Yesterday, I read an article in “The Nation” newspaper in Thailand titled “Job-Hopping Plaguing Companies”.
According to a recent Jobstreets.com – survey, 82 % of companies are facing job-hopping problems, mostly by employees aged 21 – 30 years. The survey covered more than 500 employers and 7,800 employees. The findings revealed that many young people change jobs after less than a year looking for greener pastures and for new challenges.
65 % of employees have worked for their current firms for less than two years, and 75 % of them are already looking for new jobs.
When I talk to managers, I often hear the standard answer that it is “normal” among the younger generation, especially GenerationY, that they stay in a company only for a short time. However, I feel that this is more like a welcome excuse for many managers rather than making serious efforts to retain young generation employees.
In order to increase the duration of young employees in their firms, companies must do the following:
– establish a professional recruitment process (hire the right applicants who want to join the company for the right reasons and who are a “cultural fit”)
– develop and live an inspiring vision and mission statement combined with clear and guiding values
– provide meaning and a sense of belonging to employees (frequent and all too common lay-offs in the corporate world where focus is often only on the bottom line do not help employee loyalty and trust building)
– make employees aware how their job contributes to the overall success of the company
Only if the above practices are firmly in place, employees will show more loyalty to their companies and job-hopping will be reduced significantly.
