The Great Resignation and IT: 4 ways to cope when you’re the one in charge of hiring

The "Great Resignation" has seen job exit rates hit all-time highs this year. Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that in August 2021, the rate hit its peak when 4.3 million people left their jobs.

Although resignations are more prevalent in some sectors than others, IT is not immune. Data suggests that a significant number of IT professionals are thinking about their next move.

Increased resignations have a flow-on effect for the employees and hiring managers left to deal with a rapidly dwindling workforce. The good news is there are ways to combat the flowing tide of employee resignations.

Here are 4 ways to help keep your people:

1. Improve your onboarding process

According to a report by analytics firm Visier, some workers are more likely to quit than others, including “those with 5 to 15 years of tenure, workers 40 to 45 years old, and women.” However, this doesn’t mean that newer employees are guaranteed to stay.

Many new employees are struggling with the onboarding phase and are forced to learn on the job. Tech workers, in particular, are grappling with an expectation that they will hit the ground running when what they want is more support and formal training from the team who hired them to ensure they’re set up success.

Improving your onboarding process will help new employees settle into their roles properly. Studies show that an engaging onboarding process helps retain 91% of first-year employees even before the pandemic.

What does a good onboarding process look like? It’s both structured and strategic and focuses on long and short term goals like:

• Getting employees excited about working for your organization

• Completing necessary paperwork, logins, and all necessary setup

• Gets the employee familiar with their colleagues, company culture, and background

• Showing how your organization listens to and appreciates current employees

• Promotes initial and ongoing training for continued growth and development

2. Invest in the employees you have

According to a survey of 600 data engineers by Wakefield Research, 97% of data engineers feel burnt out, while engineers who feel burnout are twice as likely to quit their jobs as their non-stressed colleagues. That’s a lot of avoidable resignations.

For many Americans, the pandemic has refocused their priorities. As Gen-Z increasingly joins the workforce, there is a real need for employers to focus on providing better work-life balance, a more positive working culture, and an emphasis on mental health.

With fewer geographical restrictions, employees also have the upper hand if they feel unhappy with their compensation. It’s not just salaries that employers can review. Companies like Google offer loan reimbursement, financial coaching, and cross-company pay equity analysis and adjustments to ensure employees are paid appropriately and supported in managing their finances.

Employee incentives are also changing. While stock options used to be the main tool for attracting new talent, many companies switched to more flexible perks – like yearly grants. This way, employees gain more significant upfront grants without staying four to five years to see the benefits.

Stress and compensation aren’t the only factors leading to job exits. Boredom and a lack of ongoing training are also contributing. In one survey, 80% of Millennials and GenZers have cited a lack of career and professional development as a reason to leave a company.

Training and learning should not be an afterthought, especially in IT, where employees need to keep upskilling or fear being left behind. At Microsoft, professional development is offered through in-house courses and ongoing guest speakers.

3. Spend less time attracting new talent

Employer turnover isn’t just a problem because it takes time to find new talent. Other drawbacks from focusing on attractive versus retaining staff include:

• Recruiting costs: It can cost the equivalent of anywhere from 3-6 months of one employee’s yearly salary to advertise and attract recruits.
• Onboarding costs: Training, onboarding, and managing recruits should be done properly but is still an investment that initially takes from your bottom line.
• Lost productivity: It can take years for younger recruits to build up the knowledge of an existing team member.
• Lost engagement: High turnover can harm morale and affect productivity and motivation in the retained staff.
• Customer service and errors: There may be a learning curve that causes an increase in customer service problems and mistakes as employees adapt to their new workforce.
• Cultural impact: Employees’ happiness has an overall effect on the culture of every organization and when people stop to question why others have left, problems can arise.

According to the TalentLMS report, 75% of tech workers felt their company focused more on attracting new talent than supporting existing employees. Organizations should spend less time attracting new talent and more time making sure the workers they do have are happy.

How do you find the time? Outsourcing the hiring of new staff to talented acquisition experts.

4. Establish key partnerships

For many organizations, finding the time to implement new processes, focus on new employees or invest in the health and wellbeing of current staff is the challenging part. Establishing partnerships with a staff augmentation supplier can help.

This can allow you to bolster your staff when you need it and spend more time retaining existing employees than chasing to plug the gaps in your workforce.

As the Great Resignation continues—data shows resignations are slowing but not by much—employers need to protect themselves from future talent shortages. Staff augmentation allows for the scaling of support at any given time.

How We Retain Tech Talent at Novacomp

As the saying goes, ‘people quit bosses, not company’s.’ Soft skills are just as important, and sometimes harder to teach than hard skills. Poor management can easily impact an employee’s view of the company and give employees reason to leave.

At Novacomp, we know what it takes to retain a thriving workforce. First, we start by recruiting the best talent in Latin America. Then, we celebrate them through corporate programming, a dedicated employee morale budget, and growth opportunities that result in increased compensation and training.

From there, we carefully pair them with positions best aligned with their unique capabilities and experiences, fostering a sense of purpose that drives high-quality work, dependability and happiness. As your nearshoring partner, this means we can supply our clients with a stable team, with less turnover and high production rates.