Retaining Top Tech Talent in Kansas City
Kansas City has a talent retention problem. According to Startland, more college-educated professionals (especially in the STEM fields) left than arrived in the region during 2016. For local businesses, that means your best employees are likely considering a move to a larger city or, even if they stay in Kansas City, an offer from your competitors. Retaining top tech talent under these conditions can be a struggle unless your business puts certain employment practices into effect that prevent colossal attrition rates.
Learn Which Benefits Retain Your Top Employees
IT professionals are not by any means all the same, but many do share similar preferences about job-related benefits. When companies set about discovering and implementing these benefits, they have much better success lowering their attrition rates. Yet how do you find what really motivates tech professionals from the wealth of potential options out there? Learn what attracts tech pros to other jobs and you’ll learn what will get them to stay.
A number of surveys have provided a glimpse into the best motivators for retaining top tech talent. HackerRank finds that of non-monetary benefits, a good work-life balance is a priority for over half of U.S. Developers and professional growth and learning opportunities are not too far behind. A survey of Cybersecurity professionals found that on top of traditional benefits, 88% sought out work with employers that invested in training and certifications.
Retaining tech talent often boils down to giving your employees a sense that they are respected on a holistic level. Flexible schedules, telecommuting options, and work-life balance indicate that their personal lives are respected while ongoing training, sponsored certifications, and evolving challenges show their career development is valued.
Give Them a Sense of Purpose
Do your employees find meaning in their work? Retaining and even attracting tech talent can depend upon it. People have an intrinsic need for meaning in their lives, and tech professionals who can point to how their work impacts your company and the world around them are more likely to remain a part of your team.
IT workers, like any employees, benefit from a reminder of the meaning of their work. Companies that regularly communicate the purpose and meaning of an organization, making the mission statement more than just a string of words, encourage higher retention rates among their workforce. Moreover, when companies make a habit of conveying how each tech worker personally contributes to the company’s meaning that action builds connections that are harder to break.
Find Out Competitive Compensation
Though benefits, a great work environment, and a sense of on-the-job meaning are effective at keeping candidates, compensation is still king of the hill. According to both the Stack Overflow and HackerRanksurveys, compensation is the most common reason given for accepting a job elsewhere. With top IT professionals getting approached with new offers on a regular basis, it’s important to maintain awareness of competitive IT salaries in the Kansas City area or risk losing them to the next offer they get.
CISSP | VCIX- DCV | Multi-Cloud Specialist | Implementation Engineering Lead at Corti
6 年Kansas City really struggles to provide adequate job opportunities for technology professionals. This article includes several good points, but Kansas City has a wealth of senior technical talent occupying roles preventing junior level employees from moving up into those roles. The Kansas City technology sector is not a huge one and although it is seeing above average growth at the bottom end, the top end is becoming rather sparse in opportunities for mid-senior level engineers. Combine that with an unwillingness to raise wages for low end employees and it is obvious why talent is choosing to go elsewhere for employment. The ideal solution to this problem is to encourage technical startups and then give them an environment to grow. The technical talent is definitely within the city, now a company needs to come in to utilize that talent. Rent is affordable to open new businesses. Set up tax policies to encourage technology startups to thrive.