HR professionals: Are we hypocrites?

As previously reported by HRM, nearly 35% of HR professionals have been working for their current company for less than a year, while 61% have been working in their current company for less than two years.

Statistics also show that less than 5% of HR practitioners have worked in their company for more than 10 years.

Mike Roddy, strategic account director at Randstad, spoke to HRM sister title HC about his thoughts on job-hopping in the HR profession.

“One of the reasons for high turnover in HR is because practitioners join the sector for its human element, but often find themselves working on only one aspect of HR, such as recruitment or industrial relations,” Roddy said.

“Also, a lot of issues which arise for HR professionals at the beginning of their careers are around a lack of feedback or having minimal contribution.”

Martin Nally, managing director of HR Anywhere, told HC that he predicts job hopping is likely to become increasingly common.

“In Australia we have a long service trend which will become a thing of the past,” he said. “Younger generations will have more jobs as they want more freedom.”

Nally added that employers will likely be managing people’s careers with them, or for them, in an effort to provide excitement and freedom without the need to hop between organisations.

“Some of the jobs of the future are yet to be invented,” said Nally. “Retention in the future will be completely different, and employers need to be ready to adjust to these changes. Such changes are cultural – organisations need to be constantly reinventing and reviewing workforce patterns. Alterations are likely to happen as Generation Z is more interested in working to live, not living to work.”

“You have to be careful about measuring turnover, as reasons behind it vary between cases,” Nally added. “The issue too is that attitudes towards job-hopping have changed – people no longer necessarily see job hopping as a bad thing.”