Employee burnout is a big problem in the technology industry. Yet, top talent is vitally important for business growth, here are some tips for IT managers.

5 Proven Ways to Motivate and Retain your Technology Employees

High turnover and hard-to-find talent could be undermining your business growth–particularly in the IT department. Over the last decade, the business integration of technology has become so seamless that there is almost no separation between technology strategy and business strategy. The IT department has become your A-team where you invest the most resources, so it can be incredibly painful to lose good employees and even more stressful when you can’t find good replacements.

Your company culture has a lot to do with the extent to which these problems impact your organization. But here’s what you need to know–every human resource and development professional is sounding the alarm bells. Skills gaps are growing at an alarming rate, and labor shortages are only going to continue to grow, creating more competition for qualified hires. The solution is multi-faceted, but one area you can focus on is retaining the talent you’ve already managed to secure.

Why Technology Employes Leave

When we’re trying to entice a good job candidate to take our position, we tend to roll out the red carpet. And when they accept, the first year or even two is filled with optimism. Not always, but often, many employees begin to grow unhappy over time. It’s a million things like burnout, poor working relationships, office politics, dissatisfaction with current opportunities, and complacency.

IT workers have a tendency to be shoved into cubicles and spun on a rat wheel, triaging everyone else’s problems all the time. And the way that their work is normally structured invites stress with constant interruptions keeping them from making progress on bigger, more interesting projects. It’s not a sustainable cycle, often leading to burnout in as little as 12 months. Add to that the general environment in a cubicle office that is filled with noise, poor air quality, and a constant barrage of broken equipment, and all these stresses add up to unhappy employees.

And when they begin to wonder if the grass is greener somewhere else, here’s what they’re likely to find:

● They could probably make more money somewhere else. Up to 68% of IT professionals are motivated to change jobs for more pay, and most of them would do so for as little as 15% more than their current salary.

● There are better opportunities for growth somewhere else. The current technology workforce is largely Gen X and Millenial. These generations view job opportunities as transient, feeling free to move between jobs in order to advance their careers. It’s the best way to get ahead because most companies are still stuck in old patterns of thinking when it comes to internal promotions.

● They would have more flexibility somewhere else. Work-life balance continues to be an important topic for the workforce. Employees dissatisfied with the hierarchical structure of their current company might look for a culture of open-door policies. An employee who has a demanding personal life might look for flexible scheduling or job-sharing. Another big mistake that employers make with IT staff is holding onto concrete ideas of full-time, designated roles without the flexibility to adapt.

● They would be more comfortable somewhere else. It’s becoming much more common to quit–even in the first year! Up to one-third of workers who leave chalk it up to a poor fit or company culture ‘issues.’ Today’s workforce is no longer willing to compromise on a job that makes them money but makes them unhappy.

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What You’re Doing Wrong and How to Fix It

Today’s workforce is a different breed. While some companies are going all-in and trying to stand out from their competitors with unique and interesting employee perks, a larger group of employers are throwing their hands up in frustration at high turnover rates. Keeping your talented technology employees is becoming increasingly important.

Shake Up the Work Environment

IT has always been viewed by the organization as the fixers, the people on the hook for everything from a printer that goes offline to a workstation that won’t power on. While sometimes purposeful, this mentality has removed the responsibility from all your workers to troubleshoot any small problem for themselves. And as your IT department patiently explains to the 300th employee that they simply need to power cycle their device, dissension grows.

It’s probably not feasible to teach everyone in the building how to swap out a solid-state drive (SSD) or upgrade RAM in their workstations, but you can teach everyone how to go through essential troubleshooting steps before they call IT to reduce the volume of work orders your employees handle.

Do this instead:

● Democratize IT within your organization.

● Limit working hours to prevent unreasonable over-time commitments.

● Create a rotating schedule for help-desk coverage, giving all employees ample time to work on their regular projects.

● Get rid of cubicles. Redesign your workspace to remove physical barriers that prevent teamwork and offer a number of flexible workspaces that allow employees to work where they feel most comfortable.

● Use an internal social platform just for the IT team.

● Encourage individuals to showcase their personalities by relaxing dress code rules or organizing social gatherings for the team.

● Consider flexible working arrangements that allow employees to telecommute, work part-time, or explore new skills with hybrid job roles.

Provide Intellectual Stimulation

One of the biggest letdowns for students transitioning into their careers is the tendency to stagnate in a job role that doesn’t challenge them to grow. Along with employers holding on to unrealistic views of ‘experience,’ the motivation of workers will slowly flame out as they do the same job day after day without any opportunities for learning something new. In fact, for most IT staff, learning opportunities are a top-ranked employer benefit.

Learning could come in the form of in-house education programs or through tuition reimbursement programs. One newer trend that has recently become very popular includes the use of stretch assignments to provide learning opportunities through cross-training. And many companies are adapting, moving beyond task training to address the continual learning needs of the entire organization. Plus, when you invest in the education of your staff, they will bring new skills and enhanced motivation back to your company.

Some companies are offering basic coding classes to all employees. Others are taking a more direct approach and offering skilled IT employees opportunities to upskill with advanced courses in machine learning, servers and networking, and cybersecurity. Start small with one relevant, high-interest offering. Perhaps your IT crowd would geek out on attending an innovations in technology lecture from a leading brand like Intel that discusses current and future technologies for memory chips like DDRAM memory.

Do this instead:

● Embrace a company or department culture of lifelong learning.

● Use stretch assignments to provide individual employees with opportunities to develop new skills.

● Routinely share articles and research on relevant topics with your team and ask them to break it down and respond with their opinions.

● Engage in a mentorship role, helping each IT employee identify their career goals and work towards them.

● Talk with your learning and development department about adding more technology topics for your staff as well as for the rest of the company to ease the burden on the IT department.

● Make it a contest. Pose a unique problem once a week and offer a big reward for the employee who solves it.

Find the Right Perks

Your company probably already offers a list of employee benefits aimed at attracting and retaining talent. But how many of those benefits are personally motivating for your IT team? In our experience, it takes a different type of personality to get into the trenches of data analytics and programming. Consider working with your human resource department to add some flavor to the current lineup that might appeal to your tech-savvy crowd.

Just remember that in order to be effective, they need to be tied to a clear and measurable goal and logically distributed when those goals are achieved. You cannot distribute perks at random, or by personal selection. And you can’t make them so frequently that they become quickly de-valued.

Ideas to try:

● Discounted Software/Hardware Purchases

● Extra Vacation Days

● Access to Company Cars

● Flexible Scheduling

● Job Titles (a Little recognition can go a long way)

● Sports Tickets or Video Gaming Memberships

However, keep in mind that bonuses and raises have a limited impact. While most employees will tell you that they would be happier making more money, studies have found the impact on intrinsic motivation to be short-lived.

Do this instead:

● Provide a Few Meaningful Bonuses

● Prioritize Recognition More than Money

● Offer a Variety of Perks

● Keep your Wages Competitive

If your employees are genuinely qualified for the next level up and taking that job with your competitor will net them a 15% or greater raise, you’re always in danger of losing them. Employees don’t just need cost of living raises; they need experiential raises as well. We recommend frequently checking the starting salaries for similar positions in your area to ensure that your wages are fair and competitive.

Your IT Employees Need Opportunities to do Interesting Things

Most IT professionals found their way into this career field out of a genuine interest in technology. But that desire can get flamed out after years of repetitive help-desk-type work. Even if they have a more interesting job title and spend long hours coding, it’s a lot of the same. Right now, we are facing an incredible time in the technology industry.

Businesses are embracing all kinds of new technologies. From machine learning and AI applications to using blockchain technology to build better business platforms, the digital business world is changing. And most of your IT employees are chomping at the bit to get in on the action. Help them find some excitement in their jobs by providing opportunities for stretch assignments that also help the business take steps towards the next technology.

Here are some cool ideas:

Practice Graphic Design Skills with a Fun Side Project

Take a hint from The Message is Medium Rare; it’s a blog about trying different burgers and using them as inspiration for design lessons. It’s a really fun and interesting way to practice tech skills with something that just about everyone loves.

Wishlist Side Gigs for your Company

Gather a wish list of programming projects from different departments in your company. For example, is there some functionality they would like to see added to software or an app that can improve their workflows? These projects would ideally be small additions that are not time-sensitive and are nice-to-have rather than essential. Then, allocate time to your employees and let them work on these wish list projects to develop and practice skills in addition to their primary job roles.

Embrace Job Rotation

Another easy way to break through burnout in your IT department is by practicing job rotation. Perhaps every six months, an employee’s primary job function changes. This is usually feasible because many IT employees have diverse skillsets. And if they don’t, it provides a great opportunity to help them develop the right skills. The future of work will require multi-talented, agile teams that can adapt to change quickly. The best way to do this is to focus on skills and not roles.

Host a Challenge to Build a Supercomputer

This gives your IT employees hands-on experience working with individual computer components like memory chips, CPUs, graphics cards, and more. These are transferable skills that will help your company every time you need to upgrade hardware. And, you might even benefit from added creativity and innovation within your team.

The Bottom Line on Keeping Top IT Talent in Your Organization

Even at some of the biggest companies in the world, technology employees are prone to burnout. Amazon, Lyft, Apple, and Airbnb are names that you might not expect to hear on this list, but in their IT departments, they have burnout rates between 50% - 60%. Recruiting is expensive, and it’s becoming more challenging as skills gaps continue to divide the labor force. Yet, companies need top technology talent to reach their potential in the digital business world. It’s a big problem that keeps growing.

The most common complaints are poor leadership, unclear direction, work overload, toxic environments, and poor growth opportunities. While some of these factors may not directly be within your control, there are steps you can take to mitigate their effects while also solving some of the problems that plague your IT department. Start by reducing the workload and providing meaningful opportunities for growth. This will make a big difference in how satisfied your IT employees are in their roles.