Job-hopping is when an employee moves from one job to another in a short period of time. And this adds to one of the pains of an employer: employee retention. After all, just because you hired a talent, doesn’t mean that they will stay with you. These days, it’s hard to expect a candidate to stay for a long time. However, it doesn’t mean that your employees will leave the moment an opportunity presents itself. As an employer, you have a lot of things you can do to prevent your employees from job-hopping.

 

Why do employees job-hop?

To prevent employees from job-hopping, you first need to know the reasons why they do. Different factors affect different people, but there are some common reasons such as:

  • Better compensation – according to a study by Addison Group, 52% of job seekers are looking for a new job to increase their salary or compensation.
  • They feel that they don’t fit with the job and/or culture – in Jobvite’s 2018 Job Seeker Nation Study, 88% of respondents cite culture as at least of relative importance in applying to a company while 46% said that it’s important for them. In the same study, almost 30% of the respondents left a job within 90 days, with 43% citing that their job’s day-to-day role wasn’t what they expected, and 32% citing company culture as their reason.
  • They want to gain experience and new skills – some job seekers are going from job to job to gain experience and skills that they could use once they settle down.
  • Growth – many employees seek growth. They wouldn’t stay in a company that wouldn’t allow them to develop and progress in their career.

 

Tips to prevent employees from job-hopping

Now that you know some of the reasons why employees job-hop, what can you do to prevent that?

 

Be Proactive

Prevention is better than cure. Rather than just reacting, i.e. when an employee job-hops and you have to fill the position again, it’s better to be proactive. Evaluate your organization: what possible reasons could affect your employees’ decision to job-hop and what can you do about them?

 

Engage and empower your employees

Employee engagement is not only the key to employee performance but also an important contributor to retention. You could even engage employees before they start! At the same time, the members of your organization also want to feel that they’re important. This is where empowering them comes in. While decision-making usually falls to managers and other members of the top management, involving your workers with this will help them feel that you truly care about their ideas. Appreciate and recognize their contribution and performance, too.

 

Invest in their development

We’ve already discussed five reasons why you should invest in employee development before. It’s a great motivator for employees, as well as one of the reasons why they’ll stay with you. And with studies pointing out how job seekers want growth opportunities in the organization that they’ll work for, it’s definitely a good reason to invest in your employees’ growth—may it be through providing them learning and training opportunities, or helping them advance their careers.

 

Talk to your employees

Usually, there are signs when an employee wants to leave or if they are unsatisfied with your organization. To fully know what they’re thinking and feeling, it’s important to talk and maintain consistent communication with them. It’s also good if you could ask them for feedback regarding the various efforts and departments in your company.

 

Just like how you could still convince a talent when they reject your offer, you could also do some things to prevent your employees from leaving you. Don’t lose your talents because of job-hopping!