How To Stop Employee Turnover In Fast-Growing Tech Companies | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

Thanks to the “Great Resignation” and the “Great Reconsideration” employee turnover is reaching all-time highs. The situation is dire for employers across the board, but it is particularly bad in tech where turnover rates sit at more than 13.2 percent, beating out every other sector, including retail, media and entertainment, and financial services. What’s more, the situation in fast-growing start-ups could be even worse, with nearly a quarter of employees flaking off every year. 

Losing people with specific knowledge about your company is bad enough. But when you consider the costs, it compounds the issue. Tech companies are now forking out tens of thousands of dollars each time they make a hire, ramping up the cost of bringing new people into the organization considerably. Estimates suggest that the price of recruiting a new member of staff runs to six to nine months of that employee’s annual salary. 

So what can you do to prevent employee turnover in tech companies? Let’s take a look at some of the things that work.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Build Career Progression Into The Fabric Of The Job

A large number of people leave Javascript jobs at fast-growing tech firms because they are looking for bigger pay packets elsewhere. In fact, compensation is the leading reason people leave smaller companies. 

Because of this, tech startups need to focus on career progression from the outset. Employees should feel like they are getting somewhere when they sign up for work at your firm, not just spinning in circles for years. 

Therefore, innovative tech companies are doing things differently. They are recognizing that learning and professional development are extremely important to staff and a form of “golden handcuffs,” encouraging them to stay. Under this setup, employees get a clear outline of their personal career trajectory, should they remain with the firm long-term, including the skills they will gain and the personal responsibility they will enjoy. 

Critically, employees aren’t dependent on their managers for career progression. Instead, they decide how far they would like to develop themselves, and they direct the pace of their advancement. 

Interestingly, this model gives employees permission to sign up for training classes while at work because there are long-term benefits. They begin to feel invested in the company and avoid looking for new jobs because they feel like they are stagnating. 

Be Transparent And Authentic

Fast-growing tech firms should also focus on being transparent and authentic, building their employee-facing brand just as carefully as their customer-facing one. It’s critical in today’s competitive market. 

The trick to doing this well is to track how employees feel about their workplace. Monitoring them with forms, surveys, and feedback interviews can help you nip problems in the bud early before they begin to affect the whole team. 

Pay particular attention to what actually produces satisfaction. Existing research shows that transparency is paramount and influences employees’ day-to-day decisions on the ground. If they believe that their employer is being honest with them, they are much more likely to stick it out long-term. 

In practice, this means sharing what you got wrong. If management made a mistake, make sure that they admit it to their team. This way you can turn a problem into a blessing.

Set High Standards For Yourself

Leaders of great organizations don’t just impose high standards on their teams. They apply them to themselves first. The more they prove their commitment to the ideals of the firm, the more likely staff are to follow suit.

Take the “three-email” rule, for instance. Rather than sending a fourth email about a particular project, ask employees to pick up the phone or walk to their colleague’s office to finish the conversation. This way, work feels less like an exercise in pinging messages, and more like an interactive, team effort. 

You can also avoid disasters by adding both internal and external FAQ pages to direct your staff on the most common issues that arise. Having these publicly available cuts the number of unnecessary interactions in your organization, reducing feelings of exhaustion. . 

Get Your Team Out Of The Office

Being stuck in the office all day probably isn’t as productive as you think. After a while, teams stagnate, and every shift feels like the one before. 

Therefore, invest in off site workshops from time to time. Put employees in environments where they can enjoy getting to know their coworkers on a personal level. Make them feel emotionally invested in the firm, not just cogs in the machine. 

Another idea is to involve members of your organization with charitable causes. Getting them to educate underprivileged children or contribute to local educational programs can help to make them feel like they are making a difference in the community. 

Again, these initiatives take workers out of the office and give them a strong sense that they are doing something meaningful with their time. It fosters friendships and releases oxytocin, helping them form stronger emotional bonds with your firm. 

Embrace High Turnover

Lastly, many tech companies are learning to embrace high turnover as a part of doing business. However, in doing so, they may also lower it. 

For instance, some startups are creating a Wall of Fame, honoring employees who made positive contributions to the company during their tenure. Others are referring to departures as “graduations” and celebrating them with farewell parties. 

There’s also a move towards making turnover less catastrophic to customer service. Firms are designing clever systems that mitigate the impact of a person leaving, allowing them to provide the same level of client support. 

For example, instead of assigning a single account manager to a customer, tech companies are now providing four. This way, if one person leaves, the other three can pick up the slack and continue offering great service. 

Furthermore, savvy enterprises are constantly recording tips and techniques that enable them to serve customers better. This way, new hires can quickly get up to speed, without requiring lengthy training.