When a job market favors candidates, you better believe high employee turnover is a real concern. Dissatisfaction with a job doesn’t need to be borne by employees in silence. Top talent can go elsewhere and take their knowledge with them. And your business can be caught up in all that churn and upheaval, especially if you use the wrong employee retention strategies.
Not every employee retention strategy is going to get results. High profile members of Silicon Valley have resorted to some desperate measures to stifle turnover, non-competes especially, and it backfired. Here’s what you might be missing if your retention strategies are just digging you a deeper hole.
Everyone in the IT industry is fighting for the alpha spot among their peers. With that end in mind, businesses from startups to Fortune 500s push themselves to the point that work-life balance steadily erodes. In a Dice survey, almost 45% of tech professionals feel that “their job doesn’t allow them to have a work-life balance.” And the effects negate the impact of any other employee retention strategies.
Diminished work-life balance is a catalyst for employee burnout. Studies find that burnt out employees are 31% more inclined to quit compared to IT professionals with a semblance of balance. Their absence does serious damage to productivity, revenue growth, and client relations.
It’s clear that work-life balance is important. No doubt there, but when you know your competition is keeping an allegro pace, it can be hard to justify slowing down to mete out some balance. However, creating greater flexibility in an employee’s schedule can go a long way.
One of the biggest draws to IT talent is the opportunity to telecommute at least part of the time. By offering flexible schedules that allow employees to work where and when they want, you can foster a greater work-life balance without slowing down your pace.
Some businesses get so engrossed in their end goals that the people and processes involved in getting to the finish line are just a blur. As long as the project is completed, nothing else matters. They run their business with an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mindset. In the long run, that type of thinking loses more employees than it keeps.
Competitive tech professionals want to feel some level of growth. Whether it comes through learning opportunities or a new promotion, employees want to feel that their career isn’t stalled at a green light. And when a portion of their talents are being neglected, most people take this as a sign to start looking for a better opportunity elsewhere.
Often, the best way to fix this issue with your employee retention strategies is to reach out to your employees themselves. Find out what projects interest them, which technologies they want to learn, and which processes your company can implement. Trust them to make changes for your business and provide them with the resources to achieve those changes. Encouraging employees to take on new challenges and build their aptitudes improves retention while boosting your overall capabilities.
Sometimes, you can do everything right and still have a high employee turnover. At that point, chances are that you need to reevaluate your hiring process. Though you may be finding people who are a strong technical fit, you are likely neglecting to match their interpersonal strengths with your company’s culture.
The answer? You need to find yourself the right IT staffing partner.
Platform Staffing brings 25 years of experience to the table with recruiting professionals that work to understand your business, your technological needs, and your people. That way, we only present you with candidates that have long-term potential. Contact us today to get your employee retention strategies on the right track.
