Someone said, “Be quick, but don’t hurry.” It’s time that we remind ourselves of this adage. We are a recruitment company; every day we speak to jobseekers – active as well as passive ones. We have been noticing a consistent fall in patience and accommodative stance among people when the workplace environment isn’t up to one’s liking. People are quick to decide that they must move on and act swiftly even if the job is just a few months old.
Hot labour markets
Many parts of the economy have been growing and thus, companies have been looking for new people all the time. Secondly, the business environment is dynamic and thus, some skills are no more in demand while new skills are sought after. As a result, companies have been letting go of people who are no more suitable for their context; at the same time, they are upskilling the existing employees and adding new ones. Thus, there is always a demand for talent with new-age skills. Thirdly, job hunting has become easier than ever before given the fact that all the open jobs in the market are published openly on the internet, the social media and are easily sent directly to the mobile phones of potential candidates in a targeted manner; moreover, the remote working model allows employees with the flexibility to access such information conveniently. Each job switch is accompanied by a hike in compensation. Who doesn’t want more money?
Comfort with job hopping
Socio-cultural changes have made us believe that we must move fast in anything that we do and we expect results quickly. So, employees are unwilling to put up with situations that they believe are unfair or unacceptable to them, even if they are clear that the situations are short-lived.
Sometimes, there are difficult circumstances in one’s life and one is unable to sail on two boats simultaneously. In the past, employees tried to make compromises and create alternate arrangements to tide over the situation. Currently, many people choose to call it quits and prioritise resolving the challenges in their personal life. They confidently get back to employment after the dust settles down in their lives. Walking away from a job is no more a disgrace or a taboo.
Employers have been adapting their expectations accordingly as well; they do not fret much in the recruitment process if someone has moved jobs more frequently than what they have seen in the past. This gives one the confidence that one would not be at a disadvantage while hunting for another job and hence, must be bold to quit quickly if the situation warrants.
What can employers do?
Many a time, an employee feels disappointed and frustrated when there is a gap between expectation and reality. It is natural for any well-meaning individual to be expecting a few things about the workplace, its culture and the deliverables of the role. Organisations while dealing with the war for talent and the uncertainties in the market, move rapidly through the recruitment process and hence, do not put adequate efforts into assessing the fitment, setting expectations, and inducting the person into the company’s culture and vision. The recruiters take shortcuts to get a person on board soon. However, in a matter of a few weeks, the new joiner discovers many aspects of the workplace that he or she dislikes and possibly had expectations that are contrary to reality. The dissonance keeps growing and leads to an unexpected separation.
Leaders have to sensitise their folks across the supervisory layers in the pyramid to make sure that the assessment is done right, expectations are set right and the induction is done properly. This is easier said than done. To prevent quick quitting and hence, preventing the loss of reputation, time, energy and resources, leadership behaviours have to improve and adequate care has to be taken to hire right and induct right.
