5 Reasons You Should Hire Job Hoppers

I recently attended the HR Management Association of Chicago’s (HRMAC) annual conference.  The day held 4 informative sessions on HR topics – a nightmare for non-HR geeks.  I’ll come clean…I was excited all day long…please don’t judge.  I was particularly intrigued and even inspired by the first speaker, Penelope Trunk.  Since the conference, I've begun to read her blog regularly and find her ideas counter-intuitive  provocative and meaningful.  You should also check it out:  www.penelopetrunk.com.  She has created 3 start-ups, is considered a guru on Gen Y, and writes about several topics including homeschooling, coaching and career advice.  This post is based on the notes I took during her HRMAC presentation “How to Talk the Talk with Today’s Top Talent” in November 2012.

Before her HRMAC presentation, I’ll admit, I was expecting the general discussion around collaboration and technology, however, she went deeper.  Without giving away the details of her full presentation, I do want to address one idea she had, which was that it is best to hire job hoppers.  Don’t panic…I promise I’ll explain.  This idea (among a few others) actually offended many traditional HR professionals in the audience and was a hot discussion topic during lunch that day.  I generally enjoy a good button pusher.  To lay the foundation for this argument, we need to briefly discuss Gen Y (the Millennial Generation).  I belong to this group, so perhaps there is vanity in this post, but I hope it gets you thinking.

Generation Y was dubbed “Generation Me” by Jean Twenge in her 2007 book on the topic.  This group is characterized by having a sense of entitlement, narcissism and rejection of social conventions. They are also known as the "Trophy Generation", or "Trophy Kids", a term that reflects the trend in competitive sports, as well as many other aspects of life, where mere participation is frequently enough for a reward (Ron Alsop, 2008).  Next, we’ll move onto some fun statistics characterizing Gen Y.  Studies by the University of Michigan and UCLA revealed the percentage of students who said being wealthy was very important increased from 45% for Baby Boomers (surveyed between 1966 and 1982) to 70% for Gen X and 75% for Millennials. The percentage who said it was important to keep up to date with political affairs fell, from 50% for Boomers to 39% for Gen X and 35% for Millennials.  "Developing a meaningful philosophy of life" decreased the most, across generations, from 73% for Boomers to 45% for Millennials. "Becoming involved in programs to clean up the environment" dropped from 33% for Boomers to 21% for Millennials (Michelle Healy, 2012).  Generation Y has also led a trend towards irreligion that has been growing since the 1990s. 32 percent of Americans born between 1983 and 1994 are irreligious, as opposed to 21 percent born between 1963 and 1982, 15 percent born between 1948 and 1962 and only 7 percent born before 1948 (talkingpointsmemo.com, 2012).

Now that you know a little about the generation that led Penelope to outrageously declare that hiring job hoppers is a smart move, let’s discuss the crazy reasons used to support this notion.

1.  Job Hoppers are more intellectually challenged.  Most jobs have steep learning curves early on.  After about 2 years on the job, you have learned just about all there is to know in that position.  This makes you wonder how someone in a job for 20+ years keeps their brain sharp.  Due to this fact, job hoppers know more.  When you change jobs often, you’re always challenged, and your learning curve remains high – for office skills, industry specific skills, and even your emotional intelligence.  Navigating various corporate hierarchies, and dealing with different kinds of drama, the more you will learn about people (an important skill).
2. Job hoppers have more stable careers.  You might think I've been drinking at this point of this post, but I promise, just listen.  Corporate America doesn't provide stability to its employees – you have to create this on your own.  Layoffs, downsizing and JIT hiring/contract workers are the realities of today and probably tomorrow.  Creating careers stability begins with networking since most people find jobs through their network and not by applying to as many jobs as possible on the web.  Working for lots of companies means your network is larger than someone who stays put for awhile.  For this reason, job hopping creates stability.
3. Job hoppers are higher performers.  I may keep crossing lines, but we might as well keep going at this point.  Hopefully you are at least intrigued.  Job hoppers are always looking to do well at work because they know they are within a year or two of leaving.  In this situation, they need to be conscious of their resume and the skills and projects they’re tackling.  The want/need to become experts in their field.  If nothing else, this helps them get their next job.  You can’t job hop if you don’t add value at each of your jobs.  Job hoppers are usually over-achievers on the projects they’re involved in  - they want something good to put on their resume.  Companies benefit more from a strong performer who’s in a seat for 18 months than a mediocre employee that they keep for 20 years.
4. Job hoppers are more loyal.  I know, this is completely counter-intuitive, but keep reading.  Loyalty is caring about the people you’re with, and job hoppers are great team players, because that’s all they have.  They don’t identify with a company’s long term performance, but do identify with their work group’s short term performance.  They want their boss to give them a good reference and work hard to gain their respect.  For networking purposes, they want to network with co-workers for the purpose of future employment.  They don’t have 10 years on the job to fix a first impression, so they want to make sure those who work with them or meet them find it to be a good experience.  And it if you think about it, this makes sense for a company, too: the company isn't hiring you with any decade-long commitment, so you would be foolish to think you have to give one.
5. Job hoppers are more emotionally mature.  It takes self confidence and knowledge to know what you want to do next and go get it rather than stay in a seemingly safe place.  You must be committed to personal growth to embrace challenging your learning curve rather than being complacent in your career (over and over).  It’s rather brave for someone to say, “ I've only been here for 6 months, but it’s not right for me and I’m leaving”.  Most people around you will tell you to stick it out and give it a year or two.  But, why would you waste this precious time doing something you wish you weren't doing?

And there you have it.  The notion sounded far-fetched when Penelope started talking about it.  However, the points make sense, and I've seen real examples of this (and I’m sure you have to) in my professional world.  The new kid with the great degree or fantastic experience comes busting through the doors, and hits the ground running.  They make changes and/or have a significant impact on projects, their department of entire function in the workplace very quickly.  Then, before you know, 18-24 months into a job they are knocking out of the park, and they leave.  People are surprised that they are moving on since they did a great job, and the organization is unhappy to lose them.  The tenured employees say scathing things about how they are a job hopper and can’t stay in a job very long.  But imagine how excited the next company is based on what they can do.  Now for the tough part, they have to replicate that high level of performance all over again, and in just as short a time span.  It’s like running one marathon after another.  Could you do that?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic!

Performance Looking Low...Try MBO

Attention Leaders and Small Business Owners!

Picture this for a moment – you are about to enter your yearly performance review.  You have no idea where you stand.  How does that feel?

Let me answer this for you – it feels pretty terrible.  Your feelings about it range from “I’m doing OK” all the way to “I’m getting fired”.  It’s probably causing you some anxiety, and causing you to generally hate performance review time.  Assuming your reviewer feels you are performing OK, you will probably get some mediocre feedback, and leave the review session just to work another year and end up in the same anxiety filled discussion with your supervisor next year.  It’s no wonder that most people hate performance review time.

Now…picture that you were given 5 distinct goals and objectives to achieve above and beyond your daily tasks and your boss outlined what success looked like against all 5 goals.  Going into your review, whether you nailed all 5 or not, at least you know where you stand and can appropriately prepare for the discussion with your manager.  Now, let’s take it a step further and brainstorm…what could make this process even better in terms of managing your performance?  Let’s say you got to be involved in the setting of those annual goals – how would you feel then?  It would be pretty fair to me at the end of the year, particularly when I had a say in the goals that I set out to achieve.  In addition to feeling fair, I would be appreciative that I knew exactly what I had to do to meet (or even exceed) expectations at work.  In this scenario, it’s up to me how successful I am in my career.

Academia calls this process “management by objectives” or MBO.  It a process first conceived in the 1950’s, and while some consider it a dated process, I argue that it still has a place today.  I would caution that if you use MBO, you should be aware that context can sometimes be lost if not properly managed (i.e. availability/quality of resources and relative buy-in by leadership/stake-holders).  I also argue that ensuring goals are SMART is essential to making the process effective.

Are you ready to make a change in your leadership style?  Are you interested in implementing MBO for your team or organization?  Not exactly sure where to start?  I recommend business owners look at what the organization needs to accomplish over the course of the year for you to define it as a successful year.  This is an entire process unto itself, deserving of another post.  However, I would assemble your leaders if applicable, and ask where they want/need to be at the end of the year for their piece of the puzzle to be successful.  They should be prepared for such a meeting by gathering any necessary information from their subordinates.  Make sure the voices of your front line are heard when setting organizational goals – you’ll be further along as a company, and likely better serving your customers.  Be prepared for, and encourage brainstorming – organization of the company level goals can come later.  I’ve seen companies come away from these sessions with anywhere from 5-50 organizational goals (depending on the size and complexity of the organization). 

Now we know what needs to be achieved, but we need to decide who is going to achieve what.  If you have leaders in your organization, divvy up the responsibilities according to who has strength in particular areas.  If those leaders have teams, then it is their responsibility to divvy up responsibilities among team members to help the department best achieve results.  Now, we remember that MBO is an inclusive process.  So while the organization may dictate WHAT needs to be achieved, the employee may have great ideas regarding HOW.  Actually, they probably should…that’s why you hired them, correct?  While collaborating, it is the responsibility of the manager to ensure the goals meet SMART criteria (specific, measurable, attainable, results-oriented, and time-bound).  Call on staff to be creative in the ways they help solve the company’s problems, but make sure it’s done in a way that does not compromise values which may be important.  Running someone else over in order to achieve your goals is not the right way to go about it.  Also remember that if you have staff that is frustrated by processes needing improvement within the company, finding a solution can be part of their goals.  Call on your staff to do more than identify problems, make sure they’re helping you solve them also.  Again, this should be why you hired them.

Ask your employees to be honest about their performance against goals and objectives.  Most of them will be, and may even be harder on themselves than the manager by not accounting for circumstances outside their control.  You must do this as their leader, and re-calibrate them if it happens to keep them on track to achieving what is necessary.  I recommend a minimum of a mid-year session to review goals and help make sure everyone is on the same page.  Remember, I called this a process earlier, which means it’s ongoing, and not an event.  Some managers use the event model to assess performance and give feedback in a manner where they just can’t wait to see the expression on an employee’s face when they read it.  That’s not the point of performance management, and is a waste of your company’s time.  You should never feel surprised in a review session – you should know EXACTLY where you stand because you have been measuring yourself and receiving feedback regularly.

If your organization would like assistance with implementing MBO or goal setting processes, please contact me today!