But Is That Really a Bad Thing?
You will change your job an average of 11 times throughout your work career!
- According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals from the ages of 18-52 held an average of 12.3 jobs throughout their work career[i].
The average tenure of an employee is no more than 5 years!
- ADP’s latest 2019 research shows a national average tenure of about 5 years, regardless of your gender[i]
Long story, short, employee ‘job hopping’ is not just a Millennial thing. It’s a normal thing! That being said, is this necessarily a bad thing?
In my opinion, absolutely not. Theoretically, the longer employees stay, the more a company is afforded stability in terms of company contribution due to the employees’ maturity, expertise, understanding the company’s culture, performance standards, business, and whatever else your company needs to win.
But at the same time, why shouldn’t employees constantly pursue their ‘next level opportunity,’ their ‘career move,’ higher pay, and/or next job promotion, even if it means leaving their current company?
Besides, when budget cuts happen and the company becomes financially constricted due to lack of business and/or profits, the release of human capital often times becomes the first-place companies look to create more capital.
This simply means that we should completely eliminate the notion that regardless of having and/or creating the ‘right variables’ (i.e. pay, culture, rewards and support), there are simply no guarantees companies will have their ‘star’ employees for life.
Whether you are the employee or the employer, focus on the continual and constant optimization of your talent while you have them, instead.
As an employer:
- Focus on your employee’s output and outcomes versus skillset and knowledge base. Why did you hire them in the first place? How soon can they create value for you? Onboarding is important, but the sooner you can gain valuable contribution from your employee the better.
- Focus on the most important deliverables first. Who knows how long you’ll have your employee, one month, 6 months, 4 years? Regardless, start off the habit of having your employees deliver on the most important problems and issues you have first, on day one and not 6 months from now. If they don’t have the skillset to hit the ground running, you might have the wrong employee.
If they don’t have the skillset to hit the ground running, you might have the wrong employee.
- Love them while you have them. Just because employee loyalty is dead does not mean you should stop loving on your employees! As in any relationship, personal or professional, it is critical to do everything you can to take care of your people and have them feel valued and important, regardless of how long they might stay. Even if they decide to leave you one day, you’ll leave them with a ‘wonderful taste vs bitter taste in their mouth.’ And who knows, maybe they’ll come back one day.
- Be transparent about the ‘no guarantees’ of long-term employment, period. Since when did anyone believe a company, especially in today’s times, could employ an employee for life? Stop believing this. The bottom line is this, we (the company) truly value you or we wouldn’t have hired you. We will enjoy our win-win relationship for as long as we can but to be absolutely transparent, there are no guarantees, ever. We will do everything we can to keep you happy and at the same do everything we can to take care of our business and be profitable and growing. Ideally, we would desire our relationship with you, given it remains positive, productive and valuable to us both, to last a lifetime. We’ll give it our best shot and hope you do the same. And if one of us decide to part ways one day from this relationship, we will promise that it will be done with as much transparency and respect as possible. Now, wouldn’t you want to work for a company that emits this much transparency? I know I sure would.
We will enjoy our win-win relationship for as long as we can but to be absolutely transparent, there are no guarantees, ever.
As an employee:
- Focus on your value add and performance to the company while you are there. Don’t be simply a ‘butt in a seat’ while you are at the company. You are receiving a paycheck. Be grateful for the company’s investment in you because they could have chosen someone else. Ask yourselves these questions each and every day: How can I add relevant value to my company today? How can my company feel my positive contribution? How can I be a positive impact?
- Leverage the company’s knowledge base to develop yourself while you’re there. So, you don’t plan to stay at your current company your whole career? That’s fine. But are you maximizing your potential to learn from what your company has to offer while you are there? I’m not talking about just what you do for work. I’m talking about taking time to understand how your company actually operates. I’m talking about learning the company’s operating and business model. I’m talking about learning about the company’s software platforms. Treat your company like a university and maximize your learning there. You might decide to never leave because you are getting so much value from being in a constant state of learning!
- Take your work seriously but not so seriously that you turn everything into a personal affair! Not all jobs are perfect and that goes the same for companies. Regardless of your title or position or how much you get paid, there are always parts of your job you won’t like to do but still have to do them. Similarly, you will never find the perfect leader, team and/or company. Those who say they have are still in their honeymoon period. If you have to leave a company, make sure it’s for legitimate, objective reasons and not because you’ve clouded your judgement with negative emotion because you took work too seriously. I’ve partnered with over 80 different organizations now and I can tell you without reservation, the ‘grass is NOT greener on the other side.’
- Leave a positive, lasting impression with the company your work for, period. I left Procter and Gamble to pursue my organizational leadership and executive coaching profession over 11 years ago. I still have wonderful relationships with many of the folks who are still there and have nothing but fond memories with the company. In fact, I’ve been back there a number of times providing leadership services to them. The point here is this, always take the high road for whoever and wherever you work. They will love you for it, for life.
Here’s to being ‘ALL-IN’ regardless of how long you decide to stay!
Rubi Ho
Creator of the SAOL Organizational Leadership Methodology
Founder, The Rubi Ho Group
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About Rubi Ho and SAOL Coaching and Consulting
Rubi Ho and SAOL™ Coaching and Consulting is ALL about helping Organizations, Teams and Leaders drive and optimize convergence, alignment and performance throughout a company! He is the creator of the SAOL Methodology. SAOL Coach and Consultants are experts at resolving issues pertaining to strategy, leadership, performance and overall alignment and helping leaders become their ‘Highest Selves!’
