Dealing With Tech Talent Shortage: How to Retain Employees?

Despite the crisis, the development of IT industry does not slow down. There are many projects on the market and too few programmers. For this reason, it is not an easy task to attract and retain the greatest talents. If you want to hire employees, you should first consider how our company is perceived on the labor market. You need to focus on skillful recruitment of candidates from the IT industry, which differs from looking for employees for other positions. You should also invest in already employed programmers and promote your activities by proper employer branding and company culture.

How to Find a New Employee?

One way to find IT employees is to try to make a name for yourself in the developers community. This can be done by internet forums, groups on social networks where programmers not only discuss various topics, but also share their knowledge. It will also help to be up to speed with the latest industry trends and show that your company is committed to the developments in this field. Being active in the programmers' environment gives you the chance to meet potential candidates.

You can also invest in marketing. Presenting your own company on social networks, writing a blog, posting valuable content, recording educational videos on programming techniques and tools gives an insight into a company and allows to present its experience. Additionally, it can also attract people willing to work in such an organization.

However, the fastest and most effective way is to use the help of recruitment companies that specialize in the IT industry. Such companies have a contact network, skills and experience in the effective recruitment of IT employees. They will be helpful not only in the search for new employees, but also in the preparation of job advertisements so that it is attractive for the candidates. They will conduct selections and interviews (including technical ones) and cherry pick the best candidates.

How to Retain Employees?

When you hire a new employee, you can celebrate the first little success. However, you cannot expect that this is the end of your job as a lot of additional work must be put into employee retention strategies, in order to ensure that your employee does not lose interest and find a new job. The first impression is made only once, so you should take care of the appropriate onboarding process and implementation procedures for the new team members.

It is unacceptable to break your word. The promises made during the recruitment must be fulfilled. If this does not happen, it will be the first disappointment for the employee and it may result in distrust of the employer from the very beginning. During recruitment, you cannot stretch the truth and overstate certain things, because there is no value from getting an employee and then loosing them quickly.

However your company looks on the outside, it must reflect what is happening inside. Therefore, we also cannot afford a large employee turnover. Even if you don't see it right away, you can't hide anything inside the organization. Staff rotation is always poorly perceived and often triggers more people to leave.

Employee Retention Strategies

In order to attract and retain the best employees, it is important for the company to have a strong culture and set of values. It should be an environment where employees feel valued for their contribution. The company should attract people who are passionate about their work and want to be part of something bigger. An organization which wants to raise employees job satisfaction and boost employee engagement should considers offering a set of competitive advantages.

Projects

Offer interesting and developmental projects is a must in IT. Most employees do not like to be bored, and most of all, they want to learn and expand their knowledge. The more interesting the project, the more people willing to work on it.

Training

In connection with the above point, it is known that you need to invest in training. Programmers, like other employees, want to climb up and develop their careers. Investing in employees proves that the employer is committed to their professional development.

Competitive Compensation

Market-based salary based on the skills and knowledge of the future employee is very important. The best programmers know their worth and want to be appreciated financially.

Benefits

It is important to consider offering appropriate benefits. Try to be creative and provide something original. A good example is helping employees with their private matters, e.g. arranging a check-up at a car repair shop or a visit to a hairdresser. You can hire an assistant to deal with such matters. Thanks to it, developers will have more free time. You can also hire a physiotherapist who, for example, will come to the company once a month to help employees with backaches caused by sitting work.

Teamwork

Try to encourage your team members to co-operate with each other. Employees thrive when they can collaborate with talented individuals. Diverse teams expand knowledge. Creating an environment that encourages collaboration attracts people and makes them stay with the company.

Socializing

Introduce team building activities in order to make each team member feel they are a part of an exclusive group. Trips, going out or lunches at work are a very good form of spending time. Employees can then get to know each other better. This has a huge impact on the atmosphere. People very often do not want to change jobs for these very reasons.

Flexible Schedules

Consider offering your employees flexible working conditions. People appreciate being able to schedule a flexible timetable. Enabling remote work and setting own working hours is a comfortable solution for the employee. It is very convenient to deal with private matters in a timely manner and maintain a healthy work life balance.

Empowerment

Allow freedom of action, the possibility of presenting ideas and creativity. People do not like to follow strictly defined frameworks, and the lack of the possibility of own initiative overwhelms especially the most talented and valuable employees (and we care about them the most).

Other Solutions

In case it turns out that the entire recruitment process and subsequent efforts are too burdensome, there is lack of time or funds in a given period, then you can use other solutions. One of the most popular models is the Staff Augmentation. It is an outsourcing strategy that allows you to fill gaps in teams in a short time.

In the Staff Augmentation model you can hire specialists in a given field for as long as you need them. Such developers can join the work on the project at various stages of its development. The main goal is to use their skills so that the project can be completed.

Thanks to Staff Augmentation, you have access to a large number of talents so that you can choose specialists with the best competences. Moreover, it gives you opportunity to hire staff for temporary and long-term projects and for positions such as programmers, testers, business analysts and project managers. Candidates are selected in accordance with the required knowledge and skills to implement a specific project.

Despite the fact that more and more young developers appear on the labor market, the demand continues to grow, especially for qualified employees. That is why many companies have problems with hiring and retaining their programmers. The solutions proposed above will certainly help in the search for IT employees. What is more, they will also lead you to introduction of appropriate changes in the organization in order to improve the company's image and working conditions. Changes for the better will definitely keep employees from quitting, however, if for some reason such developments are impossible at a given time, you can always outsource the recruitment to an external company or choose the Staff Augmentation model.