Employers warned to watch out for job hoppers as skills shortage worsens

Employers are becoming increasingly concerned about “job hopping”, according to the latest Lloyd Morgan Skills Index, with many companies now dismissing candidates who have jumped from job to job over the past two years.

Lloyd Morgan national manager Will Gordon says businesses considering hiring, especially in the accounting and auditing industries, need to have a keen eye for employees they suspect will leave as soon as a better offer comes along.

“The concern about this type of activity is growing, especially after the GFC. People are recruiting more now, and many companies are going through a growth stage, and they don’t want people who are just going to fly away.”

“If someone was retrenched during the GFC, then of course it’s a different story and people aren’t so concerned. This is more about people who have left for more money and better opportunities after just a few months or a year.”

The latest skills index shows one in five accounting and auditing employers are rejecting candidates because of job hopping, even though the supply of skilled workers is falling. But Gordon says this issue isn’t limited to the accounting industry, and says he is hearing from employers in a variety of sectors.

“We are hearing from the ground that clients are becoming more and more concerned about this, and that it’s been happening more. It will happen more as the skills shortage goes along.”

“There are many businesses that have been burned by this, and now they want to make sure they are hiring people with solid backgrounds who aren’t going to leave.”

Gordon says during the boom years before the financial crisis, especially during 2006 and 2007, many younger workers would hop around from company to company in the hope of securing a pay rise of a few thousand dollars, or a particular bonus.

Now, he says, employers are noticing the trend and there are some real concerns. “Right from the start, if you see people jumping around, you need to think about what that is telling you about that person,” he says.

“If you’ve got a business and people leave relatively soon after hiring, it’s going to affect you and it’s something that you don’t necessarily recover from easily.”

Gordon warns employers to be extremely stringent when hiring employees, and says to ask the hard questions about a candidate’s history.

“If there is a history there, and a trend, you need to ask about it. You need to find out the details. There are strong arguments that it will happen again.”

But he also says that if younger employees leave your business, don’t spend too much going after them. He says they are replaceable and you are better off simply implementing a policy not to hire hoppers.

“If performance has been exceptional and they’re looking for a pay increase, then there may be some room to move there. But if they’re blackmailing you and haven’t been there that long, it’s not worth it. You don’t want that sort of person in your business.”

“On the flipside, my advice to employees is that they need to do some real due diligence before accepting an offer. Examine the company, find out about career progression, the salary and so on. You need to think about how this is going to affect you later down the line.”