Why do employees job hop?

Internet Retailing

14th Feb 2017

Aussies look for more challenging jobs and a progressive career, says recruiting specialist Hays.

About 61% of 1,516 people surveyed by the agency said the number one reason they look for another job is for more challenging or exciting work.

It is followed by a lack of career development (60%), the opportunity to improve salary (58%) and work-life balance (54%).

Apart from these, employees see lack of recognition or reward for completed work (43%); same job routine and stagnant existing skills (41%); management’s failure to communicate business objectives to staff (30%) and not being involved in decision making (24%) affect Aussies job performance. About 23% said their decision to change jobs was because of a lack of performance feedback.

“People managers take the time to make sure they recruit the right person, but often spend very little time on their retention,” said Nick Deligiannis, managing director of Hays in Australia & New Zealand.

“People want to be challenged, they want new and exciting work, and they want the opportunity for their career to move forward. So why don’t more employers link the career development of their staff and the provision of new, exciting and challenging tasks with their organisation’s overall goals?”

He said upskilling staff is important if there is a shortage in sourcing out people for a new project. There are 80% of employees expect to be involved in projects that develop their skills.

In its survey, Hays also found that 68% of employers align the career development of their staff with the current and future skills their organisation will need to achieve its goals. But 11% don’t, another 11% only do so for their top performers and the final 10% only do so for future leaders.

Yet 80% of employees want – and expect – to be involved in projects that help develop their skills so that they can move into a higher level role. To develop their career they also want internal training (69%) and mentorship programmes (66%).

“Rapid technological change and the digitalisation of the workforce will make upskilling your existing staff even more important if you are to keep up with the rapid rate of change,” said Deligiannis.

“This includes artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, which are expected to take over the routine and repetitive functions of a job – leaving staff free to focus on higher level duties. How this will play out in your organisation should certainly be factored into your talent management strategy.”

This story first appeared on sister site, Inside FMCG.