Serial Job Hoppers: A Menace To Recruiters!

Candidates are the most prized possessions in the recruitment industry. As recruiters, we make it a point to track the progress of each candidate we place with our clients. We take regular updates and information regarding their growth and performance in the organisation. As part of my job, I was assigned to track the progress of a candidate my team placed. Approximately, after 10 months I see, the candidate we placed is up in the market seeking a change in their career.

Nowadays, job hopping has practically become a trend most candidates follow, especially millennials. The idea of sticking to one organisation for years has been outdated. According the career experts, the maximum number of years an employee stays at a given job is somewhere between 18 months to under 2 years. Be it an MNC or a start-up, employees no matter what – are bound to leave after a given period.

In order to delve deeper into this matter, we decided to interact with a selected few candidates, who had a deliberate history of changing at least 3 jobs in 7 years, we found that many see “job hopping” as an opportunity to increase their responsibilities and remuneration. As far as recruitment is concerned, job hopping is seen as a serious concern and considered a hurdle for job-seekers who are looking for new opportunities.

Case

Here is an employment history of one of the candidates we placed — NR, 34, began working as an IT consultant with a well-known MNC. She stayed put for at least 4 years before switching to another company, where she spent another 3 years working as a senior IT consultant. With her previous company – a Han Digital client – NR resigned from her post after 2 years exact. At present, NR is seeking a new job. Upon asking NR about her professional gigs, she said – “low salary and seeking new opportunities”. She also stated job hopping helped her realise her goals and in all these years she was significantly earning more than her peers.

To evaluate NR’s case further, we asked an HR expert to give an opinion. According to them, a job-seeker like NR would have troubles seeking a new job as her work history only speaks for herself and nothing about her contribution towards the organisation in the last 7 years. The only way out is to start her own consulting firm as it can offer dynamism and an opportunity to work on individual projects.

There are similar people like NR in the industry who are in the habit of job hopping — also known as serial job hoppers.

There is a commonly held the belief that staying in a job for less than few years showed disloyalty or fickleness towards an organisation or career goal. But to some job hopping is more about discovering alternate career paths and realising their goals.

To hire a candidate with a history of different jobs can prove toxic to any organisation. As talent researchers we have observed candidates who have been consistently job hopping. Here is a list of serial job hopper types we have come across:

The millennials

Also known as Generation Y, are usually born between the1980s, the mid-1990s and early the 2000s. A recent study stated that millennials are “reputed” for job hopping. According to Gallup, millenials are the job hopping generation. Millennials job hop particularly because:

• Higher education forces millennials to seek newer opportunities
• High remuneration is offered only to experienced candidates
• Lack of amenities and benefits offered by a company can force them to look for new jobs
• Millennials view workplaces as extensions of their social circle and is always on the lookout for expanding those circles

Recruiters find it difficult to place millennials due to their unstable nature. However, this assumption does not apply to all millennials.

The salary oriented types

Lack of perks and benefits are the two prime reasons that cause employees to look for new opportunities. Experts classify employees into two categories – intrinsically motivated and extrinsically motivated. The former are career oriented and the latter are more driven towards monetary benefits. An extrinsically motivated employee thrives well in an environment that offers a lucrative salary and constants rewards that keeps up their growing morale and ambitions.

The forever student types

These are the daring types, the experimental ones. They are bound to job hop the moment they come across a novel opportunity that will offer them a good chance to experiment with their current skills. Dealing with such employees is a constant struggle due to their unstable attitude towards work and immediate environment. These are also employees who constantly keep planning for one higher education or another.

The sabbatical types

We might have come across individuals who often go on a long vacation and then resume work nearly after 6 to 12 months. These employees have a high self-esteem and carefree attitude. Recruiters generally avoid such candidates as they are often good with excuses relating to their sabbatical. Also such employees have issues such as professional credibility and stability at work place.

Dealing with serial job hoppers has become a menace to recruiters. The reason being – their tendency to leave jobs on a brief notice. Sourcing such profile can prove fatal to a recruiter’s career as credit is given to only candidates who stay at client location for a longer duration.