How Do You Stop Your Tech Talent Leaving for Your Competition?

Strategies to Retain the Best People

There’s an escalating shortage of tech talent, with hiring companies becoming increasingly competitive in the job market. Therefore, holding on to your most talented tech employees is essential. When great people leave, it leads to reduced productivity, loss of institutional knowledge, lower employee engagement, and higher workplace stress.

Studies have also shown that it costs you between six and nine months of salary to replace an employee who leaves. Losing your tech talent to your competition is expensive – and hard to replace.

As long ago as 2016, the President & CEO of Harvey Nash, Bob Miano, was quoted by Wall Street Journal as saying, “The major growing problem for CIOs is securing tech talent, despite the availability of great ideas.”

You want to retain your best tech staff. Understanding why your people may leave will help you put in place strategies to stop them doing so. In this article we discuss both.

Why Do Your Best People Leave?

Receiving a resignation letter from your best employee gives you an immediate headache. The project they are working on may come to a grinding halt. You’ll need to hire someone to replace them, and it could be months before the new recruit is onboarded and productive. Even then, you cannot be sure they will be the replacement you need.

Here are the main reasons situations like this occur:

·      Poor Leadership

According to a Gallup poll of more than 1 million U.S. workers, a bad boss is the number one reason why people leave their jobs. If your managers lead their people poorly, your employees will become demotivated, absenteeism will increase, and performance will fall. Finally, people leave.

·      Lack of Challenging Work and Opportunity

The best tech talent that we help match to opportunities do have one thing in common — the desire to develop and grow in their career. They seek challenging work that pushes them.

Work becomes dull and uninspiring when you’re not being challenged with new tasks and opportunities. Doing the same basic thing reduces zeal, passion, and eventually prompts your employees to move on.

·      Compensation and Benefits

It is crucial to pay your people properly, with a competitive compensation package. While money isn’t the sole reason for a person’s head being turned toward a job offer, it is a highly important factor in the equation.

·      Recognition

When efforts go unnoticed, a switch of loyalty is more likely to happen. Not giving credit to an employee for doing their work well, and in a timely fashion, is another factor that contributes to losing your best tech talent to competitors.

Employee Retention Strategies to Put in Place Now

How can you do better to retain your best people? Here are five strategies that you should be using:

1.     Employ Collaborative Leadership

It’s important to engage your people in their work and how their contribution matters. Share the big picture, involve your employees in the decision-making processes, lead by example, and promote meaningful work that helps to deliver your goals.

2.     Nurture and Develop Skills Through Challenging Work

Allocate tasks that use people’s strengths and help them develop their skills and careers in the way they desire. Ensure that you provide a career path, and allow your people the autonomy to do their jobs more creatively. This will boost job satisfaction, encourage commitment, and lead to higher productivity from more loyal employees.

3.     Ensure You Reward Competitively

Do your research to make sure that you are paying your people competitively, with a total compensation package that is in line with your local market. If you’re stuck, discuss compensation packages with a specialist staffing agency. Here at NexTech Solutions, we will be happy to guide you as you consider the skills, duties, and experience when deciding what the right compensation package should be.

4.     Recognize Your People

Little gestures like saying ‘thank you’, celebrating the tech talent of the week, and awarding the best at the end of every business calendar, are all ways to increase your employees’ loyalty and commitment. This helps you retain your best people and encourage others to develop their skills.

5.     Employ the Right People

Employee retention starts at the very beginning of your hiring process. It starts by identifying the skills you need, the personality that will fit in with your culture, and the current and future duties and responsibilities of your tech job.

The majority of the most talented people in tech are not actively seeking to move. But, for many of the reasons we have noted above, there is a pool of passive candidates you can tap into. This is where partnering with a specialized staffing agency becomes so important. Our staffing consultants have the experience, expertise, and industry reach to find the people you need.

What Tech Talent Should You Hire to Stay with You for the Long Term?

When hiring for talent, you must look beyond a list of technical skills. You need people with the personality and character to fit in with your team – people who are self-developers, ambitious, and loyal. To find your perfectly-matched hires, contact NexTech Solutions today.