With budgets stretched and tech professionals on the move, it’s vital to hold on to your top talent. Higher pay and better benefits aren’t enough. You need to think holistically, creating a positive environment that supports your employees as people.
What makes tech professionals stay?
- Job satisfaction
- Growth and development opportunities
- Competitive pay and benefits
- Strong management and leadership
- Good work-life balance
- Positive work culture
With plenty of options at their fingertips, your best people will leave if you can’t provide these–and those who stay will be less engaged and less productive. Having good employee retention will not only save you significant time and money, it will also make you look good, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, as more people will want to work for you.
How to retain tech talent?
- Offer competitive pay and benefits
With tech talent in such high demand, there’s no getting around this one. Make sure your salary meets industry benchmarks, and go beyond benefits like health insurance and retirement plans to offer the best flexible and remote work options you can provide.
- Create a positive culture
Building a positive company culture is crucial in tech, especially given the long hours and intense pressure. Try to create a supportive, collaborative environment where work-life balance is valued. As well as improving retention, this will also reduce burnout and boost morale.
- Encourage open communication
Be honest and transparent with your people about the company’s goals, plans, and progress. Have regular 1:1s to check in with each employee, and give them opportunities to have input. Actively seek their feedback as well as giving them yours. This helps people feel valued and creates a sense of trust and belonging.
- Offer ongoing development opportunities
Given the fast-changing nature of tech, employees won’t stay with an organisation that isn’t committed to investing in their development. Offer access to online or in-house training programmes, as well as funding to attend outside conferences and workshops. Opportunities to grow keep people motivated
- Recognise and reward
Just like dogs, people want to be praised and rewarded. This can be through bonuses or incentives, professional advancement opportunities, or simply talking them up in front of the whole company via email or during meetings. Employees who feel appreciated will appreciate you.
- Value their time and expertise
Software engineers want to create software. Data engineers want to build data pipelines. Don’t waste their time and expertise on donkey work, company politics, or creating endless PowerPoint presentations–they’ll get bored and frustrated, feel undervalued, and leave.
- Give them the tools they need
Many tech professionals complain of being asked to use outdated technology to achieve up-to-the-minute outcomes. Most also hate being held back by corporate red tape, such as having to wait months for approval to use a new cloud-native service or for a new testing environment to be deployed. Invest in giving them the newest and best tools, when they ask for them–it’s cheaper than losing them.
If you’re wishing you’d read these tips sooner, we can help. Get in touch today for a free, friendly discussion about your tech recruitment needs.