The role of tech professionals is becoming ever more vital, and demand for tech skills is rising – yet only 29% of IT professionals plan to stay in their current roles for the next year.
Why IT professionals are quitting: the numbers
- Moving to another business: 14%
- Setting up their own company: 11%
- Going part-time: 11%
- Relocating: 11%
- Seeking contract work: 10%
- Quitting the industry altogether: 8%
Faced with this mass exodus, how can companies retain tech talent?
Retaining talent in the tech industry isn’t that different from retaining talent in any other industry – but in the current talent drought, it requires extra thought and attention.
Work with each employee to set individual targets for their development. These targets should both stretch them to grow and learn – including allowing them to learn from failure – and support them in being and feeling successful.
Make sure you communicate openly and honestly, and listen to each individual’s needs as well as the company’s needs when building personal development plans.
Ensure that there are career growth opportunities for your tech professionals. If you can upskill people internally and offer returnship programmes for people looking to change to a different career within the sector, your employees will feel that they can grow with you.
It’s equally important to ensure that career growth opportunities exist. “If organisations can upskill employees internally and set up returnship programmes for those looking for a career change within the sector, employees will feel that they can grow within the company,” Philpott says.
Finally, make sure your employee retention schemes are meaningful to all concerned, from the business to the individual to clients. Make sure you reward and celebrate teams for their successes, but also make sure those achievements are concrete and challenging.