7 tips for tech staff retention.

What makes a company attractive to IT employees? Of course, benefits, respect, and fair pay are attributes all employees value. However, tech talent in particular come with a unique blend of proclivities and annoyances. Unless you’ve worked in IT, or really understand the industry, providing a nourishing environment for your IT staff can be a daunting challenge. So, here’s a list of common complaints that can drive away your best tech talent.

1. Don’t waste their time. Whether it’s writing code, or configuring a network, your technology staff is always going to be swamped. Time away from the task at hand can quickly translate into longer days, more fatigue, and disgruntlement. With that in mind, try to avoid calling your IT staff into meetings unless they’re necessary – few things are as frustrating as sitting in an irrelevant meeting when they could be being productive.
2. Be savvy or hire a manager who is. While there are some departments where general management skills might be sufficient, IT is not one of them. When your tech staff has to explain why a manager’s plan of action is a terrible idea, it not only frustrates your crew, it wastes everyone’s time.
3. Just say ‘no’ to nepotism. You might be surprised at how often completely unqualified people end up in IT positions simply because friends or relatives helped them along. Obviously, these types are dead weight – they’re bad for your company objectives, and terrible for morale, since your real IT employees have to pick up their slack.
4. Make good IT choices. In case there’s any confusion, a “good” IT decision is not going with an inferior software product in exchange for perks or discounts. This is like asking a surgeon to operate with a dull scalpel. If you want your IT staff to perform, involve them in decisions that affect their work, and listen to their pros and cons – after all, they were hired for their expertise on the subject.
5. Give them a good environment. If you’ve ever worked with a team of programmers, you might have noticed their office doors tend to stay shut. Distractions are counterproductive by definition. However, for someone writing code, random drop-ins and unnecessary interruptions can mean far more than just a pause in their work – they can derail a line of thinking that can take hours to rebuild – thereby making work frustrating rather than gratifying.
6.  It’s not an assembly line. IT projects usually are anything but “one size fits all.” The process is full of twists and challenges – IT managers who focus more on the process than the results of the process end up producing second-rate products. It’s a classic case of form being valued over function and it’ll drives smart IT staffers batty!
7. Give them flexibility. Technology jobs are ripe for unexpected challenges. As complications evolve into full-blown problems, your IT staff is slowly watching their time downtime dwindle. If you can’t be flexible with deadlines, consider allowing them to put in extra hours remotely or buying dinner and snacks on the nights your team works late.

Now: how about hiring IT staff you love?

Tech talent is a tricky landscape to navigate. IT minds are sharp, confident, and in demand: they can afford to be picky. With more than 33 years of courting some of the finest thinkers in IT, Consultis can help you pinpoint the perfect employee, then show you how to reel them in. For more information on attracting the type of IT talent you want on your team, contact one of our expert IT recruiters today.