To Keep The Best IT Staff, Be The Best IT Company You Can Be
In today’s highly competitive IT employment market, more and more tech companies are realizing that to keep the best IT staff from moving on to other opportunities, more incentive is required than offering free donuts in the breakroom. Top-tier tech professionals are in high demand in Dallas and most major cities, and businesses and recruiters never stop looking for the best of the best, whether these individuals are actively seeking other employment or not. That means right now, someone else has got their eyes on the job candidates and current employees you want as part of your team.
Unless you take affirmative steps to keep your IT staff happy, engaged, and content, you will waste time, money, and effort attempting to replace them.
Here are some tips to help you get – and keep – the best IT staff at your company:
Listen to Your Employees
Gone are the days when IT professionals were introverts, content to sit in their cubicles and keep to themselves. Whether you attribute the trend to the popularity of social media and chat rooms or to another cause, the truth is that people like to be heard. Tech employees want to know that their concerns, interests, and goals matter to those they work with and for. And each of your tech employees has a different perspective about what matters to them and what they want to get out of their employment with your company.
Listen to what your employees are telling you – and telling each other. By understanding what they do and do not like about their current role, management, coworkers, and work environment, you can make the course corrections needed to address their concerns and resolve any dissatisfaction. Set up individual meetings with each of your top IT professionals and encourage open communication without fear of negative consequences or reprisal. Listen carefully and ensure that each employee feels that their concerns have been heard and matter.
Offer Opportunities For Career Development and Advancement
Career development is one of the most important benefits that top IT workers look for in an employer. According to a recent LinkedIn study, 59% of employees join a company because they see more growth and advancement opportunities there. As such, it is critical that you establish and promote a culture that encourages learning, expanding hard and soft skill sets, and intellectual challenges. Offer to pay for professional development courses and attendance at industry events, and provide positive, constructive feedback on how employees can improve their performance.
Related: 4 Ways To Promote The Professional Growth Of Tech Employees
Build Your Company’s Brand and Reputation
Today’s IT professionals in Dallas and nationwide want to take pride in where they work. Millennials, in particular, are extremely brand conscious and want to work for companies that have a great reputation amongst consumers and competitors as being worthy, ethical, and inspiring. If you’re going to attract and keep the best IT staff, you need to establish your company as one of the best places to be employed.
To do so, focus on creating a company culture that is supportive, creative, collegial, and collaborative. Establish and promote your brand in the marketplace, the tech industry, and among IT professionals. Increase your company’s visibility at tech industry events and utilize your greatest asset, your current employees, as ambassadors to share their first-hand experiences about how amazing it is to work at your company. Distinguish your organization from your competitors and showcase what makes your culture unique and special.
Get Managers Who Get It
As important as company culture is to employee recruitment and retention, the managers and leaders that your tech employees work with every day may have the biggest impact on job satisfaction. Culture is something of an abstraction; your boss is not.
Hire managers who possess the leadership qualities and values that align with your company’s core principles. To be effective leaders, managers must have the soft skills and emotional intelligence to connect with and inspire their team members. Employees should feel that they have their manager’s full support and that the manager truly cares about their career development and well-being. Few things will have tech employees running for the exits faster than a bad manager, and few things will keep them happier than a great boss.
If Remote Work Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
If you want to keep the best IT staff, you need to be responsive to their desires and expectations regarding working remotely. Obviously, the pandemic changed how employers and employees alike view working from home. If your company successfully transitioned to a largely virtual workforce over the past year or so, it is likely that most of your top tech employees don’t want to entirely give up that lifestyle.
GTN Technical Staffing: Finding Your Company The Best IT Talent
While it is up to your company to take the steps needed to keep the best IT staff, GTN Technical Staffing in Dallas and Phoenix can help you find and hire top tech professionals from around the globe. Contact us today to learn more.
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