The post-pandemic era has brought a colossal revolution in corporate work culture. People are preferring remote work or a hybrid work model for a balanced lifestyle. Companies need to retain their top talents by ensuring their work environment is flexible, beneficial, and supportive.
IT Professionals have been the catalyst behind this modernization and which is why the demand for IT professionals and their talents in this modern remote work market has risen immensely.
IT professionals are in high demand lately, thanks to the flexibility of the modern ecosystem, HR departments and managers need to be on top of their retention game to retain their best IT talents on board in 2022. Companies and HR departments need to formulate robust employee retention strategies to ensure they can retain their top IT talent without second thoughts.
Here are five tips to retain your top IT talent by eliminating the reasons for which they wanted to leave.
1Provide perpetual and competitive packages
Companies need to do periodic research on the market rates for all IT roles, especially specialist roles like SOC analysts, pen-testers, database administrators, and network and IT administrators. The latest packages need to be communicated and updated internally for reference, and IT professionals’ pay rise needs to be maintained on par with the market rates. Considering the global economic conditions and the inflation most countries are currently experiencing, employees’ expectation of a pay rise is reasonable and companies should be proactive about the same and act first.
Competitive packages have always been one of the key reasons for individuals to stay with their current employer.
2Offer unique perks and benefits
While salary is important, it is not always the deciding factor. Employees are preferring a balanced work style and companies that encourage this are more likely to win them over. As per Mckinsey’s spring 2022 research, when people are given a chance to work flexibly, 87% of them take it.
Adding to the flexibility, companies should also look into other perks like healthcare, extended healthcare, maternal leave, employee stock options, profit sharing, and more. Any customized gadgets or swag will be an additional boost to retain your talent.
3Consult and formulate better career paths
Managers and their subordinates should have a periodic review session, where the expectations from both parties are discussed, understood, implemented, and measured for continuous improvement.
Each IT professional has a unique talent, say it be a helpdesk technician, system administrator, SOC analyst, threat hunter, pentester, compliance manager, etc, their skills and passion need to be understood and proper career growth has to be streamlined for each individual. When your IT employees’ concerns are listened to and implemented, your employees will stay.
4Provide advanced training and development
While the above three strategies will be your primary concern, companies should also implement advanced training for their IT professionals. IT management and security is an evolving space and people need to stay updated with the latest skills and certifications to stay on top of their game.
For example, a helpdesk technician may need to develop his system administration or penetration testing skills, and companies need to facilitate the same to ensure they retain the talent and also upgrade them for mutual benefits.
5Create and sustain a positive work culture
Building a strong culture can be challenging when people are working remotely, however, if companies can manage to conduct community meetups, happy hours, or a fun Friday meeting, employees will feel more connected to their teams and be motivated to stay longer.
Regular informal communication also helps to keep teams connected.
Despite challenges from economic slowdowns, companies should not economize on the packages for their top talent. The current IT skills market is very much biased in favor of the employee and if your skilled IT professional feels that they are not being adequately rewarded, they will easily find another employer who will treat them better.
Losing your top IT talent could have more severe consequences on your business than spending more to retain them.
