Retention is a game and you can win it

IT companies are facing a lot of challenges when it comes to people management.?

The great resignation phenomenon shows that employees are looking for a different working experience.?

1. One that’s suited more to their needs.??
2. One that allows them to grow and bring value to the workplace.
3. One that makes them feel appreciated and recognized.?
4. One that allows them to control their career choices.
5. One that helps them build trust in their capabilities.?

Currently, a lot of these experiences are coming from human interactions.?

These interactions can solve real pain points if concrete needs are discussed.?

To be honest we can say that most of us don’t really know exactly which career choice works best for us.?

Though, we have an idea of what we think that we’d like to do.?

It’s something almost similar to finishing the university. You kind of know what type of job you’re trying to get, but you didn’t experience that job. You just heard some people, or maybe some friends talking about it.?

When it comes to a career development process a lot of companies are offering the experience described earlier. People are getting the same feeling that they’ve had after finishing the university because:

They don’t have an overview of the available opportunities within the company.

They don’t have clear success criteria for reaching the next career level.

They’ve seen or heard some people in the position they’re aspiring to, but they don’t have clear examples of the real things that should be done.?

They’ve seen some learning materials on the internet, but they don’t know if they’ll have the chance to apply the skills gained from those materials.

The thing here is that people don’t want that anymore. I don’t know if they ever wanted to see this approach, but from my research(more than 70 user interviews with developers, testers, project managers) I’ve seen that they need:

1. To have a clear overview of what are the available opportunities.
2. To have clear success criteria for reaching a specific skill or a specific career level.
3. To have control over their career choices within the company.
4. To learn from validated materials.
5. To apply the acquired skills in real projects.
6. To check what a specific role is about. To see clear examples of the day-to-day activities, not just a more detailed job description.

This helps them to feel safe. To feel that they are in control of their career. To feel that the environment can solve their needs.

In addition to that, employees have the need of being recognized and appreciated. They need to know that their work matters.?Here comes the human interaction part. Instead of creating a process that’s strictly related to a few 1-on-1s with the ‘direct superior’, companies and the HR department should facilitate the peer-to-peer connection.?

They should make the learning process transparent so that the people with common goals will be able to work together.?

They should create systems that allow people to show appreciation to their colleagues.?

They should structure the feedback process in a way that’s focused on the positive impact brought on the organization. That would help people see that their work is recognized, and meaningful.?It would make them feel better and, as a result, they might be more involved and productive.

The retention game is complex, but you can reach a higher level if you're doing the things that others don't. Unfortunately, most career development experiences are created without consulting the end-user of that process. A starting point for you might be just this one: check the most important user needs and solve them.