New research reveals Singapore’s CFOs are now more inclined to hire a candidate who has a history of job hopping. Read more here.
Singapore’s employers more accepting of finance and accounting job hoppers
- Singaporean CFOs consider someone who has made an average of four job changes over a 10-year period to be a job hopper.
- 56% say they would be willing to hire a candidate who has a history of job hopping.
- 63% think millennial generation workers in finance and accounting are job hoppers, compared to 39% of Generation X professionals and 25% of Baby Boomers professionals.
- Top three positive consequences for employees who change jobs frequently are higher salary progression (64%), more experience in different industries (43%) and ability to learn faster (35%).
- Top three negative consequences for employees who change jobs frequently are missing out on promotions (43%), lack of job security (43%) and missing out on professional development (39%).
In an encouraging sign for Singapore’s job hoppers, new independently-conducted research commissioned by specialised recruiter Robert Half reveals Singapore’s CFOs consider someone who has made an average of four job changes within a 10-year period to be a job hopper, and more than half (56%) would be willing to hire a candidate who has a history of job hopping.
Job hopping is overwhelmingly more prevalent among Singapore’s millennials [1] as almost two-thirds (63%) of Singaporean CFOs think millennial-aged finance workers are job hoppers. This compares to more than one in three (39%) CFOs who think Singapore’s Generation X [2] workers in finance and accounting are job hoppers and one in four (25%) who consider Baby Boomer [3] professionals to be job hoppers.
The positives of job hopping
While many employment changes in a short time span can give hiring managers cause for concern, Singaporean employers understand there are also advantages linked to changing jobs frequently. The positive consequences of job hopping for employees, as identified by Singaporean CFOs, include: higher salary progression (64%), more experience in different industries (43%), ability to learn faster (35%), resilience to change (32%) and learning more skills (31%).
Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard, Managing Director of Robert Half Singapore said: “Despite previous negative stereotypes around job hoppers in the finance and accounting industry, Singapore’s employers have become much more accepting of candidates who have had numerous jobs over the past few years. There is definitely a generational shift as it is more common for millennial-aged workers to be inclined towards changing jobs more frequently than their Generation X and Baby Boomer colleagues, with the practice slowly losing its negative stigma.”
The negatives of job hopping
Yet switching employment on a regular basis can also have significant downfalls. Professionals who frequently change jobs should not disregard the potential pitfalls, with the negative consequences of job hoppers, as identified by CFOs, being: missing out on promotions (43%), lack of job security (43%), missing out on professional development (39%), missing out on job opportunities (39%), and less influence on company strategy/policy (33%).
“Despite the fact that job hopping has become more common in the finance and accounting industry, hiring managers should still be cautious when considering job hoppers for a vacant role. Frequent employment changes over a short span of time can raise red flags, and potentially earn the employee a reputation for being disloyal. Employers need to balance the costs of the recruitment process against a candidate who may be seen as disloyal and end up leaving after a short period of time. This doesn’t suggest that job hopping should be disregarded entirely, but like any career move, changing jobs must have happened for the right reason,” concluded Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard.
[1] Millennials are those born between 1977 and 1995.
[2] Generation X are those born between 1965 and 1976.
[3] The Baby Boomer Generation are those born between 1946 and 1964.
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About the research
The annual study is developed by Robert Half and was conducted in December 2017 by an independent research firm, surveying 75 CFOs in Singapore. This survey is part of the international workplace survey, a questionnaire about job trends, talent management and trends in the workplace.