Losing just one employee can cost your company big money. Hiring a single new employee can cost as much as double the role’s annual salary depending on the level of the employee being replaced. If you have a revolving door of engineers, those costs can be astronomical – not to mention the costs of low employee morale, reduced productivity and more.
If your company is struggling with turnover, here are five tips you can use to boost retention.
Pay Competitively
Talented people will not settle for being underpaid. If you aren’t offering competitive salary and benefits packages and if you aren’t offering both performance-based raises and cost-of-living increases, your competitors will lure them away. Keep your finger on the pulse of salaries in your niche. You don’t have to pay the most, but you never want to pay on the low end.
Ban Micromanaging
Nobody likes to be micromanaged, but micromanagement is a common problem because it is a very natural trap to fall into. If your teams are competent, they need to be given the space to do their jobs and managers should act as coaches and cheerleaders along the way. If a talented engineer feels they are being micromanaged, they will leave the company sooner rather than later.
Promote Wisely
Promoting based on seniority alone or promoting friends will cost you great people over time. Promoting people who simply aren’t good leaders can create a toxic culture that leads to high turnover. Talented people want to work for managers they look up to and promoting the wrong people can harm morale. Only promote people who have shown real leadership and growth potential and who inspire those around them.
Part Ways With Toxic Managers and Employees
If most of your turnover is happening on a single team, take a close look at what’s going on. It could be a toxic manager or it could be a toxic team member. When you keep losing good people, you end up being left with negative people and poor performers. Examine what is happening and coach managers and employees to improve interpersonal skills. You may end up having to let people go, but losing one or two negative people will pay dividends as you retain better employees for longer.
Be Flexible
With the right technology in place, work can be done anywhere, at any time. There are some exceptions of course, but employees know that they can work remotely and most people are prioritizing work-life balance more than ever before. They want a more flexible schedule and they will seek it out if your company does not offer it. To boost retention, it pays to shake off some rigidity and look for ways to be more flexible.
Are You Looking For Engineers With Staying Power?
If you regularly hire engineering and technical talent and you’re ready to partner with an expert STEM recruiting firm who can help you access top talent who are a match for the long-term, reach out to the expert engineering and tech recruiters at Selectek today.
