Job Hoppers May Be Excellent Employees, Study Reveals

Conventional wisdom states that job hoppers make lousy employees. They're lazy slackers that, when the going gets tough, choose to leave instead of resolve issues. However, analytics provider Evolv announced results of a study by its advanced analytics group that blows the job hopper myth out of the water. They looked at the relationship between previous work experience and future employment outcomes for hourly workers. The study analyzed applicant data and employment outcomes from more than 21,000 call center agents drawn from five major contact centers and found that agent work history is a poor predictor of future job tenure.

Employers of hourly labor in industries including fast-food dining, retail and contact centers often struggle with high turnover and the associated costs of constantly hiring and training new employees. A common screening technique used by recruiters is to weed out “job hoppers” – those candidates who have held many short-term jobs.

Don’t Rule Out “Job Hoppers” and the Unemployed

Despite conventional wisdom, Evolv found previous employment duration says nothing about how long a person will stay in their next job. The study revealed virtually no difference in employment outcomes based on how many jobs a person had or how many short-term jobs they had previously. In addition, there was virtually no distinction between the “perpetually unemployed” – applicants who had no jobs in the last five years –and applicants who had many jobs in that timeframe.

“These results show that one of the most common screening tactics for employers may actually have no value in predicting future employment success,” said Michael Housman, Evolv’s Managing Director of Analytics and the report’s author. “Employers may do well to revisit their employment screening process with an eye toward finding better tools that help them hire for the outcome they desire.”

Other Measurements More Predictive

Evolv data shows other information gathered during the application process is predictive of both attrition and on-the-job performance. More predictive content includes the applicant’s personality, aptitudes, work style, technical skills and fit for the position. By using more predictive data to make decisions, employers can expect to see more employees performing like their best employees.

See the full report at: http://bit.ly/Hf407F, and if you're a "job hopper," bring those stats to your next job interview.

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