Employers are coming under pressure to develop more
effective strategies to retain their best IT staff in the face of
competition from rival employers.
Rising demand for highly skilled staff, an improvement in the
jobs market and a declining pool of qualified staff are pushing up
staff turnover rates, according to a report by recruitment website
IT Job Board.
The proportion of IT professionals looking to change jobs in the
next six months is 54%, a survey of 3,000 IT professionals
revealed, up from 48% at the height of the dotcom boom.
The trend will put pressure on employers to invest in training
their IT staff, to provide clear career development paths, and to
offer attractive pay packages and benefit schemes.
The report says IT departments have grown complacent over
retaining their staff following the dotcom crash, and they need to
rethink their ideas as the market improves.
"The market is like a coiled spring. Employees knew there was
nothing out there and so stayed in their jobs and HR got lazy. Now
there are far more companies looking for staff and employees are
ready to listen," said Ed Gallagher, head of staffing at technology
company Openwave, which contributed to the research.
Employers with poor retention policies risk losing out
financially, with recruitment costs running anywhere between 50%
and 200% of the annual salary for the job.
An organisation with 200 IT staff earning an average salary of
£40,000 a year, would face costs of £1.2m a year on the most
conservative estimates if staff turnover rates reach 30%, the
report said.
The report advises employers with high staff turnover rates to
seek feedback from staff to determine the reasons for this. But it
warns that staff rarely give frank feedback during exit interviews,
advising firms to use consultants and anonymous surveys
instead.
Good retention begins during recruitment, the report says, and
hiring employees that fit into the organisation is more important
than skills and experience.
"In difficult markets there is a danger that IT employers become
desperate for staff and lower standards, but this will only damage
quality and retention in the medium- and long-term," the report
says.
Schemes that pay bonuses to existing staff for finding
candidates to fill vacancies are particularly effective at
identifying quality candidates.
IT services company Perot Systems Europe told researchers that
this approach had helped it bring in high-quality staff, improved
networking among employees and reduced recruitment costs.
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