Employee retention in IT is a challenging but quite manageable task if your HR team has the right skills. Employee retention, in general, entails targeting strategic activities to boost your employees’ motivation to help them stay productive at work. To craft well-working retention strategies, you need to know employees’ underlying reasons and motives to remain at your company. It takes time to analyze the market and offer the most attractive benefits to your team.
Importance of Employee Retention in IT
Why do we focus on employee retention in IT? Because the demand in the industry is higher and engineers are open to choosing among a vast majority of job offers. It makes employee retention in IT more challenging than any other field. According to statistics, engineering and other IT jobs are among the fastest-growing occupations so far.
Employee retention should be included in your recruitment strategy and should be an inseparable part of your technical hiring processes.
For example, when our team of professionals at HIRECLOUT partners with a client their needs and talent analysis begins with employee retention in mind. When looking for the top talent, you need to have your retention strategies established in order to be successful over time.
Why Employees Stay or Leave
Let’s get down to understanding the underlying reasons why employees stay or what urges them to leave. By the way, at HIRECLOUT, we conduct a thorough study of your company’s culture, positioning, and business needs so that we can provide you with the perfect fit. We also guarantee a long-term fit and high employee retention rates. If the candidate leaves within the next 60 days, we make sure to find new talent for your team without additional charges.
According to sociological studies, the most common driving force for employee satisfaction is growth opportunities. Employees are also eager to broaden their professional network and develop new valuable relationships. Therefore, creating a network and endorsing social connections both on and off the job will help you increase retention rates at your company.
Employee retention strategies in IT
To ensure high levels of employee retention, you need to focus your efforts on the following areas of your operations:
1. Start with talent acquisition and recruitment
Talent acquisition processes in your company are strongly tied to your employee retention in the long run. When you begin the recruitment process, you should provide a realistic preview of the job responsibilities when interviewing your candidates. New hires should come away with a very clear picture of what they should be focusing on and what you expect them to accomplish. Take an individual approach to retain top talent in IT, and be mindful of the underlying factors.
2. Focus on training and development
Since growth opportunities have been cited as a top factor in employee satisfaction, be sure to provide your employees with quality training. Gaining new skills with your company is a strong motivation to stay with you for a long time. Skill updates and professional development leads to higher results and more satisfied clients for your business.
3. Reward systems and compensation
Employee retention is also dependent on the pay levels at your company. If you want to keep top talent on board, ensure a fair and competitive salary. The job market for engineers is growing so fast that you need to be flexible and quick to respond to changes.
Post pandemic salaries have influenced the retention rates in tech companies. However, there are essential tips to follow when deciding on reward systems and salary policies.
Tip 1
Make reward systems individually tailored to your employee needs.
Tip 2
Encourage long-term employees by offering exceptional benefits like stock options or extended vacations.
Tip 3
Link your rewards to retention; for example, you can set milestones for staying with the company. The reward increases with the number of years employees stay with your company.
4. Work on your employee engagement
If employees are engaged with the company culture and mission, they will tend to contribute more. In addition, employee engagement is rooted in sharing company values and taking pride in what you are doing. Practice your values daily, and you will see higher motivation in your employees.
Employee retention is a long-term process, and it should always be on your mind when hiring top talent for your company. Honest communication and frequent employee surveys can reveal a lot about the hidden factors that you can nourish to keep top talent on board.
If you are looking for a dedicated team of top talent acquisition specialists, contact us, and our HIRECLOUT team will ensure you have a sustainable team and high employee retention rates.
