Introduction

:
I would like to start with an example of Greg Ball. “Greg Ball has always loved the outdoors, but
his career left him little time to enjoy it. That changed five years ago, when he quit his banking
job to become executive director of the Washington Trails Association, a hiking advocacy group.
Ball's $24,000 annual salary is considerably less than he used to make” (McNichol, 1997).
Although, Ball is getting lower salar y, he has still changed his previous banking job because if
dissatisfaction. He loves outdoor activities but banking job demands extensive work hours. So,
he preferred to switch the job.

Job switching, is not a new idea at all. People used to switch their jobs and also change the
profession from decades. But switching frequently has become a modern trend and fashion of
life especially among the young people. Times have changed in the working world. “Corporate
loyalty is a thing of the past. Employees are more mobile, sometimes switching jobs as
frequently as ever y few months, and prospective employers no longer automatically dismiss
resumes fraught with job hopping. And nowhere is this truer than in the technology sector” (T. 2

Ahmed, personal communication, Mar ch 4, 2010).

After joining NSU, I am also advised by two of my young faculties to switch at least 5 to 6 jobs
where I haven’t started my career yet. Now my father has been working for one company
continuously for last 30 years. He always talks about the devotion, dedication and loyalty
towards the employer and company. These two different views can’t be a mere gener ation gap.
The last sentence gave me a tonic to conduct a research on Job Switching. I know people switch
their job to get more satisfaction. I used the word satisfaction in a much broader sense. I had a
motive to find the answers of those questions especially in Bangladeshi contexts. Finding the
opportunity to do a research on an open topic in ENG105, I have utilized the chance to explore
the idea.

So the topic of my research has become “the causes and effects of job switching.” I believe I
have come up with a fantastic solution and a number of effective suggestions. I believe my
resear ch will serve the society with its wonderful statistics and exper ts’ views. I t’s a new
dimension for the modern workforce.
Background
:
We are certainly not comatose with problems of personnel turnover. Even in uncertain economic
times, fir ms have seen higher turnover rates than usual. While most organizations want to blame
turnover on wages and benef its, they actually do not play a big role in why people leave their
jobs. The overwhelming major ity of people who leave any company because of the way they are
treated ever y day. Surveys consistently show that more than 40 percent of people who quit
because they feel they weren't appr eciated for their contributions. These surveys show that lack
of appreciation, lack of teamwork and the per ception that the company doesn't care about
employees are consistently the highest-rated reasons for low job satisfaction.

Today’ s workers are switching jobs not for money, but for meaning. Where once career
counselor s and job- hunting books focused on "building a better résumé" and "tapping the hidden
job market," now the talk is mor e often about finding a job in line with one's values. "The goal of
most people 10 year s ago was to get the good car eer that paid well. But the trend today is people
asking how can I use my abilities and have meaning in that" (T. Ahmed, per sonal 3

communication, April 1, 2010).

“Baby boomers, the largest segment of the work force, have hit middle age, tr aditionally a time
to re-evaluate lives and work. And Generation X is just entering the job market, searching for
more meaningful alternatives to career paths carved out by their boomer predecessors”
(McNichol, 1997). In the conventional work conditions, where most of the employees traded
hard work and loyalty in order to receive job secur ity which has been crushed today. “On
average, American workers hunt for a new job eight times in their lives” (Work Tr ends, July 28,
2003).

Many career counselors now spend as much time pr obing clients' beliefs as poring over their
work histories. They conduct open-ended interviews to uncover what clients value most. Some
ask job- seekers to rank a set of values in order of importance. Still, finding a career according to
one’s value is one thing; getting paid well for it is another. “Today, one reason employees switch
jobs is certainly secur ity. With the layoffs and media shouting about the economy, people are
looking for companies with solid growth and long-term expectations” (J. Hossain, per sonal
communication, Apr il 8, 2010). Money isn't as much of a driver as it was just a year ago, but
development, including mentoring, career- pathing, and the types of technology employees will
get to work on, is huge. Of course, companies lose more than just a body when employees job
hop. Estimates of the overall financial cost to an employer to lose and replace an employee range
from 29% to 150% of the employee's annual salary. “The cost will be significantly higher (200%
to 250% of annual compensation) for managerial and sales positions” ( Bliss, n.d.).

In a country like Bangladesh, wher e we are facing a huge unemployment, the ter m “Job
Switching” may sound weird. Here, many people don’t get a job, switching is a daydream to
them. I want to mention my tar get group is those people who have switched their job once. To be
very fair it’s they who ar e frequent in switching. I want to find all the reasons, that is to say inner
reasons of job switching. And the effects come along with it. So my research is focused on the
numerous domestic and multinational organizations’ culture which has taken birth within the last
decade in Bangladesh.

4
Research Area:
Job switching is a vast area to conduct a r esearch. People are switching jobs for numerous
reasons thr oughout the world. Numerous researches have been done also in this issue. But in the
Bangladeshi context it is an issue which is recently highlighted, though it’s an age old
phenomena. So I have a scope to conduct the research but domestic data was unavailable. I have
found a plentiful international statistics in this issue. I also tr ied to get some statistics when I
visited the organizations. I wanted to find out the causes and effects of job switching which is
termed as “Turnover” in the corporate world. For a business organization it’s a problematic area.
So my research is based on following areas:

The Present Statistics of Job Switching in the World:

On average, American workers hunt for a new job eight times in their lives. According to a
survey published in February by Development Dimensions I nternational, I nc., human resources
consulting firm based in Pennsylvania, almost one- third of all employees sur veyed expect to
leave for another job within the next year . About 20% of those employees estimate their
likelihood of leaving to be greater than 50%. Voluntary turnover rates run almost twice as high
for non- management positions, such as frontline and professional workers, than for managers.
Not surprisingly, the infor mation systems/technology field rates as one of the two most
problematic turnover ar eas in USA. The past five or so years saw a staggering increase in the rate
of job hopping. It's probably no coincidence that online job boards came into popularity dur ing
that time

Other sources of data describe the mobile workforce in different ways. BLS data on labor
turnover from a sur vey of employers suggest that employees are changing jobs frequently. Over
the past few years, for example, near ly 50 million hires and 50 million separations have occurred
in any 12- month period. I n some cases, the same workers exited and entered the labor force
multiple times. This chur ning of the labor force may make it difficult for such workers to
accumulate retir ement benef its.

The Cost of Employee Turnover:

5
The following is a comprehensive checklist of items to include when calculating the cost of
turnover in any organization.

Costs of Recruit ment:

1. The cost of adver tisements.

2. The administrative cost of handling, processing and responding to the average number of
resumes considered for each opening at $1.50 per resume.
3. The cost of drug screens, educational and criminal background checks and other
refer ence checks, especially if these tasks are outsour ced. The cost of the various
candidate pre-employment tests to help assess a candidate's skills, abilities, aptitude,
attitude, values and behaviors.

Costs of New Hire:

1. Calculate the cost of bring the new person on board including the cost to put the person
on the payroll, establish computer and security passwords and identification cards,
business cards, internal and external publicity announcements, costs of establishing credit
 card accounts, automobiles etc. “ Hiring even a clerk can cost $5000 or more” (Dessler,
2007, p.194).
2. Calculate the cost of a manager 's time spent developing trust and building confidence in
the new employee's work.

Costs of Training:

1. The cost of orientation in terms of the new person's salar y and the cost of the person who
conducts the orientation. Also include the cost of or ientation materials.
2. “Good training is vital” so we need good trainers and it is costly (Dessler, 2007, p.270).
3. The cost of various training materials needed including company or product manuals,
computer or other technology equipment used in the delivery of training.
4. The cost of super visory time spent in assigning, explaining and reviewing work
assignments and output. This represents lost productivity of the supervisor.

Lost Productivity Costs:

6
1. Upon completion of whatever training is pr ovided, the employee is contributing at a 25%
productivity level for the first 2 - 4 weeks. The cost therefore is 75% of the new
employees full salar y dur ing that time per iod.
2. During weeks 5 - 12, the employee is contributing at a 50% productivity level. The cost is
therefore 50% of full salar y dur ing that time per iod.

Costs Due to a Person Leaving:

1. The cost of conducting an exit interview to include the time of the per son conducting the
interview, the time of the person leaving, the administrative costs of stopping payroll,
benefit deductions, benefit enrollments, COBRA notification and administration, and the
cost of the various for ms needed to process a resigning employee.
2. The cost of the manager who has to understand what work remains, and how to cover that
work until a r eplacement is found. The cost of the manager who conducts their own
version of the employee exit inter view.
 3. The cost of training your company has invested in this employee who is leaving. Include
internal training, external programs and external academic education. Include licenses or
certifications the company has helped the employee obtain to do their job effectively.

Hypothesis:
People have become crazy in job switching to get more satisfaction in case of security, salary,
job environment, safety, status as well as choice of work. With the changing of job holders; the
ideas and knowledge are also moving around the wor ld. But too much switching makes someone
indecisive and wobbly and the or ganization unstable. The organization loses faiths upon itself
and it fails to work with a long term goal.

Methodology
:
As I have mentioned in my proposal, I tried my level best to follow the most modern and
7
technical way to conduct my research. To find the causes and effects of job switching, I had to
go to the job holders of different positions and ages in different areas. Therefore collecting
primary data was really difficult and troublesome.

Collection of Primary Data:

I first planned and decided where to go and how to go. I prepared a schedule accordingly. I went
to NSU, Uni Lever, M.M. Ispahani Ltd, Premier Bank, Banglalink, GP and City Bank with my
questionnaires. At fir st I had to find my target group which was those persons who have
switched their jobs at least once so far. I waited for long time in different offices, meet the
officials and gave them questionnaires to fill up. I also asked them questions privately. Talking
with different officials I got valuable idea and infor mation. They gave me their personal reasons
of job switching and their feelings in the new job. Some of those points didn’t come even my
mind. I tr ied to add those information as much as possible in this research. In most of the cases
the HR managers wer e hesitated to tell the tur nover rate of their company. I had to be tricky to
find those information.
Collection of Secondary Data:

Collecting secondary data was not that easy also. Actually I got ver y few secondary infor mation
to use. As I focused on Bangladeshi context, I searched the web site of Bangladesh Statistics
Bureau. Unfortunately no infor mation regarding job switching was available ther e. But I got
some information in “Prothom Alo” and some from the offices where I visited.

Data
Presentation:
30 people were surveyed. All of them answered all the questions. The answers of my
questionnaire are presented below according to the question numbers and options:

Question
No Option # 1 Option # 2 Option # 3 Option # 4 Chosen more than one options
1 20 3 0 7 0
2 7 15 5 3 0
3 8 4 7 1 10 (1 & 3) 8
4 16 5 6 3 0
5 8 7 3 5 7 (1 & 2)
6 0 12 18 0 0
7 5 9 3 13 0
8 3 4 13 5 5 (2 & 4)
9 10 5 5 4 6 (1 & 4)
10 3 20 5 2 0

Data Analysis &

Findings:
In this part of research the data has become information. Answers of 7 important questions have
graphically presented here. The colorful presentation and percentages of the answers of all four
options of a question will give the r eader a clear concept of this matter. Finally I have discussed
and analyzed the scenario. I tried to find whether the real statistics got from the sur vey matched
with my hypothesis or not to come into a conclusion.
Question-1: Do you t hink job switching is necessary to build a strong career?

The purpose of asking this type of question at the very beginning was to know whether people
are against or in support of job
switching in case of building strong Do you think job switching is necessary to build a
career. This question only included the
strong career?Yes,it’s necessary to be
promoted to a higher post
career orientation. This graph shows
One may switch only when
that 67% respondents supported the 23% he is not satisfied with the
present job
question. They think job switching is 0% Neutral
necessar y to be promoted to a higher
10%
post. Nobody was neutr al. 23% still 67% No, success can be bought
by sticking to a particular
believe that success can be bought by job
sticking in a particular job and they
have strong belief on the employer. 10% think that one can only switch whenever he is not
satisfied with the present job.

9
This scenar io actually gives an indication that the pr esent trend is towards switching different
jobs. It can help someone to go to the pick of career. A few people ar e saying that one should
only switch when he can’t be satisfied with the present job. According to those people job
switching should have some deep inner meaning. So I can strongly recommend according to the
respondents opinion that switching job is necessary now.

Question-2: How many times have you swit ched your job?

The second question was asked to

know the how many times the How many times have you switched your
job?
respondents have switched their job 13%
23%
already. The main motto behind asking 13%

this question was to test their 1 to 3

exper ience in this field. This question 3 to 5

5 to 7
also can answer question like the
More than 7 times
frequency of job switching and its
51 %
moder n trend. But the answer of this question is largely dependent on variables like age, types of
job etc. Those factors are also discussed below.

The age of my respondents varied from 26 to 50 years mainly. I had also a negligible number of
respondents above 50. It is seen that in the age limit of 26 to 50 years 51% people have switched
their jobs 3 to 5 times in their lives. This clear ly
Switched j obs more than 7
represents one half of total respondents. 23% have said times
that they have switched 1 to 3 times, whether for 13% it
is 5 to 7 times. Alarming news is that 13% people have 3

already switched their job for more than 7 times. 2.5

2
Obviously all of the respondents of this gr oup are above
1.5
40 years of age. And most of them are male. So it is clear
1
that people have become crazy in job switching. This
0.5
graph shows that among my respondents men have higher
0
Male Female
tendency to switch their jobs than the women. I think this
trend occurred because men are more ambitious and career or iented than women. This might not 10

be the actual scenario because such a small sample size does not reflect real life.

Question-3: Why have you switched your job/jobs?

This question is asked to know one of the major findings of the research: Causes of job
switching. To know why people
Causes of job Switching
actually switch their job I have gone
2 7% To get more salary and
to them with some options what we 3 4% other benefits
can perceive. There may be many Do not like the previous job

other reasons, but people have tr ied to

For a better job
categor ize their own reason in my environment
For a clash between the
four options; each of which actually 3%
1 3%
management/ co lleague

represents a broad area. People have Chosen both 1 & 3

2 3%
also given me their own opinion or
reason, which is also included in the discussion. 27% people have chosen option1: To get more
salar y and other benefits. 23% have gone for better job environment. 13% of them have switched
their job because they didn’t like their pr evious job and only 3% replied that the reason was a
clash or problem between themselves and management. A big chunk of people have chosen both
1st and 3 rd options, which includes good salar y, benefits and job environment.

Fr om the survey it’s clear that a few people actually switch their jobs for disliking it. If they get
good salary, benef its, security they are happy with their job. So those factors influence more than
the job content in job switching. Job security, though it was not clearly written in my
questionnaire, was described by the older generations as the main cause of job switching. We can
explain it by Abraham Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy, which says as the people moves forward in
their career or as they grew older , they feel different needs. Job security is therefore a important
issue in the middle age. For job security someone switches their previous job, someone gets
afraid to switch. But the younger generation is crazy for the salary and other benefit. They are
ready to quit from a prestigious job for more salary. Status, Esteem, Self reorganization are
higher order need, which actually are seen among older generation or at last stage as need or
causes of job switching. This analysis support my hypothesis that people have become crazy 11

in job switching to get more satisfaction in case of salary, job environment, safety, stat us as
well as choice of work.

Question-5: Do you t hink switching stands for disloyalt y towards employer/company?

This is a clear question which has asked the respondents about their opinion on employee loyalty
whether they think that switching
Does switching represents disloyalty towards
stands for disloyalty towards Strongly agreed
organization
organizations or not. The 0%
? 40%
60% 0%
respondents also answered clearly. Strongly
dis agreed
According to 40% respondents
switching is not disloyalty. The rest Too much
switching makes
60% partially supported this someone disloyal
in the job mark et
Neutral
opinion, but they added that too
much switching makes the
employee disloyal in the whole job market. Because the new recruiter may think that the person
has a habit of quitting and he may quit again by throwing the company in tr ouble. Nobody
supported the question and nobody remained neutr al. Everybody is bold enough in this matter
which represent the sense of fr eedom of today’s workforce. This matches with my hypot hesis
that too much switching makes someone indecisive and wobbly and the company unstable.

Conclusion
:
“Lord I was born a ramblin’ man,
Tryin’ to make a livin’ and doin’ the best I can.
And when it’s time for leavin’
I hope you’ll understand,
That I was born a ramblin’ man.” (Betts, n.d.)

Man bor n as rambling and will die as rambling. We are confused, incoherent in our life because
we are ignorant about our future. We don’t know what’s going to happen with us; but what we
can do, we can expect for our future. Everybody has or should have a plan for futur e, an 12

expectation, a vision. And we shape our life style accordingly. Therefore man is always changing
his ways, switching his habits, behavior s, believes and his works. So switching, changing will
always take place in this world, because we are moving and can’t be stopped anywhere. But we
should switch to the right. We have to know why we ar e switching and what we are getting by
switching.

I believe this resear ch paper has identified successfully the causes and effects of Job Switching.
My hypothesis which identified some causes and effects of job switching is also proved by the
resear ch. Now I hope this phenomenon will not be a problem at all if is can be properly dealt
with.
Recommendati
ons:
The research not only gave me statistics but also a strong command on the issue “Causes and
Effects of Job Switching”. Basing on the idea that I gather ed while inter viewing and the statistics
I got for the questionnaire survey and also form the online journal I have come up with some
recommendations for both employer and employees. My recommendations are furnished below:

Recommendations for Employer:

Employees should be properly appreciated:

Many firms blame that employees are quitting their fir m because they can’t or are not financially
capable to give that much salary to their employees which their competitor firm is offer ing. By
blaming this way they actually neglect the real cause of turnover. As I have mentioned earlier
that the overwhelming majority of people who leave any company leave because of the way they
are treated every day. Surveys consistently show that more than 40 percent of people who quit do 13
so because they feel they wer en't appreciated for their contributions. These sur veys show that
lack of appr eciation, lack of teamwork and the perception that the company doesn't car e about
employees are consistently the highest-rated r easons for low job satisfaction. And the result is
job switch. So the employers should take it into considerations. An employer has to appreciate an
employee for his work if he deserves it. Otherwise the enthusiasm, innovation will be stopped.

Treat ment should be individualized:

When an employer gives out positives- whether it is a pat on the back or a raise in pay--if he
gives them equally to all per for mers, then he actually ends up punishing the best perfor mer. Most
employees think that it's not fair that they work hard every day, while others do just enough to
get by--yet the consequences, pay, benefits, perks and praise are the same. As Vince Lombardi is
reputed to have said, "There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of
unequals." So employees should be tr eated on the basis of merit, not senior ity or position.
 Employees should be given proper job environment, salary and other benefits:

Fr om the data analysis it’s clear in most of the cases people switch their job either for getting
more benefits and good job environment or for strong job security. Employees’ loyalty has
become a talk of the past. People specially the generation X doesn’t wait a moments to switch a
job to get any of the mentioned reasons. So employers should be concerned and careful about
these issues to maintain a long lasting employee base. Employers should also follow “COBRA-
Comprehensive Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act- requires most employers to continue to
make health benefits available to terminated or retired employees and their families for a period
of time, generally 18 months” (Dessler, 2007, p.489) . It is also a part of job security which give
social security to the employees. Employers should always keep themselves on the proper track
of the market. They should be updated with the competitors offered benefits. A proper job
environment should be maintained. Above all a sound HR department can solve the problem of
turnover in a large scale.

Recommendations for Employees: 14

Switch, but not too much which will make t he job market unstable:

Job Switching is not a bad practice. It’s a basic human right to choose his profession and the
employer. In the survey I saw that most of the respondents supported the idea. Actually working
for different organization makes a man per fect in the job market. The knowledge moves from
organization to organization with the switcher, As a result the whole society gets benefited. But
too much switching is not good at all. So the employees shouldn’t be involved in this practice. It
will make them disloyal in the job mar ket and also the job market unstable.

Switch for meaning:

People shouldn’t be crazy for switching, which is seen recently in the job market among the
young people. Sometimes they are ready to quit a pr estigious organization’s job for some better
salar y. This craziness may hamper their career. They should know why they are switching. They
can ask themselves the cause and think about the probable effects. Then they may take a right
decision.