenure isn't how long but rather how much. Not when you did it, but what you did. What a good hiring manager is looking for is whether you've made an impact on the business and whether you're someone who can get things done.”
Making decisions on candidates based on assumptions about tenure alone is lazy recruiting. Seeking new skills, more responsibility, and better pay, or escaping toxic work cultures, bad managers, and uncertain futures are all valid reasons for job hopping. Likewise, who can blame an employee for choosing to stay several years in a role where their work is valued, well-compensated, and safe from risks of job cuts?
Reviewing candidates based on tenure rather than impact arbitrarily limits talent pools and risks your organization losing out on high-quality candidates that could drive innovation, productivity, profitability, and so on.
What the job hopping trend means for your retention strategy
The other consideration for HR on the back of the job hopping trend is what this means for employee retention.
If employees are flying the coop sooner than expected, does this indicate your workplace is suffering from issues noted above such as a toxic culture, poor career development opportunities, or real wage pay cuts? Or can it be written off to the growing job hopping culture as the proportion of Gen Z and millennial employees grows?
Again, there is a balance between these two extremes. A low retention rate isn’t necessarily bad if disengaged or invaluable employees are those hitting the exit door. Some turnover is always healthy, and if valuable employees are seeking new skills or a fresh start, there’s always the option to welcome them back as a ‘boomerang’ employee with more strings to their bow.
However, the trend does have its basis in the willingness of Gen Z and Millennial employees to call out and not stand for shoddy employment practices. If job hopping is causing your most valued and high-potential employees to leave sooner than you would like or expect, determine what factors are missing from your employee experience that they are seeking elsewhere. Trying to find this out at the exit interview stage is somewhat reactive, so it’s worth proactively pursuing strategies such as comprehensive job rotation programs, less bureaucratic promotion cycles, and more sophisticated employee listening schemes that can uncover root causes of worker frustration disengagement.
