Motivating Young Professionals in a Job-Hopping Culture

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The norm for many young professional millennials is job hopping. Their expected tenure in a role is nearly half that of their older counterparts. Indeed, when I started in the financial services industry a job-for-life expectation was still common.

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There are of course a variety of reasons for this recent pattern including a desire for fast track advancement, greater work satisfaction and the knowledge that in the fast-paced fintech world they could be made redundant at any time. HR recruiters see this as the new norm. ?Whereas in the past frequently moving jobs was a clear warning sign on a CV, leading to immediate rejection, it is not the case today. So rather than seeing a weakness on a job-hoppers resume HR now see a broad skill set and a motivation to improve that can be used to their advantage.

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This job-hopping pattern does present several problems for firms, not least significant recruitment costs from higher staff turnover, failure to get a return on your investment in the individuals and the loss of not just the skills acquired but the benefits that long term experience brings. You can understand the attraction of advanced AI technologies to provide stability and while expensive to implement the benefits of long-term cost savings.

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Reputation is one of the keys to success for the City. It is also key for individual firms and part of that is provided by having a motivated, knowledgeable, and experienced team. The question is what you can do to get them to stay? Here are a few ideas to which you can no doubt add others…

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-?????? Establish what their plan is, where they want to be and what they want to do at each stage over say the next five years. Empower their plan to achieve their goals within your firm. ?

-?????? Offer to pay their membership fees for a professional institute and sponsor their continued professional development by paying exam fees and rewarding success. The equivalent in many ways to a longer-term apprenticeship.

-?????? Shake up the routine with happy hours, occasional competitions, free fruit, staff/board receptions, establish unknown skills, facts, or achievements outside work (singing, instrument playing, most famous people met etc). Keep things interesting and let people unwind together.

-?????? Have fun traditions, family days (such as, at Christmas) , regular charity events like supporting Children In Need https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb6QvhilZsA Here’s me challenging the Legal Director at Sumo wrestling! I hear the Ice Bucket challenge is back! It’s something to look forward to and it feels festive.

-?????? Develop an environment where people from every level feel free to share ideas, getting people thinking of ways to improve the company. It can create a sense of pride and engagement, making them feel people count.

-?????? Use people’s strengths and talents in a special project in which they can take pride, it doesn’t have to be strictly work related.

-?????? Acknowledge achievement both within the firm but also through sponsoring industry awards the team or individual members can be nominated for. ?

? Clive Shelton Chartered FCSI (Hon)