Finding the ideal talent for your tech team is the first stage of building a successful business. Once you’ve attracted top-performing candidates to your business, you also need to ensure you’re taking steps to keep them around. 

In today’s skill-short landscape, great employees have endless opportunities to switch employers and businesses whenever they’re unsatisfied with their current employment. That means learning how to retain your top talent is more important than ever. 

Staff members can choose to leave a business for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, they feel they’re not getting enough satisfaction from their role, or they lose interest in the company’s vision for the future. 

Other times, employees may feel they don’t thrive in their current position due to issues with colleagues or managers. 

While the cost of replacing a lost employee can be significant, it’s worth remembering that anywhere up to 75% of turnover can be avoided. 

That is why it is critical to recognise the signs that your employee might be looking elsewhere. So in this post, we are going to share several signs to consider. 

1. They’re Avoiding Long-Term Projects and Growth 

When an employee decides they no longer want to work with a company, they often begin to reduce their involvement in long-term projects and strategies for development or growth. They stop envisioning a “future” with the business, which means they generally spend more of their time on short-term tasks and simply “checking boxes” on their to-do list. 

When an employee who previously volunteered for various challenging projects no longer raises their hand in meetings or delegates long-term work to other employees. In that case, this could signify they’re not planning on being around for long. 

Pay close attention to whether your team members still invest in their future with the company by agreeing to learning and development opportunities or discussing goals during one-on-one meetings. If your employees no longer see a future with you, change their perspective by offering them insights into progression opportunities, tech stack changes and developments they might miss out on if they leave. 

2. They Show Visible Signs of Stress

The World Health Organisation says “burnout” is a significant occupational phenomenon that has increased drastically in recent years. Burned-out and overwhelmed employees disengage from the workplace, show clear signs of exhaustion, and often look for alternative work opportunities. With this in mind, tracking your employee’s mental and physical health is important. And if you’re running a remote first team, then this becomes important to keep an eye out for. 

Pay attention to signs of exhaustion, like the heavy reliance on caffeine, yawning, or even a slower-than-usual pace in your team member’s workflow. 

The attitude of your employee might begin to change too. They may appear to be overwhelmingly negative towards other colleagues or attempt to isolate themselves from their peers, taking part in meetings less than usual. In some cases, they could even become more argumentative or aggressive. As mentioned, this is especially noticeable if you’re running remote teams. If you notice signs of burnout, speak to your staff member about how you can help them manage their workload. 

3. They’re Not as Creative or Intuitive as Usual 

When employees decide to leave a business, they stop actively contributing to its growth. You may notice some of your top performers who used to share ideas for development in previous meetings are now quieter when you’re asking for suggestions or advice. 

Rather than trying to solve problems with out-of-the-box ideas and collaboration, your team members may simply pass difficult tasks onto other employees. They could stop taking the initiative with their work and may focus on doing just the “bare minimum” to get by. 

A team member who’s occasionally quiet during business meetings isn’t necessarily a cause for alarm. However, if they seem to have lost their passion for helping the company grow, they may no longer feel inspired by your company’s mission or values. 

A good way to address this issue is to give your team members regular feedback and let them know how much you value their input. Employees are more likely to contribute when they feel recognised and rewarded for their hard work. 

4. They Focus More on External Networking 

Networking is important in building a thriving career as a tech professional. It’s not unusual for dedicated tech individuals to visit industry events and connect with other experts on social media, github or tech forums. However, there may be a problem if your team members focus more on external networking than on building internal relationships. 

If you notice your team members are disconnecting from their internal peers, failing to attend meetings, or spending less time chatting with colleagues either on or offline, check out their external networking efforts. If they’re heavily invested in adding new connections on LinkedIn and improving their personal brand, this could be a sign they’re looking for a way to branch into new opportunities. 

There are a few ways managers and supervisors can tackle this issue. Preventing staff from building external connections isn’t an option, but you can encourage your team to bond with their colleagues through team-building exercises and more consistent internal communication. 

5. Their Performance Begins to Suffer 

For an tech team member to thrive in their role, they need to do a lot more than just show up and follow the instructions given by a manager or squad leader. The best staff members are constantly pushing themselves to be their best. However, if your employee is disengaged and disinterested in their work, you may begin to notice performance issues. 

You might be able to notice more errors in their work, which they never used to make before. Or perhaps your customers are providing negative feedback concerning a specific employee’s behaviour. Other colleagues may even complain that one team member is no longer pulling their weight in their projects. 

If your staff member is no longer reaching their targets or making the right amount of effort, the first step shouldn’t always be to engage in disciplinary action. Speak to your team member and discover what’s happening behind the scenes. 

Don’t Lose Your Top Performers 

In today’s changing Tech landscape, issues like disengagement, burnout, and even “quiet quitting” are becoming increasingly common. Fortunately, if you can recognise these signs ahead of time, there are still things you can do to re-ignite your staff’s passion for your company and prevent them from seeking other employment options. 

Pay attention to your top performers, and make sure you’re not actively pushing them away.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email  hello@inspirepeople.net

Naturally, we all go through periods of having exciting projects on at work which make us fall in love with our roles again; and times when finding motivation is harder. But if the thought of the end of the weekend and another week in work fills you with dread, this could be a sign that something is seriously wrong. Either you’ve outgrown your current role, your workplace has become toxic, or you realise that your passions lie elsewhere in a different position or with a new company with different values. There are some signs to look out for which indicate that it’s time to look for a new job.

Deciding on a career move can be a daunting thing, and that’s why many people try to ignore the warning signs that they should move on.

Today, we share the six undeniable signs it’s time to look for a new job (and how to find one).

1. You Have Stopped Enjoying Going to Work

There can be many reasons people are reluctant to leave the house in the morning, from a commute that is regularly filled with traffic to a lengthy train journey. But generally, travelling to work should not be a time where you dread the minutes counting down until your morning start time. Have you found yourself stopping off for a coffee to delay getting into the office; have you started taking the longer route to work; does the thought of work in the morning keep you from sleeping at night?
Of course, many more of us are working from home now, and so the physical act of going to work might soon become a thing of the past in many roles. But this feeling of dread can become present in morning Zoom meetings, when you’re on a conference call or any time work-related messages pop-up on your screen. A sense of dread when you think about your job is not normal – if this is happening to you, it’s time to make a change.

2. You Feel Disconnected From Your Role

High employee engagement is a characteristic of all excellent employers. Great tech employers will ensure that you have the right amount of work to do; that you’re not overworked or frequently find yourself with few tasks and unsure what you should be doing. You should feel a passion and drive for your role, and a connection to your team and your employer which makes you want to give your best to the job – it was probably there when you applied for this position.

But over time, inadequate management can lead to employees feeling disconnected and then eventually stop caring. It is hard to find enthusiasm for your role when you have become disconnected. Will you ever trust that your employer truly cares about you even if things change in the short-term?

3. You are Taking Extra Sick Days

Taking extra sick days, or taking holidays simply to get away from your job is a sign that something is wrong. It is estimated that 12.7% of all sick days are taken due to mental health problems, which can often be attributed to your current role in the first place.

If your mental health is being affected due to your job, first speak to your manager. They have a duty of care to you to ensure that your position is not causing you harm. Sadly, if the problems are out of your manager’s control, and they continue, it might be time to look for an employer who has an excellent wellbeing reputation.

4. You Don’t Get on With Your Boss (or Your Colleagues)

Having a great relationship with your boss and your colleagues is never a given in any role – it’s always a nice added bonus when you find a role you love, and you get on with your team. But negative relationships with the people you work with every day can quickly become draining, and they can turn a once dream job into a nightmare situation.

There should always be avenues you can explore before it gets as serious as leaving for a different company, but sometimes that’s what it takes. Toxic workplaces are sadly more common than you might think, and although your job might look great on paper, if your boss regularly puts you down, and the atmosphere in the workplace is continually negative and is holding you back from success in your job role and your whole career, it’s time to find a company where you not only feel fulfilled but also happy.

5. You’re Being Underpaid

48% of employees feel that they are underpaid for the work they do – does this sound familiar? When you start a job, the expectations might have been clear, but what commonly happens in [IT] workplaces is that over time, and as you become more experienced within the organisation, you are tasked with more and more duties.

And your remuneration rarely increases with the amount of extra work you are now expected to do. It might be a simple case of your manager not realising how much extra outside of your role you are taking on – but this again is poor management on their part.

Suppose you are increasingly given extra tasks or are performing managerial duties and your employer tells you that you are not going to be paid any extra for it. In that case, this is a sign that your employer is taking advantage of you.
Not all IT employers behave like this – now should be the time to find one who doesn’t.

6. You Feel Undervalued

Aside from being paid a fair wage for the work you do, it is also important that you feel emotionally valued and supported by your manager and your colleagues.

Signs that you are being undervalued by your current employer include:

• your work is overlooked,
• your performance and pay reviews are continually pushed back,
• you’re not trusted to have autonomy in your role,
• those around you are promoted, and you get left behind.

Being undervalued can be a sign that your current employer is not going to support you in your career and that things are unlikely to change unless the entire company has a management shake-up – but you don’t have to wait for this to happen.

Next Steps

Many people stay in roles that are making them severely unhappy and impacting on their mental health because they believe there is no other option for them.

The truth is there are always other options; you just might not know where to find them – and that’s where we come in.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals.

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email hello@inspirepeople.net

As we are now living in a world that has been changed by the pandemic, your employee retention strategy must be better than ever.

A pre-pandemic Retention Report by the Work Institue (2019) found that “one in three workers would voluntarily leave their job by 2023”. And this has only increased due to significant shifts in the market due to Covid-19.

The effects of the pandemic are going to be felt in tech organisations for years to come, and so employee retention needs to be a key focus in order to ensure you are keeping your team engaged and satisfied in their roles.

Hiring for replacement team members is not something any tech organisation wants to be doing right now, and so an excellent employee retention strategy is essential.

The following 8 strategies will help.

1. Discover Who You’re Overlooking

To ensure you are providing excellent leadership for your entire team and making them feel valued, first, it is essential that you find out if you are overlooking anyone in your team.

IT teams will naturally include individuals with all manner of skills, experience and personality types.

But in most tech teams, there will also be team members who shine brighter than others – extroverts tend to get noticed more than introverts, some team members are more likely to speak up if they have a problem whereas others will try to work through challenges on their own.

As a leader, it is essential that everyone is getting the right amount of support that they need and that you are not overlooking anyone.

Tech leaders will naturally look to middle managers and other higher-profile employees, but to be a great leader, you must ensure the highest level of employee retention – remember that each and every team member must feel valued and supported.

2. Create Unlimited Opportunities for Growth

According to a recent LinkedIn Workforce Learning Report, 93% of employees would stay longer with their employer if they invested more in developing their careers.

Many IT employers will get to the point where they have a great team in place and think that their job is ‘done’.

But continual training and development is a key part of every employee retention strategy, and we find that talented candidates who look for new IT roles often cite a desire to develop themselves and their career further as a reason for leaving.

No-one wants to be stuck in a role where they feel as though progression is an unlikely possibility.

So invest in robust training and development for your team – it can be anything from personal development training to allowing them time to learn new technical skills.

3. Demonstrate Excellent Values and Ethics

The most desirable IT employees are looking for employers with impressive values and ethics.

And this has been accelerated by the pandemic. We are all thinking much more about what is really important to us, and working for a company they believe in is high on every IT employee’s list of priorities.

IT employees are more empowered than ever, with social media and online review culture creating an environment where the need to be honest and transparent is more crucial than ever.

How active is your company at demonstrating your values and ethics? Do you champion diversity and inclusion? Are you financially transparent?

Fail to demonstrate excellent values, and you risk losing your employees to a more ethical company.

4. Give Employees a Purpose

It is not enough to give employees a fair remuneration package – employees are increasingly looking for a greater sense of purpose in their work.

The best way to find out if your employees feel a sense of meaning and purpose in their work is to talk to them.

Ask them what is important to them in their roles, and make any alterations you can to help them feel a greater sense of purpose. This could involve introducing tools to make their jobs easier, and thus, more valued, or working together to improve your products or services to give greater customer satisfaction.

And create a mission statement which helps employees to understand how their work positively impacts the world.

5. Enhance Your Employer Brand

Your employer brand is the thread that links employees to the organisation – all employees want to work for a company which they feel aligned to.

Look closely at what your competitors are doing – if you slip in terms of promoting and maintaining an excellent employer brand, this gives employees the opportunity to look elsewhere and to be tempted to leave to work for a brand with a better reputation and culture.

Your digital footprint is key in creating a strong employer brand which your employees will feel proud to be a part of.

Think about what you post and how often. IT employees like to see that their employer is actively engaged in current IT topics, is invested in the wellbeing of the team and is a transparent and communicative employer.

Get your employees involved in team strengthening events, use your social media to champion your current employees – celebrate birthdays, life events and little wins within the organisation.

And finally, let’s look at how a great recruitment strategy is always essential when it comes to employee retention.

6. Get Your Recruitment Strategy Right

Employee retention all starts with your recruitment process.

When you start your IT employees off on the right foot with an excellent recruitment and onboarding process, this sets the tone for a mutually beneficial employer-employee relationship.

Studies reveal that the better the onboarding process, the lower the turnover.

A shocking 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days, and this is mostly down to a poor onboarding process.

Onboarding is part of the recruitment process, and yet many employers believe that recruitment stops the moment the candidate accepts the job offer.

Invest in your recruitment and onboarding process, and you will start to see a higher rate of employee retention.

Finally

A certain amount of staff turnover is unavoidable.

But follow the steps in this guide to improve unnecessary employee turnover in your organisation.

It’s never easy to lose a great employee, but when you work with a specialist Tech recruiter, they can help you create the right recruitment and onboarding process to ensure your retention rates remain high, increasing employee engagement and lowering your overall costs of recruitment.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals.

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email hello@inspirepeople.net

The work environment is changing. In the past, professionals spent their time searching for careers that they could devote decades of their life to. Now, generation Y (the people born between 1978 and 2000), will rapidly switch from one job to another without hesitation, often staying within roles for no more than 3 years.

While no company wants to invest their time, energy, and recruitment budget into a business flight risk, organisations can't simply stop hiring Gen Y employees. Generation X'rs and Baby Boomers are on the verge of retirement, ushering a new age of millennial employment into being.

What's more, for the technology sector, Gen Y applicants represent some of the most appealing candidates in the workforce, thanks to their status as "digital natives". So, what's the key to successfully attracting, and retaining this generation?

Who Are Generation Y?

Generation Y, also known as "millennials", currently make up more than a quarter of the workforce. Experts predict that by 2025, they'll account for 75% of all employees. That means that these young recruits are impossible to overlook.

Of course, just like each generation that came before them, Gen Y has some distinct features and preferences that set them apart from older staff members. For instance, Millennials are generally more environmentally conscious than previous generations, and more attuned to what they want.

While finding the right career and the right salary is still an important concern for Gen Y, this group are also actively looking for more meaning in their roles, and better relationships at work. That means that if you want to attract the best millennials for your team, you need to offer a job that appeals both to their tech skills, and their personal values.

Here are 3 tips that can help you do that.

1. Emphasise a Strong Company Culture

Generation Y are looking for meaning in their employment. That means that your technology business needs to show its employees that you stand for something important. From the moment you start your hiring process, think about how you can share your values and missions with your candidates.

Remember, you'll need to build a company culture around your values that's present in everything you do to retain the interest of millennials. That might mean that before you start recruitment, you research the things that matter most to your target group, and consider how you can implement them into your business.

For instance, if your Gen Y business transformation experts care about the environment, show them how you recycle ink cartridges, and complete all documentation online to reduce waste.

2. Provide Options for Flexibility

Besides culture and transparency at work, millennials are also searching for companies that embrace the employment patterns of the future. As remote working and telecommuting become more popular, 74% of Gen Y professionals have shared their interest in finding more "flexible" work schedules.

The technology sector is well-suited to explore flexibility as a business perk. Today, a lot of infrastructure roles and dev ops tasks can be completed using nothing more than a computer, the right software, and an internet connection. That means you don't necessarily need to have your employee at their desk to complete projects according to deadlines.

While not every position will be perfect for telecommuting, it's worth examining your current structure, and questioning whether you might be able to add a little more flexibility into the work schedule from time to time. This can help reduce stress in the workplace while boosting the loyalty of your new millennial staff.

3. Offer Continuous Feedback

Finally, all professionals enjoy being recognised for their work. Generation Y are used to receiving constant communication through instant messaging and texting, which means that they expect the same kind of constant feedback in their careers.

According to a national study, millennials require more frequent communication from managers than any other generation (up to 54% more). This means that modern companies need to support their younger team members with actionable, clear advice and guidance.

For some businesses, this will mean holding regular meetings, whereas, for others, it will just mean sending messages through a text or online platform. According to some statistics, simply showing your Gen Y employees, you care and value their contribution can be enough to double your chances of long-term engagement.

Attracting millennial talent doesn't have to be an impossible challenge. However, today's organisations do need to recognise that this generation presents different challenges for recruitment and retention.

About Inspire People

We believe that technology has the power to change the world for the better and we love working with businesses whose technology or purpose has a positive impact. We help businesses that share our vision access the people, resources and strategic advice they need to achieve their digital transformation goals.

Our service is designed to accelerate your digital growth. We created our offer in response to emerging challenges in an uncertain business landscape: a blend of Advisory, Talent and Project led services that will help you achieve your strategic aims and deliver more for your employees and customers. We’ll connect you to rare specialist talent, experts and insight to help you navigate your biggest challenges and remain competitive in a changed world.

Get in touch today to discover how working with us could help you innovate and grow.

Speak to our expert team on +44(0)20 7871 8550 or email  hello@inspirepeople.net