Are frequent job changes the new standard?
In the past few years, we have noticed that the mores regarding the recruitment are no longer the same as they were 20 years ago. The time were the employees remained loyal to the same employer during 10, 15 years or even their whole professional life is gone. Today, the young professionals can change jobs as such rapid rate of once every 2 years.
Job Hopping (or changing jobs frequently) can be a torture for companies that are not sufficiently prepared to quickly and constantly recruit new talent. However, this reality is becoming more and more the norm on the job market.
According to a study by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2018, the time spent in a business depends a lot on age and industry. In January 2018, employees between 25 and 34 years of age worked for the same company for around 2.8 years, compared to 10.1 years for employees between 55 and 64.
This desire of change seems to come from a combination between the job offers with substantial salary increases and a lack of career opportunities.
If we compare the market of 10 years ago, young professionals were considered like incompetent, unstable or even not enough responsible to keep their job. But today, human resources tend to see the job hopping as a great opportunity for career development.
The benefits of frequent job changes for employees
The new generation has the advantage of being able to develop their skills very quickly. As a result, the majority of knowledge is acquired during the first 2 to 3 years of employment within the same organization.
On another note, the more employers we have, the more people we add to our list of professional contacts who can be very useful for future job searches.
Young employees are conquering new challenges and new adventures to combat the monotony that they can face on a daily basis. The regular change of job allows you to always maintain the aspect of newness in working life.
What the Job Hopping trend can mean for Employers
We know that it can take up to six months for an employee to be fully productive in a new job, which is why many recruiters want to see a minimum duration of more or less 3 years in a previous job to be confident that they will get their return on investment.
When an employee decodes to leave the company after a year or two, it represents a bad return on investment, and this is the reason why employers prefer the candidates who will stay in the company for a long time.
Moreover, this demands a lot of time, efforts and resources to find the ideal candidate who will be able to fill the conditions of the job sought, and when the company finds that person, she doesn’t want him just to be on passing.
Unfortunately, today the employers don’t have the choice to adapt themselves and have to stay open to the differents applications because this trend seems to develop in the following years.
An advice : Stay open and comprehensive to applications while remaining vigilant. You just need the right person who will follow you for a few years!
