Substantially more workers see rewards in job hopping than before — especially those from younger generations — but managers don’t necessarily agree, according to a survey released today by Robert Half International Inc. (NYSE: RHI).

The survey found 64% of professionals polled think changing roles every few years can be beneficial, with the biggest perk being a higher salary. This marks a 22% increase from a similar survey conducted four years ago.

However, a separate survey of CFOs found 44% are not at all likely to hire a candidate with a history of job hopping because they want to avoid losing them in the future.

Workers and managers are close to agreeing on one thing: When asked the number of role changes in 10 years that constitute a job hopper, professionals said five and CFOs cited six. 

“In today’s candidate-short market, keeping key performers engaged should be top of mind for managers,” said Paul McDonald, senior executive director for Robert Half. “Businesses worried about losing talent to the competition should focus on improving corporate culture and strive to be the type of company employees want to stay with long term.”

Other key findings from the research includes:

• Seventy-five percent of employees ages 18 to 34 view job hopping as beneficial, compared to 59% of workers ages 35 to 54 and 51% of those 55 and older.
• Workers with a college degree or higher see the most benefit in changing jobs every few years (67%).
• Company size matters: 51% of CFOs at companies with more than 1,000 employees said a history of frequent job changes isn’t relevant if the candidate is the right fit.
• The biggest drawback of job hopping, cited by 46% of workers, is being perceived as a flight risk.

Robert Half developed the surveys, which were conducted by independent research firms. The survey of workers includes responses from more than 1,000 US workers employed in office environments. The CFO survey is based on telephone interviews with more than 2,200 CFOs from companies in more than 20 of the largest US metropolitan areas.