Look after young staff to stop them job hopping

HR professionals and businesses must “look after” young recruits if they want to retain talent and avoid millennials job-hopping, a young entrepreneur has suggested.

Founder of business skills organisation Supa Academy, Bejay Mulenga made the comments after research found 58% of 18- to 36-year-old workers are thinking about their next job opportunity.

The study published by recruitment platform Monster and YouGov found 26% of millennials are planning to leave their job within the next six months. In the 18- to 36-year-old age group (446 of the 1,005 respondents) almost a third (30%) had searched for a new job in the past month, while more than a quarter (28%) plan to look in the near future. This was despite 67% saying they feel satisfied in their job.

“There’s a clear divide in my generation. Some people are feeling lost,” Mulenga said at the research launch event. He described how young people in a first job, who had potentially moved to a city to take up a role, need help from professionals to understand the world of work. “There needs to be a check-in process. Look after them,” he urged.

Mulenga added: “Why are young people job-hopping? Why are they not committing? They have grown up in the midst of lots of change – social, political, technological. Sometimes they just don’t have a choice; they have to pick stuff up before moving to do things they really believe in.”

In Monster’s research almost a quarter of millennials (22%) were unsure what kind of employer they want to work for. But around half (47%) said the values of a business are important.

Eight in 10 (80%) respondents said they want to work for an organisation that values loyalty, and where they feel they could make a difference. Meanwhile, seven in 10 (70%) want to work somewhere with a powerful social and environmental conscience.

Monster European consumer marketing director Sinead Bunting said the cohort faced a “cultural rub” of “high expectations coupled with a sense of not being in the right career". “Millennials get more job offers than any other group as they are applying for so many,” she explained.

Monster UK & Ireland managing director Andy Sumner said it's important that businesses understand what millennials want in a role.

He added that despite the UK’s recent vote to leave the EU challenges in the recruitment market haven't changed. “The Brexit impact is not as cataclysmic as some expected,” he stated. “There is unlikely to be a material impact on the recruitment market to the extent many might have feared. The dynamics are unlikely to materially change, so the challenges remain the same; including how to attract and retain millennial talent.”