Job hopping, or moving from one job to another, is a red flag for companies hiring candidates, and for good reason. When your company invests in an employee, you don’t want that staff member to pick up and move after a few weeks or a few months. You want someone who will stay with your business for the long-haul, move up the ladder and build your institutional memory.
To keep employee turnover low, hiring managers must know how to recognize a job hopper so they can avoid bringing a candidate on board who will only turn around and leave soon after. If you want to avoid hiring a staff member who isn’t going to stay long enough to be worth investing in:
- Define what a job hopper means. People no longer stay at the same job over the course of a career, so you need to decide what you consider to be job hopping. If someone leaves jobs after a few months, that’s clearly problematic … but what if they leave every two years or so? Is that something you should be worried about? The average person today changes jobs 10 to 15 times during a career that usually spans about 40-50 years. This means changing jobs around every four or five years is the norm.
- Look for patterns. It’s possible for even the best and most devoted employee to go to work for a company that has to downsize or to end up in a toxic job that isn’t a tenable work opportunity. Leaving one or two jobs after a short period can be excused without the employee being considered a clear job hopper. However, if you notice the candidate has left virtually every job after just a few months, this pattern of short-term work should be concerning.
- Consider the nature of the job. Some jobs are, by definition, meant to be short-term jobs. Internships usually last only for a limited duration of time. Jobs that are focused around events, like political campaigns, also have an end, so it makes sense a candidate wouldn’t stay long. In other positions, it is more customary for staff members to stay for longer terms – which means it’s more concerning if the job candidate left after a short duration.
High Profile can help your company hire qualified candidates in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding areas who are not job hoppers and can become valuable long-term members of your staff. To find out more about how our staffing service can help you, call us today at 972-991-7900 or contact us online to speak with our staffing professionals.