The question is not if recruiters will pursue your top IT employees, but when. Smaller businesses need to ensure that their valuable IT talent isn't lured away. The good news: It's not all about the money.
IT professionals have been in the catbird seat the last few years, and the prospects are looking brighter for 2008. Propelled by business growth, CIOs have expanded their IT departments. But that expansion strategy collides with two emerging trends: Baby boomers, the vanguard of the technology revolution, have begun retiring; and thanks to the dot-com bust and offshoring, younger generations no longer see the IT field as a coveted career path. Add to those shifts the fact that many IT professionals abandoned the industry during its darkest hour, and it's not surprising that experts claim there are now more good technology jobs than qualified people to fill them.
Even the declining economy has yet to take a toll on IT staffers' prospects. The latest Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report shows that 13 percent of CIOs plan to add IT staff in the first quarter of 2008. By contrast, just 2 percent expect cutbacks.
That's great news for IT labor, but not so good for IT management; particularly for smaller businesses that can least afford to see their most talented employees jump ship to competitors or larger companies that can lure them with not only higher pay but broader opportunity.
The question isn't if headhunters will pursue top IT employees, but when. The challenge for smaller businesses is to smother those recruiting conversations before they tempt valued IT staff with money and alluring opportunities. According to IT and staffing experts, the key is to make your company a place that IT pros don't want to leave -- and it's not all about the money. Here's their advice.
Be The Educator
Most IT professionals want to learn new things. They need to continuously upgrade their tech skills to keep pace, but that thirst for learning isn't limited to technology. With business and IT becoming more and more intertwined, many want to improve skills such as project management, business writing, and communications. By providing IT employees with opportunities to improve their skills -- tech and otherwise -- and measuring and mapping employee development, employers show they value their staff by investing in their career goals.
Smaller businesses may hesitate to train beyond "need-to-know" requirements because growth doesn't warrant a systems overhaul or limits the need to deploy new technologies. For example, a smaller, regional company isn't likely to deploy a global WAN. So, why spend time and money for IT staff to develop expertise in such backbone architectures?
Experts contend that's a poor way of thinking. First off, smart IT leaders can usually find ways to apply even seemingly unrelated skills to advantage. But more importantly, "what statistics have shown is that in companies that invest in and value employee development, the employees don't leave and take that knowledge somewhere else," says Chason Hecht, president of Retensa Retention Experts. "They appreciate the company that supported them, and that increases the loyalty." On the other hand, "they're going to leave if you've got nothing left for them to do and you aren't letting them grow and learn."
Be The Innovator
Smaller businesses in all vertical sectors, not just IT, that take advantage of new technologies are more likely to keep their IT employees' interested and challenged -- and on board. "Attracting and retaining talent has everything to do with the technologies being supported," says Sean Ebner, regional VP at staffing firm Spherion. "You could be a really big organization, but if you're managing antiquated systems it won't be as appealing for technologists to work for you. An SMB with a solid balance sheet that's using cutting edge or emerging technologies will have more potential" to retain valued employees.
That strategy works for online automotive marketplace Cars.com, a division of Classified Ventures. "We maintain talented IT workers by giving them what is, in our opinion, some of the most interesting and exciting work on world-class technology," says CTO Manny Montejano. The company, he says, relies on its technology, and that technology platform must be fed with new and exciting projects. Cars.com, for example, is in the midst of an architecture makeover that includes integrating Web services. "Make the work addictive," Montejano advises. "The work we're doing at Cars.com is very rewarding, interesting, and the team is highly cohesive."
Next Page: Playing the Retention Game: Alignment is Key
