How Singapore bosses should play catch-up with job-hopping employees

We’ve seen a recent array of articles bemoaning the short-term attitudes of staff in organisations across Singapore. The anecdotes of the recent years of a mobile workforce who are only interested in the next role have now materialised in hard data provided by JobsDB[i], and it’s not pretty reading for companies who want long-term commitment from their employees.

While employers targeting graduates and entry-level job seekers have the luxury of an abundance of candidates, once employees have commenced their careers their focus turns to advancement and how to quickly progress up the corporate ladder. In doing so, they actively seek new opportunities, hopping from one role to another – and companies are left to play catch-up, chasing new candidates to replace leavers. 

Staff attrition - of which job-hopping is a symptom - is a concern for organisations the world over. The reason it is so pronounced in Singapore, is that strong economies provide a far greater variety of choices and volume of opportunities to the skilled workforce. With the Asia Pacific in good shape and Singapore particularly competitive, staff attrition is going to remain high on the talent agenda.   

Job-hopping ultimately means movement between two different companies, and the unspoken consensus is that this done in the attempt to secure better pay or a higher level job. However, there are several other factors that motivate employees to move company, and employers who seek to stem the loss of staff to external opportunities should take these into account.

Societal Change

Society is constantly changing, and as younger generations of workers join the workforce they bring a different attitude and a different set of requirements to their roles. Whereas 15 or 20 years ago employees would have a reasonable expectation to be employed by just one or two firms throughout their career, and would focus on a single specialism, today’s workers expect to have multiple roles throughout their career and to work in multiple industries, sectors and disciplines. The route between each career is not clear, and multiple factors may influence a worker’s decision to move on.

Talent Hoarders

It’s hard work building a strong team, especially one filled with talented people who work hard and deliver great results. Managers invest a lot of time in recruiting their teams and developing them, and the temptation will always be to hold onto the best team members for as long as possible.

While understandable, this approach can have unforeseen consequences – if talented and ambitious people aren’t given the opportunities and challenges that they need within their current company, they’ll look elsewhere. Managers who resist, obstruct or prevent internal mobility moves in an attempt to retain their high performers are more likely to see their talent walk out the front door and into another company. The better option is to be open and honest about career progression, and to be supportive and communicative about opportunities for advancement.

Where’s the love for internal candidates?

Organisations usually put a lot more effort and resource into recruiting new talent from external sources than they do into retaining existing talent, which leads to external market being the go-to area for recruiters. It’s easier to recruit staff from outside the organisation, especially with the sourcing tools at a recruiter’s disposal, but this means overlooking existing staff who may be interested in new opportunities. With internal candidates not getting the same care as external candidates, they in turn look to opportunities outside of their current employer.

Companies that encourage or mandate internal mobility programmes – and have the appropriate structures and processes to match - fare better than those that view internal mobility as a bolt-on to regular recruitment.  Switched-on talent teams will actively connect internal mobility with other parts of the organisation – management development programmes, contractor populations, referral schemes, and candidate sourcing.

Effective Internal Mobility: Two Approaches

In a vibrant talent market place, there are two best-practice approaches to internal mobility:

• Mobility that is self-driven and encouraged – actively engaging with internal candidates to ensure they’re aware of opportunities within the organisation, and ensure that both the HR and management community are fully supportive of movement within the organisation.

• Mobility that is managed by HR or senior management - this is really about development of staff with a specific purpose in mind, either recognising employees that have high potential, or grooming future leaders. Staff are moved strategically through positions within the organisation to broaden their experience, provide them with skills for the future, expose them to multiple disciplines, build their networks, and prepare them for entry into high level or leadership roles.

Internal Mobility is a part of the solution – not THE solution

It should be noted that even a strong mobility programme is just one part of the solution to job-hopping.

Competitive salaries, leave entitlements, workplace flexibility, the opportunity for training and development, and even the company’s approach to reward and recognition outside of salary and bonuses can have a dramatic effect on retention. Global citizenship and corporate social responsibility now form part of the employer value proposition that companies can present to employees. And drawing it all together is employer brand.

Employer branding focuses on one of the most important facets of a corporate brand – the company, as perceived by the people who work for it.

Delivering the employer brand promise

Providing the structure by which people can take up new opportunities within their current employer is one thing; ensuring that they want to stay is another. Internal mobility works well in companies that have strong employer value propositions – think Google. When companies invest the time, effort and resources to build a strong employer brand and a positive working environment it becomes far easier to present opportunities to an internal audience.

Remember - the day-to-day experience of working in a company is crucial, both in selling the company to external candidates looking for the next opportunity, and to the retention of existing staff who are delivering value.