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COVID-19 has impacted many fields and industries. One impact is the increased demand for tech employees. Since organizations need workers to scale up their business, the job market has become more competitive. As a result, acquiring top talent has become a priority and challenge these days.
Employers will need to come up with strategies to not only attract prospects, but also retain existing employees. The following tips will help employers stay relevant in a tough job market.
- Be Flexible and Let Employees Work from Home
- Make Learning a Part of Your Brand
- Improve Employees’ Well-Being at the Workplace
- Provide Positive Feedback to Make Workers Feel Valued
- Create an Environment Conducive to Growth
- Involve Tech-Savvy Workers in the Hiring Process
Be Flexible and Let Employees Work from Home
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Flexibility is a perk that can help employees:
- Find work-life balance
- Achieve autonomy and empowerment
- Save time and money from their commute
- Spend more time with their family
For employers, remote work has become the new norm and companies who embrace it have a competitive edge. When implemented correctly, it can boost productivity. Additional benefits are:
- Company attractiveness
- Employee satisfaction
- Retention rate
- Cost savings regarding office space and amenities
Make Learning a Part of Your Brand
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To engage employees, one must make learning a part of the company’s brand. It’s never too early or too late to invest in your employees. For tech workers, learning new skills, knowledge, and behaviors are essential. You can provide or sponsor on-site training, online courses, and/or coding bootcamps to help them master new skills.
With a tuition reimbursement program, employees can enroll in workshops and attend conferences. Coding schools and bootcamps are also an option to pick up skills like cloud computing.
At bootcamps like Coding Dojo and Metis, students receive hands-on support from the instruction team. Learners have the convenience of studying from home and going through the material at their own pace. Whether you’re an individual or a corporation, these schools offer curriculum ranging from machine learning to web development. Lastly, these schools can provide students with connections and opportunities.
Improve Employees’ Well-Being at the Workplace
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With great responsibility comes pressure and stress. Hence, many companies are seeking to improve employee wellness at the workplace. Google, for example, provides free catering and gym classes to their employees. Other companies, like Samsung, provide spa sessions as a means to help their employees relax.
Ultimately, the perks that you offer should follow your company’s brand and values. It doesn’t have to be grandiose and it can be something as simple as periodic massages. The purpose of perks is to make employees feel cared for and comfortable at the workplace. This can improve employee happiness, which improves retention, and help sell your company to future prospects.
Provide Positive Feedback to Make Workers Feel Valued
Employees can lose morale when they feel like they’re not being listened to. Don’t let that happen to your organization. Listen and encourage feedback whenever possible. When employees are unclear about company goals, their effectiveness will drop. Respect, clarity, and vision are facets that keep employees engaged. When employees feel like they’re part of something larger, they’ll work harder to accomplish those goals. Inevitably, this leads better performance and results.
To make workers feel special, you need to communicate with them on a personal level. Ask for their opinions and ideas. Get their input on what you can do to make them more successful. This can lead to areas for improvement. To start with something basic, you can thank your employees for their efforts. It’s a simple yet effective way to show that they’re valued at your company.
Create an Environment Conducive to Growth
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Everyone desires a job that’s meaningful. Offering a good salary may increase your hiring rate, but it’s the growth opportunities and vision that attracts and keeps the best. Promote employees when they’re ready and don’t make work-life monotonous. Provide training and personal development to help them improve their skills (both hard and soft). Candidates won’t think twice about joining you if you can offer them a meaningful opportunity.
Involve Tech-Savvy Workers in the Hiring Process
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One way to attract talented people is to involve your engineering team in the hiring process. Hiring is both an art and a science. As a result, you want as much signals as possible to know whether a person’s a good fit for your team. It’s cheaper to interview a lot of candidates, than to fire a bad one. Therefore, come up with a strong and replicable hiring process and trust your team to follow and improve it. Another benefit of having your employees conduct interviews is that the interviewees can interact with the people they may work with later on. A successful interview is one where both parties gain something from it.
Conclusion
Attracting and retaining tech workers is not easy. To be successful, one must embrace changes and be willing to try new things. Go the extra mile to meet the needs of top talent. After all, they’re the ones who can take your company to the next level. Keep improving and adapting so your company can achieve excellence.
Guest post by Artur Meyster.
Artur is the CTO of Career Karma (YC W19), an online marketplace that matches career switchers with coding bootcamps. He is also the host of the Breaking Into Startups podcast, which features people with non-traditional backgrounds who broke into tech.