Why employers frequently switch jobs and how to retain them
In today’s world, the biggest challenge for a company is to hire that right employee who turns out to be a valuable asset. But an even bigger challenge is to retain that employee. According to a recent research, employees are quitting their job very frequently. This is so because the so-called job hoppers tend to have a higher salary growth than to the ones who stick to the same company for a long time. So basically, job switchers are people who saw no growth in their previous jobs, saw it as a dead end hence switched to a new one that offered them a chance to grow.
It is believed that employees who change jobs quickly experience strong bargaining power and bigger bump on the salary. It is believed that people who stay around in a company for a long time gain on the trust and reputation of the colleagues around but tend to get lower pay wages. But the question is, exactly how much less salary are we talking here? According to a Forbes report, employees who stay longer than 2 years in a company get paid 50% less.
Supporting this Patty McCord, former chief talent officer for Netflix was quoted saying, “job hopping is a good thing, and young people should plan to do so every three to four years.” She further added, “I think that the most important, critical change in people’s mental outlook is to view employees as smart contributors from the beginning”. “If we changed our perspective and said, ‘Everyone here wants to come in, do a great job, and contribute,’ then they either fit or they don’t,” she adds. “You build skills faster when changing companies because of the learning curve.”
People take job changing as an answer for their stagnation in their career and financial growth. A big bump in their paycheck may not be seen during the time of the increment season but only while joining a company. Some companies really look at these job hoppers as people who are very versatile and talented. They are considered to have higher learning ability. It is believed that because of their frequent switches, they can work outside their comfort zone. A repeated pattern has been noticed in them which is, that the job hoppers very quickly upon joining a new company, learn new things quickly, make good impressions on their peers and seniors and are ready to move on again.
Supporting this Penelope Trunk, a serial entrepreneur, and author says life is actually “more stable” with frequent job changes. “In terms of managing your own career, if you don’t change jobs every three years, you don’t develop the skills of getting a job quickly, so then you don’t have any career stability,” Trunk adds. “You’re just completely dependent on the place that you work as if it’s 1950, and you’re going to get a gold watch at the end of a 50-year term at your company.”
Keeping all this in mind, it can be understood why employees tend to quit after a certain period of time. Where this is a boon for employees, it’s a bane for companies. Because once you hire a job hopper, chances are that he will switch to a new opportunity again soon. But there are also companies that have built up that reputation amongst the employees that even if the employees are offered a handsome salary, they will still not change their job. Google, Microsoft, Airbnb are some of these companies that have employees working in them for years. But what exactly are these companies doing to retain their employees? Firstly, they have understood that money isn’t the only factor that will help them keep an employee for long. If money is great but everything is bad, you are more likely to quit that job sooner or later.
Lynn Taylor, a national workplace expert and the author of “ Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job, “ says, “”Retaining the best and brightest is what ultimately matters and the most innovative and successful companies today have figured that out. They’ve taken retention efforts to an advanced level.”
Laszlo Bock, the SVP of Google’s People Operations and author of new book “Work Rules! says that most companies don’t know how to hold onto their best people.
“People don’t stay for the money,” Bock said, noting that more than a third of Google’s first 100 employees are still working at the company despite making boatloads of money in its IPO. According to him, there are different factors that make an employee stay and these are — The quality of the people they work with and feel that the work they are doing is meaningful. He says that once a company sorts these things out it will become very difficult for an employee to leave his company for the sake of a better salary. Losing a single employee can cost a lot to a company. If “why” is not understood and then acted upon, this can soon turn into a wave of departure.
The HR needs to realize that they need to have frequent discussions with the employees. They need make sure that the employees feel respected, taken care of and knows that he is valuable to the company. Regular feedbacks, being accessible to your employee, promoting them, listening to their views and having an open communication are some of the things that can be checked and acted upon.
For an employee to consider a company to stay in, the company must work in its working environment. A company should not just know how to manage employees but also how to micro-manage them. Enough freedom should be given for them to work on their new ideas and they should be allowed to work in those directions. The company should make sure to have an open platform for the employees where they can come up and speak their mind. Share openly their thoughts and views on anything even if it is about the company policies.
If you have employees quitting, it is the company’s responsibility to understand what made them take that decision. Because the bottom line is that whatever caused someone to look for an opportunity outside is probably being experienced by others on the team too.
