How Employers Can Prevent Job-Hopping Among Gen Z

Although pandemic restrictions have been lifted and the economy is slowly recovering, many employees who have adapted to work-from-home (WFH) arrangements for over a year are cautiously returning to the workplace.

The Great Resignation

This pattern could lead to a wave of "The Great Resignation" in the United States. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4.4 million Americans had lost their jobs as of September.

The lockdown measures resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Professor Anthony Klotz of Texas A&M University, have allowed people to re-evaluate their life objectives and job choices.

Some people grew to appreciate the flexibility and autonomy that remote working provided because they were no longer compelled to drive or take public transportation to get to their work locations.

Employees are required to wear masks and follow other sets of standard operating procedures (SOP) when returning to work in the office to reduce the danger of infection, as well as rigorously adhere to the company's working hours.

After a long absence from the workplace, many employees find it difficult to adjust to this scenario.

Burning out

If employees are required to attend physical or virtual meetings after work hours, they may experience burnout and be forced to leave their current jobs.

However, lengthy working hours in a WFH atmosphere could also be a factor in people resigning due to burnout.

For instance, working parents who must balance parental and family responsibilities such as child care and household tasks while also meeting their employers' demands from home may find themselves in this situation.

WFH employees face immense stress, poor sleep quality, and depression as they have to meet increasing demands from employers and abandon their leisure activities.

Why employees leave

As a result of the blurred lines between personal and professional lives in a WFH setting, recent Employment Hero surveys suggest that employees in developed countries such as Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom plan to hunt for new jobs within the next 12 months.

Malaysia had the greatest rate of people planning to hunt for a new job in the next 12 months, at 61%, compared to Singapore (48%), Australia (50%), New Zealand (50%), and the United Kingdom (55%).

Lack of career growth (36%) is the most common reason for employees in Malaysia to leave their existing jobs, followed by a lack of appreciation or recognition (27%) and a lack of training possibilities (26%).

Furthermore, according to the Employee Movement and Retention Report issued by Employment Hero in September, 81% of Malaysian Gen Z (aged 18-24) intend to shift employment within the year, followed by 68% of Millennials (aged 25-34).

Hiring Gen Z

Employers sometimes have to recruit new replacements every two years to fill job openings. Therefore, the "job-hopping" behaviour among Gen Z and Millennials is a concerning trend.

If companies hire recent graduates with little or no job experience, they will need to spend more on training. Since many Gen Z and Millennials have tertiary education and are more technologically sophisticated, companies can strive to better understand their behaviour and demands by:

1. Providing a checklist for Gen Z and Millennials to review their goals and duties on their first day at work, first orientation week, first month, or even the next three months. Employers should appoint supervisors to guide and mentor new employees through experience sharing and on-the-job training, whether from management or senior staff.

2. Promoting open and honest communication. At least twice a month, companies could hold Q&A sessions with management and employees, allowing employees to ask questions and share their views during town hall meetings.

3. Being receptive to comments from employees on their work expectations. Managers could have one-on-one meetings with employees to determine how they feel about the present corporate culture and examine their job roles to help them achieve happiness and job satisfaction. Companies that are receptive to their employees' needs, ideas, and opinions will create a more productive and harmonious workplace. At work, employees will feel respected and appreciated.

4. Increasing the clarity and purpose of the organisation's existing culture. Through success stories, the organisation might demonstrate how the inclusion of Gen Z and Millennials as new employees benefits the team. Seniors could also share their failure stories and show how failure can help the organisation progress and succeed.

5. Demonstrating trust and support for new employees to make decisions, allowing project ownership to pass from the manager to the employee, allowing the latter to have greater control over their time management and task responsibilities. Managers could demonstrate the SOP to complete the project and provide new hires with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

6. Recognising individual accomplishments with awards (e.g., salary increases or bonuses), encouraging staff to remain curious, innovative, and proactive in offering ideas to the organisation.

7. Help employees transition to the workplace environment in a "post-pandemic" world by providing mental health guidelines such as mental health literacy, coping skills, and help-seeking pathways.

Companies in Malaysia will be able to retain skilled young personnel if they focus on the development of Gen Z and Millennials. This would prevent a significant brain drain from the country.

Source: Daily Express

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