In the past, job security was highly desired. Hence, employees mostly spent their entire careers working for one organization.
However, software engineers nowadays crave career growth more than anything, and hopping from one job to another can fast-track this growth. No one wants to remain on the same level for many years.
Again, there are many Tech companies and startups, which puts top developers in high demand. Many companies are eager to poach top talents from competitors, resulting in a notoriously high talent turnover in the Tech industry.
High Engineer turnover is a problem you must avoid while managing your Engineering teams. Its negative impacts can be significant.
When your Engineers are constantly leaving, you should pay attention to why they do this and tackle the issues head-on.
Why Should You Worry About Talent Turn-Over in Your Engineering Teams?
It is usual for employees to leave their team. But if the turnover is higher than the industry average, then you should be worried. Generally, an attrition rate of over 10 percent calls for concern.
High turnover can impact businesses in several ways, including:
- The cost of hiring a new Engineer to fill the vacancy is high, leading to higher expenditure. Also, the cost of training and work tools for the new hires adds to running expenses.
- Time Cost: Hiring new developers takes 1 to 3 months. The hiring process takes a heavy toll on the hiring managers and stresses the remaining employees, who would be saddled with more responsibilities due to the vacancy created by their colleague's exit.
- Reduction in productivity and efficiency among your employees: When an Engineer leaves your team, you have to spread their responsibilities among the remaining Engineers until the vacancy is filled.
This reduces efficiency and may also cost you more money, especially if you need to pay overtime since your engineers are unlikely to complete the entire task within the normal work hours.
- The Domino Effect: This happens when more Engineers leave shortly after someone else resigns. This is largely caused by the increased workload and stress created by the departing Engineer.
- High employee turnover can signal a red flag for your business: High talent turnover may signal to other engineers that your organization is not a great workplace. This makes it difficult to attract top talents to your team. If your workplace is conducive, why are other Engineers leaving?
Basically, when your Engineers leave, you lose your employees, lose valuable work input, and also lose money to hire replacements. Of course, you do not want all that.
Why Do Engineers Leave a Company?
To reduce talent turnover in your engineering teams, you need to understand why engineers leave companies in general and why they are leaving your team. This will help you solve the problem and attract and retain better talents.
Here are some of the reasons why Engineers leave their employers:
Poor Compensation: Inadequate compensation (salaries, bonuses, and other benefits) is a top reason why Software Engineers leave their employers.
Simply put, if your compensation structure is too low, your Engineers will only see your company as a stepping stone to garner experience before applying for better-paying jobs.
We mainly work to earn money. Hence, well-paying organizations attract the best talents, while low-paying companies lose their top talents easily.
Toxic work environment: As sensitive as this topic is, your workplace can become very toxic for your Engineers. This toxicity may result from micromanagement, poor compensation, abusive words from the leadership, unhealthy competition and rivalry, comparisons, no trust between teammates, or improper communication etiquette.
Poor work-life balance: We all have our personal lives, family, friends, and leisure activities to take care of outside our careers. And Engineers are not left out.
However, suppose your Software Engineers are so occupied with your company’s work that they have little or no time for their private lives. In that case, they will inevitably search for better opportunities outside your organization.
Limited growth prospects: If your software engineers do not see growth opportunities in your company, it is only a matter of time before they leave.
Software engineers are some of the most ambitious and growth-oriented workers worldwide. If your company does not offer an avenue to nurture this ambition, it may lead to high turnover.
Micromanagement: Micromanagement refers to excessive supervision or control of employees' work or processes.
Micromanagement impedes engineers' creativity and interferes with job performance. When this happens, Engineers are bound to seek better opportunities elsewhere.
Stress: Software engineers experience serious stress for several reasons, including heavy workloads, overwhelming deadlines, inadequate tools, and changes in organizational leadership.
When this stress continues for a long period unabated, the Engineers may be forced to leave.
Check if your software Engineers are overworked, have the relevant tools to succeed, and have realistic deadlines. If not, the exit door is wide open for them.
Better Work Opportunities: If your software engineers find opportunities that are better than what your company offers, it is difficult to retain them.
Like other employees, your engineers will likely seek improved offers with better compensation, more growth opportunities, and lower stress. Watch out for these in your organizations and make provisions for them.
Limited Recognition and Appreciation: If your Software Engineers do not get enough credit for their work, they will feel underappreciated. When this resentment builds up, they may consider leaving the scene and trying another place where their work can be recognized and appreciated.
How to Manage Engineering Teams Effectively and Reduce Talent Turnover
Here are effective strategies to reduce talent turnover in your software engineering/technical teams:
Invest in education and further skill development: Develop an educational curriculum for your Software Engineers/developers. This education should adequately cater to personal development, emotional development, and communication skills.
Invite experts to talk to your teams. Partner with consulting firms to help your employees acquire soft skills and pay for further skill acquisition for your top talents.
Ensure proper communication: Your organization must encourage an appropriate culture of communication. Encourage everyone to communicate their ideas or opinions through their supervisors.
Create regular surveys and questionnaires to understand how your engineers feel about the work, new ideas they want to work on, and how to improve the job.
Importantly, ensure that proper words and languages are used within your teams. Any instance of abusive or vulgar words should be strongly cautioned.
Give credit for a job well done: Ensure your developers get the credit for their achievements and that every breakthrough is properly rewarded. This will encourage such engineers to do more and other employees to sit up.
Some managers reward only results. However, results are the outcomes of some processes, and those processes should also be recognized. Hence, reward your employees for both efforts and results.
Do Not micromanage: Allow your engineers to express themselves and bring their expertise to play.
Provide competitive salaries and additional benefits: Research competitive salaries for engineers in your niche and model your salary accordingly. Conduct compensation reviews yearly to ensure your compensation remains competitive.
Create a clear pathway for career growth: You must set clear standards and criteria for promotions and other benefits and follow through on them. Ensure your engineers do not feel stuck at a particular level of the career growth ladder.
Use the right tools and technologies: Provide your Engineers with up-to-date hardware and software tools to enable them to accomplish tasks efficiently.
If your engineers work remotely, make provisions for cameras, remote workspaces, and recording devices needed for proper collaboration.
Measure performance using quantitative and qualitative KPIs: Your team's key performance indicators should include the outcome of their efforts in numbers and how they have contributed, in unquantifiable terms, to the organization's growth.
Improve communication and feedback: Companies must use surveys and meetings as tools to collect employee feedback and invest efforts in implementing the recommendations from such surveys.
Hire talents through a transparent recruitment process: Conduct a meritocratic interview and properly explain the roles and responsibilities of new hires to them. Ensure new hires understand and internalize the organizational culture. This will ensure that you hire talents who are a great fit for your company, increasing the chances of longer tenure.
Take Advantage of Onboarding Activities and the First 6 Months: The first 6 months of work for new hires are usually crucial, as that is when most engineers decide whether to stay or leave.
During this time, employees are still verifying the nature of the workplace while employers study employee adaptation. Making a good impression on the employees at this time was crucial.
These first impressions include a great onboarding experience. Ensure all relevant paperwork is handed down, understood, and duly signed. Conduct orientation programs on the day of resumption to communicate your company’s policies, culture, and values.
After onboarding, you should set introductory meetings with teams, the organization, and relevant stakeholders.
Importantly, the new hires should be introduced to their first projects, their milestones, expectations, and performance metrics. Again, a work buddy should be assigned to the Engineer. This buddy will serve as the engineer's accountability partner and help them achieve their targets.
The managers and Human Resources department should also conduct regular checks one month, three months, and six months after resumption. These regular meetings are for the company to assess the employee’s adaptation level to the team and provide adequate feedback and guidance.
Final Thoughts
Managing Engineering and Technical Teams can be difficult. Mismanagement or small mistakes can lead to high Employee turnover, which reduces efficiency and company performance.
If you are starting a company or building a product and have little idea of how to manage engineering teams, trying to build your internal team may be an expensive gamble.
Instead, outsourcing Technical teams is a smart idea. These teams already have expertise and experience working with the best Engineers and Technical teams who build and maintain several tech products. They bring this experience and expertise to your company and deliver prompt results.
One firm that Outsources teams to businesses and founders in need is Tribesquare . Tribesquare has built several products, some of which have generated revenues and been accepted into top acceleration programs worldwide.
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