Being a part of the Gen Y era has been a hot topic lately, with my clients and also my family (Mother to me: “You Gen Y kids want everything but do nothing” etc). With my clients though, it has brought up the topic which is also in people2people’s new post (which has market updates and benchmarking for salaries) and that topic is “as an employer how long do you expect staff to stay with you?”

Now In the past, a lot of people stayed with their employers for years and hit the milestone of ten years or even 20 years and then take a nice trip away and enjoy that long service leave or maybe even retirement.

Fast forward to 2016 and things have changed a lot. The amount of CV’s I see of people who have been with a company for 1 year and moved to another company and then another company, so they could have worked with 10 different employers in that 10 year period. Now that could mean a lot of different things, such as temp roles, contract roles or being a part of a project which has come to an end, or where you worked to earn the money for that big European trip. In my opinion, Gen Y need to start being more loyal with companies instead of always looking for the next promotion.

Employers take the chance on you to come in and add value and I don’t know many jobs where after a year, you could have made that much of a difference that your Boss would be happy for you to move up the career ladder, because you have added so much to the company.

Now I am not saying don’t be ambitious at all, but speaking to my clients, they are not looking at people who are always moving from company to company and giving the reason “I am looking for something better”. Pause to think about your current job and if you commit for 3-5 years, is there a chance for growth? Is the grass greener on the other side? There might be a chance for a promotion, or there might not, but staying for a year does not show employers loyalty.