Job sampling is now becoming commonplace within companies across the UK. Job sampling is where an employee is satisfied within their job but they will actively look in or “test” the job market.
Of course, some of these people are open to new opportunities if they present themselves, but many have no intention of leaving their current employers. So why bother looking?
The main reasons given are:
1) To benchmark their current value
2) To get a sense of comfort during uncertain times
3) To understand what skills they need to develop to get promoted
4) To appreciate the skills required in the current role
5) Curiosity
6) The “what if” factor: what happens if the perfect job comes along unexpectedly
The rise of mobile devices mean that online job boards and apps are at people’s fingertips. They can fill idle time job sampling on the commute into work, on their lunch hour or whilst watching TV in the evening. And with employers becoming more adept at directly targeting employees through social media and pay-per-click, the opportunities to look at roles is high.
Whereas historically job hunting needed you to invest time and emotion into the process, even if just testing the market. The digitisation of the recruitment process means that these are not needed; job hunting has become consumable. Entertaining in fact.
Whilst millennials have gained a reputation for being job-hoppers, this phenomenon is not confined to them. In fact, it includes those in the mid to late stages of their careers. It seems that everyone is testing the job market.
So whilst there are reasons for this. The answer to “why?” is simply that this is now the new norm within UK. It doesn’t mean that people take the process any less seriously and it doesn’t mean the challenges of recruitment don’t continue. It simply means that companies must be more relaxed about their people job hunting.