Turnover Intentions and Job Hopping among Millennials in Serbia

Tatjana Ivanovic; Sonja Ivancevic

doi:10.7595/management.fon.2018.0023

Tatjana Ivanovic University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences
Sonja Ivancevic Primary School ‘Starina Novak’, Belgrade, Serbia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2018.0023

Abstract

Research Question: The purpose of this paper is to determine whether the number of jobs the Millennial generation intend to change during their career is larger than that of previous generations; to compare the Millennials’ intention to leave their current job to the previous generations’, and also to examine the relation between the Millennials’ turnover intention and their job satisfaction. Motivation: Millennials keep their resumes updated and have a reputation to be job hoppers (Shaw & Fairhurst, 2008; Meier& Crocker, 2010). Moreover, their job hopping has been an unprecedented problem for the employers (Tulgan 2015) and they are reported to have higher turnover intention rate than other generations (Kowske, Rasch & Wiley 2013; Deloitte, 2011; Twenge, 2010; Sujansky & Ferri-Reed, 2009). Additionally, it is generally accepted that job satisfaction and employee turnover intention are negatively related (Mobley 1977; Susskind et al. 2000; Schwepker 2001). Having in mind a lack of relevant literature as well as research in Eastern European countries, our goal was to explore if the same can be concluded for the Millennials in Serbia. Idea: The core idea of this paper was to empirically evaluate the relationship between the stated variables. Data: The analysis was conducted during 2017 in Serbia using a questionnaire which was made in the form of an online survey and distributed by email and posted on social networking websites. A total of 802 valid responses were received. Tools: Statistical analyses of all collected data were used to draw conclusions. Findings: The results of the study confirmed that the intention of the respondents to change a larger number of jobs in their career increases as we move towards the youngest generation in the workplace. Generation Y was found to be the only generation that has a higher percentage of those who think that they will quit the current job in the next two years than those who expect the opposite. The analysis confirmed that turnover intention increases with job dissatisfaction - the greater their job satisfaction is, the less Millennials will want to change their current employer in the next two years. Contribution: This paper expands existing research related to the turnover intentions and job hopping of Millennials and provides recommendations for organizations for retaining the members of Generation Y.

Author Biographies

Tatjana Ivanovic, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences

Tatjana Ivanovic is an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences. She holds a PhD degree in Human Resource Management as well as a MSc degree in Public Management from the SDA Bocconi, Italy. She has worked at the Faculty of Organizational Sciences since 2007, teaching different subjects in the field of Human Resource Management and International Human Resource Management at undergraduate and master studies.

Sonja Ivancevic, Primary School ‘Starina Novak’, Belgrade, Serbia

Sonja Ivančević has an M.A. in Human Resources Management from the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and a B.A. in English Language and Literature. She works as a teacher, but has also been engaged in a variety of HR activities, such as recruitment, selection, creating and conducting training programmes and so on. She does research in the fields of employee motivation, generational differences in the workplace and burnout syndrome. She is the author of the accredited professional development seminar ‘Burnout Syndrome – How to Survive Stress in the Workplace’.