How Do You Keep the Talent You Have?
Kevin Ferguson
Software Architect, Lead Developer, CEO. Solving everyday problems with software
Trying to hire IT talent in a seller's market is hard enough. Keeping the talent you have
is even harder. There are a number studies and articles that go into this such as this Forbe's article which states in a nutshell, "employees who stay in companies longer than two years get paid 50% less over their lifetime." That’s a pretty dramatic statement.
I've been a software developer for over 25 years. There are two things and two things only that attract me to a particular job. The first is money. Yeah, I know the saying that it's not all about the money. The guy that said that was a guy that didn't have the opportunity to make more money. Believe me, it's about the money. Second, and very close to first, is what I’m doing for the money. The challenge and technologies used are important to me. Why? Because my skills are marketable. To a large degree, I can determine how much I get paid by what I know. So, I want to take jobs where I will learn and hone my craft.
It is true that early in my career, I was more concerned about what I was working on than the money. But, my intent was to learn as much as I could about my craft so that I could demand more money. So, the two are intertwined.
So, what do you do to keep your IT talent when recruiters there is almost a feeding frenzy where companies are hiring up talent and recruiters are calling your employees to get them interested in other opportunities?
- Be very open and honest with your people. Let them know that you know they’re in high demand and that you appreciate that they’ve decided to work for you.
- Tell your employees you have an open door policy at work. Tell them you want to know about any concerns they may have or opportunities that are just hard to turn down. Ask that they give you the first opportunity to keep them. The last thing you want to hear is your top guy is resigning and has already accepted another position.
- Be aware of the current market for top IT talent. Make sure your top people are being paid competitively in both salary and benefits.
- You may be the employer, the boss, but remember that you work for them; not the other way around. Employees that like their bosses are much more likely to stay even when offered more money.
Today, software developers probably more so than other IT jobs have the freedom to pick and choose what best suits them and their needs. The employer doesn’t have this luxury unless you’re a Google or Facebook. You have to compete to hire and retain the employee just the same as the employee has to compete for his job.
Purchasing Manager at HEX Machinery (Taixing) Co., Ltd
10 年lots of mid-sized companies in China are far away from that thinking.
Expert EOS Implementer, Advisor & Coach to Business Owners | Developing Healthy Businesses
10 年Employees stay with leaders who help develop them. They leave managers that don't utilize their gifts and talents.
Technology & Relationship Evangelist
10 年Excellent points. I would add that establishing and maintaining trust is proving much more vital as reflected by the Secret Service breakdown findings. Additionally I have found that understanding the talent's impression of your leadership style and determining how close or far off you are from what you believe and then taking positive, transparent actions to help those meet is critical as well.
Chief People Officer at Keyhole Software
10 年You make excellent points - thanks for sharing! In regards to having an open door policy, I would open it up further to proactively maintaining a continuous open line of communication with all on your team. Communication goes both ways - check in and make sure that each person is liking the projects they are on, are not feeling like their technical chops/skills are stagnating, and that they have all of the tools they need to be successful. Start the conversation so that you can take a pulse on where things are - don't just wait for them to say something. We would much rather proactively make any changes necessary (switch them to a different project, lighten/increase their hours worked, additional continuing education, etc) than lose them from our dev team. Many on my team are not the type of people who would complain or bring up negative things about a project unless it's really the end of their rope.... So, we must make sure we're checking in with them along the way to determine if any changes need to be made, before it's too late to do something proactively.