Are you a CTO struggling to balance talent investment and budgets? Here's a solution from an unlikely source....

The war on talent will continue into 2023 and the best engineers will still be in high demand. Many CTOs and investors are facing budgetary constraints, but if you don't invest in your engineering team, you will lose considerable market share to your competitors who do.

There's one solution you may not have considered.....

Engineers who worked for you in the past!

By focusing on your alumni of past engineers and embracing the boomerang effect (those who leave and then return), you get many benefits:

• They know your Tech Stack, culture, and processes
• Saves on recruitment costs
• Saves time on multi-interviews
• Boomerangs typically stay longer
• Strengthens your employer brand

But if it's such a good solution, why doesn't everyone think like this?

It's been a contentious issue. When talent leaves, it's easy to view it in a negative light, or as a reflection on management or leadership. In fact, in the context of the inflated salaries and abundance of opportunities of the past few years, many exits aren't a result of dissatisfaction.

To view leavers as a pipeline, not a problem, first you have to create happy alumni. The best companies I work with create an open culture, hold thorough exit interviews, genuinely wish leavers good luck and aim to make the process a positive experience. They're the ones now best placed to persuade talent to boomerang back.

So how do you create your own alumni?

1. Be willing to invest time and consistency.
2. Find someone to lead on creating the group, hosting events and providing meaningful updates.
3. Ensure founders or senior leadership embrace the concept and engage with the group.
4. Be inclusive and invite everyone, even if your direct outreach focuses on those you'd most like to return.

This is one of many approaches used by BOOSTA . They are Embedded Talent specialists and have an impressive track record of boosting their clients' internal talent team results and knowledge transfer. If you're interested in how this alumni approach works in practice, check out the Trainline client story on the Boosta website.?

#engineering #humanresources #innovation