The need for businesses to retain their staff is a critical aspect in achieving strategic business goals. In any sector, the loss of an employee to daily business operations can be detrimental but losing an IT professional who knows an organization’s business processes and projects in such depth will likely delay or even prevent new implementations. The IT industry traditionally has turnover rates of 25 to 35%, creating a definitive supply and demand gap in the IT labor market. In this article, we’ll identify 8 key areas for consideration in retaining top talent.

Provide competitive pay

According to Glassdoor, the foremost reason for people quitting their jobs is salary. In competitive markets, it’s essential for organizations to offer attractive compensation packages. Traditionally this comprises a base salary, but bonuses, PTO, health benefits and retirements plans are all equally important when considering similar roles across multiple businesses.

All too often these compensation plans are considered as a basic requirement and aren’t reviewed across the organization or to industry standards as often as they should be. Regular compensation reviews should take place alongside annual performance appraisals to ensure that employees are fairly benchmarked, regardless of whether they’re a newer or more tenured member of staff.

Recruitment & onboarding

Employee retention starts in recruitment. In order to truly retain a workforce, an organization must identify the culture and strategy that they want to emphasize and seek out those skills in the candidates that they recruit. Identifying longevity in a resume is often a significant tell as to a candidate’s loyalty and engagement, but factors outside of the world of work are also a key indicator, with commitments to sports, volunteering and other activities proving investment in a continued cause.

Only 47% of survey respondents believe that their organizations onboarding processes successfully retains new hires, and 24% state that they have no onboarding process at all. Onboarding processes should not only give an insight into the job and company, but the culture and ways in which new starters can contribute and thrive in their new environment. The training that is provided from the offset is crucial in setting the tone for the rest of an employee’s tenure.

 

Growth, development & engagement

Studies indicate that employees who are engaged in learning and development in the workplace, are also more engaged in their role. Companies can pay for employees to take courses to better their personal growth and development, or even cross-training programs to develop a boarder skill set outside of their current role. As well as attendance of training courses, some trade shows, conferences and other industry events are a huge motivator in benefitting job performance and career satisfaction.

94% of employees would stay with a company longer if they invested in their professional development. There are also internal opportunities for mentorship programs to promote engagement and create clear development paths so that employees know what they need to do to progress, and more importantly have the internal support they need to do so. Whether it’s job progression, promotion or professional development, those working towards a goal will be continually motivated to perform. 

 

Benefits

The benefits that employees expect in the modern day go beyond healthcare coverage, sick leave and 401(k). One third of SHRM survey respondents stated that their current benefits package was the main reason that they would be looking for a new position with a different employer within the next year. Companies that offer stock options, enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave, financial rewards and other benefits are the most likely to retain their employees.

The biggest motivator to improve staff retention is increased PTO. Whilst it’s unlikely that a company will be able to increase everybody’s standard vacation allowance overnight, offering a single day off for employee’s birthdays, or allowing them to purchase additional days is highly regarded. It’s also worth noting that increased benefits don’t need to break the bank. Some benefits such as flexible working and telecommuting are often free (and can sometimes even save money), which when compared to the cost of employee turnover and recruitment, is a no brainer.

 

Work-life balance

Global companies often struggle to maintain a presence and inter-employee communication without encouraging employees to be contactable at all hours. An expectation of employees to work for longer than necessary and respond to requests almost instantaneously is not favorable for employee retention. Being able to offer a healthy work-life balance is essential to an employee’s happiness and a ‘work to live’ rather than a ‘live to work’ mentality is of paramount importance to most workers.

Especially with the increase in remote working environments, successful employers should encourage their staff to take vacations and logout promptly, and if projects require extra hours from time-to-time, consider compensating your employees with flexible working and later starts where possible.

 

Culture

Workplace culture is significant in employee satisfaction but is interpreted in many different ways. Constructing a better culture in the workplace isn’t as simple as increasing perks or installing ping pong tables in the office, it’s about providing your employees with autonomy and building a trusting relationship. A more recent method includes provision of unlimited PTO, however it is unclear whether this method genuinely increases satisfaction and output, or if employees are actually taking fewer vacation days than usual in fear of being seen as ‘abusing’ the lenient policy.

By building trust in this way, workplaces are able to promote employee engagement and workers are more motivated to perform well. Providing this level of responsibility and being able to align business performances with core values, are fundamental to creating a good working culture.

 

Health & Wellness

The ability to keep your employees emotionally, physically, financially, and socially well is an important factor in retaining top talent. This practice reduces absenteeism, increases job satisfaction, and boosts productivity all whilst attracting and retaining new talent. Recently adopted examples of financial wellness resources include retirement planning and credit counselling courses, which have proven extremely popular across all age ranges. Many organizations offer gym passes or discounted memberships, as well as incentives for engaging in healthy behavior via life insurance providers.

Recognition also acts as a great contributor to employee wellness and can be achieved through company award ceremonies or ‘employee of the month’ appraisals. Employees are more likely to feel valued by the business and experience increased well being if their individual achievements and hard work is recognized by management.

 

Exit interviews

Conducting exit interviews with employees seems like sensible practice, however a worrying number of companies do not have this as part of their routine when an employee leaves their role with a company. The knowledge that an employee is already leaving often provides them with the ability to provide honest feedback on their experiences, without fear of judgement or management reprisal. Whilst it’s too late to retain the employee that this interview is conducted with, this practice allows potential workplace issues to be uncovered and essentially allows HR to address key areas for improvement. The ability to act upon this newfound knowledge can not only prevent other employees from leaving the business, but also betters the organization and workplace culture as a whole.

 About Oliver Parks

Oliver Parks offers search-based recruitment solutions to the technology sector, specialising in ERP, CRM, e-commerce, Business Intelligence, Mobile Development. Data Science & Engineering, Cloud Computing, Web Development, Content Management and Cyber Security. The firm’s multilingual consultants operate in narrowly-defined niche market segments, enabling them to gain extensive knowledge of the people and companies operating in each technology.  Oliver Parks has a proven track-record with more than 100,000 candidates worldwide and more than 300 clients globally.