Survey highlights millennial sentiment on career decisions and how this impacts their employers
RecruitiFi, a crowdsourced talent acquisition platform, today announced results of its national Millennial Outlook Survey, which found that although 83 percent of millennials acknowledge that job hopping on their resume has the potential to be negatively perceived by prospective employers, 86 percent say that it would not prevent them from pursuing their professional or personal passions.
RecruitiFi's survey examined more than 1,000 U.S. full-time millennials on their careers to better understand the significance that the millennial generation will continue to have on recruiting, hiring, and retention.
"The millennial generation continues to be at the forefront of every recruiting and hiring discussion," said Brin McCagg, CEO and Co-founder of RecruitiFi. "By taking a deep dive into the key drivers behind millennials' career decisions, the survey findings illustrate that now, more than ever, organizations must evolve to adopt more strategic approaches to HR and talent management."
The Millennial Job Hop
During the course of their professional careers, 53 percent of millennials surveyed have held three or more jobs. And while many have plans to stay in their current jobs for 3-5 years (33 percent), many respondents plan to leave after 1-2 years (20 percent).
When asked for the main reason they would leave their company, millennials responded saying they would leave to pursue a completely different career path (37 percent), take a job with a competitor (25 percent) and/or relocate to try living in a different city (22 percent). Only 11 percent would leave their current organization to relocate due of a significant other and 5 percent said they would leave to take time off for personal travel.
Impact on Employers
Respondents echoed industry sentiments that "job hopping" has become the new normal. In fact, 55 percent of those surveyed acknowledged this claim and explained that "job hopping" has not negatively impacted their organizations. However, of the individuals that have witnessed the negative implications, 34 percent noted a lowered employee morale in the office and 22 percent explained that their clients/customers have taken notice.
Although most millennials feel that their employers are not currently striving to build better programs for their generation (57 percent), respondents do recognize that their employers have improved in the areas of:
- Employer-employee communications around job expectations and the future (33 percent)
- Healthcare/wellness and financial planning options (30 percent)
- Flexibility and work/life balance (28 percent)
- Emphasis on compensation/bonuses (23 percent)
- Building mentorship programs (17 percent)
- Pursuing Atypical Work
As the concept of self-fulfillment becomes a larger part of the employee experience, 48 percent of millennials surveyed have found themselves gravitating towards atypical work, either in a specific industry or in job responsibilities. Perhaps most surprisingly, 77 percent of millennials work in white collar positions, however, 49 percent would consider switching to a blue collar role.
Millennials would also consider moving out of a white collar industry and into blue collar industry to gain more flexibility and work/life balance (39 percent), because of better compensation opportunities (35 percent), and to pursue more fulfilling work in terms of company values and opportunities (31 percent).
"It's become abundantly clear that there continues to be a shift in the behaviors of today's talent—especially when it comes to their careers," said Justin Luciani, COO and Co-founder of RecruitiFi. "At RecruitiFi, not only do we help the companies on our platform better understand the shift in workplace dynamics, but we also connect them with recruiters who understand it and have access to the right type of talent they need."
