How do we Tackle Job-Hopping?

BY BUSINESS MENTOR SOPHIA PETRIDES

There can be significant pressure on anyone entering the workforce to prove themselves from the outset. You want to show that your employer made the right decision in taking you on rather than all those others that they doubtless saw. But draw a breath and take the time to look at those around you. It will be a wise investment.

Many of those initial pressures will often be self-imposed. They often return time and again as you move roles or employers so it is not something that ever completely goes away. But if you only concentrate on yourself and what you are doing, valuable learning opportunities can be missed.

Some of the most important workplace lessons I have learned, both positively and negatively, came from taking a breath and looking at what my colleagues were doing and how they actually went about their jobs. This didn’t just have to do with the technical detail of how to do the job; it was also about style and approach.

Colleagues, if they are any good, should proactively offer help and support but, if not, you should not be afraid to ask. Many reading this will have the confidence to ask but others may not want to push too much, or may prefer to be deferential to more established colleagues.

But the key thing to remember is that they too were once in the same position as you. They will also have to be appraised and doubtless they will be measured on how successfully they support others across the firm.

I was extremely fortunate in my first role to join a small team all of whom were willing to offer their help, support and advice. Of course, I started to learn how to do my job but as the months went by I started to appreciate that each of my colleagues had their own strengths and some even seemed to have a weakness or two.

These are particularly difficult to spot early on but you start to recognise them. They may even start to annoy you! Some of those around me had an absolute eye for detail, others had a confidence and way of looking after clients, and others had a particular flair for business development and getting work in. You start to become a mix of all these traits, adopting the parts most suited to you. It’s not just about learning and getting better at the job, you should be learning from their soft skills as well. What became clear to me is that there is no “one way” of doing any role. On first coming into a job there can be a presumption that you will be taught how to do it. But it soon became clear to me by looking around at colleagues that that wasn’t the case. That came as a bit of a shock. When you saw the team discussing how to approach an issue, you could see this. Each brought their skills, ideas and contributions to a discussion. They listened to each other and a final idea or solution emerged. They had different approaches and that is what made the team all the more effective. By taking elements of each and applying them to myself, it enabled me to start to become my own person in the workplace and gave me the confidence to do things my way. That did not mean getting everything right or never making mistakes; those are part of the learning curve too.

Working in public affairs means lots of engagement with political and policy-making audiences. Coming straight out of completing a PhD in political science meant that I knew about political processes but not the realities of engagement. The team helped me to turn theory into practice. So, yes, it was about core skills but alongside me recognising and drawing on their different ways of approaching, in essence, the same job.

Even if you report to one person or they have responsibility for you, try to broaden your perspective to hear from others as well. You do not want to end up as a carbon copy of them. You may benefit from their strengths but you could equally suffer from their weaknesses. Have the confidence not to be an identikit employee but to become your own person.

The lessons learned from that small supportive team then, I still apply now. So the approach should not be to try to rush through it all with an utter determination to succeed at all costs but to instead step back a little and look at those around you.

I still find myself thinking back to that time and asking myself what would they do and I use that as guide for my advice even today.

Where are we with new talent? As we know, 24-39 year-olds have become known as the “hopping generation”, on account of the fact they tend to change jobs frequently. This is causing problems within organisations because of the high cost of employment, which includes the price tag for recruitment and training and development. That’s before you even taken into account the loss of knowledge within an organisation from high employee turnover.

In fact, job-hopping is costing the UK economy an estimated £71 billion and the US economy $30.5 billion annually, according to Gallup. The cost for employing someone new into the organisation is an average of £11,000 per person in the UK and $20,000 in the US.

So what accounts for this trend?

First, it’s a question of annual remuneration and promotion in an era where middle-ranking jobs are in decline. Technology means we don’t need so many middle managers, project managers and administrative jobs. That means there’s often little hope of promotion within organisations.

Nowadays, if you want a salary increase or a promotion, you need to leave the company and apply for another job.

I experienced this situation first-hand many years ago, when I was leading a business within investment banking. Even though I was in a director role, the excuse I was given for not being promoted was that the organisation had surpassed the number of director promotions for that year and I would have to wait for another year.

Following this conversation, I started working on my exit plan.

But it’s not just the money. There’s also a clear lack of respect and authentic communication from leaders and management. Today’s organisations often fail to create “safe” environments, where people can openly express their ideas without judgement.

In order for leaders to retain and attract new talent, they need to demonstrate empathy and compassion - a vital ingredient when it comes to humanising workplaces. In addition to that, visibility is important: today’s leaders shouldn’t let their workforce face adversity alone. This must go hand in hand with authentic communication, and clear training and development programmes.

This means in turn that less talent will come into the future market. It also means we need our middle-aged workforce more than ever to stay in jobs and support the economy by contributing towards taxes for the financial support of the older retired generation.

So now is not the time to stop hiring the 50+ age group or to be pushing towards early retirement, as some professional services have the tendency of doing. This issue of organisations failing to hire certain age groups is causing another ripple effect which has led to the increase of mental health difficulties. This is a global problem. Since Covid-19 struck, mental health has taken secondary priority, and it’s costing global economies billions. In the UK, the annual estimate of loss is £34.9 billion and in the US $53 billion.

In 2020, we have seen a surge in businesses collapsing and ongoing redundancies within organisations. All this has pushed global unemployment to a record high. The good news is that once the economy starts to bounce back, we are going to see an increase in talent hiring. Even so, that still means organisations will lose their talent to other organisations, and experience a drop in productivity in the process. Leaders need to act now, by investing in learning and development, and by deploying the wisdom in the older workforce to nurture talent.

Demographic trendlines also need to be taken into account. Birth rates have been decreasing over the last quarter century, so much so that we’ve now reached a 20-year low.

Another group we need to take into consideration for the ongoing growth of our economy is returning to work mothers. They are insufficiently supported by organisations, even though they’re a huge asset. During times of adversity, they’re able to support leaders by staying close to employees and nurture them through the challenging times by putting into practice their agility, adaptability and resilience - traits they’ve learned and enhanced during motherhood.

In order to achieve a smooth return of women back into the workplace, organisations need to create appropriate training and development programmes. These need to build trust and respect, develop technological skills and also instigate clear communications around project management and deadlines.

There’s a lot to do. But if we’re successful, it will be a recipe to inspire significant growth in the global economy.