If you’re having trouble hiring and retaining talent, at least you’re in good company: 75% of businesses globally face the same difficulty. But that’s cold comfort when your organization is increasingly pursuing digital strategies that are heavily dependent on highly sought IT staffers.

IT and data-related skills are the most sought-after worldwide, according to a survey conducted by the ManpowerGroup. So, if you have good IT staffers, you need to find ways to keep them happy and engaged. If, like many, you’re understaffed, the challenge is how to make your work environment the most appealing to IT professionals you’re trying to recruit.
 
Employees in general are a dissatisfied lot, these days. Business.com surveys in February 2022 reveal that:

• 50% of working Americans are not satisfied in their current positions.
• More than 60% of those currently employed are seeking new jobs or planned to start searching within a matter of months.

Reevaluate the employee experience

The good news is that three-quarters of those planning to leave said they could be enticed to stay if offered better compensation. Still, if workers are dissatisfied with their job, any of your competitors can easily offer a few more dollars to entice them to leave.
 
What’s changed over the past two years, according to a report from Info-Tech, is the growing importance that IT workers place on flexible work, work-life balance, and company culture.
 
That sentiment in the ranks may not be fully understand by upper management, though. One survey reports that “businesses and IT leaders consider employee satisfaction as an afterthought despite plenty of evidence that workers ‘have a direct impact on customer satisfaction and other key business drivers like financial performance and cybersecurity.’"  

Proactive programs and strategies

As a company that thrives on bringing expert tech talent to client engagements, Kaygen’s success hinges on successful recruiting and retention and we’ve developed proactive programs and strategies that may be helpful to IT organizations seeking to bolster their own efforts.
 
Building a sense of community among IT workers goes a long way in building a positive culture. We established a Kaygen Connections initiative that aims to foster a one-team identity that lives by our core values of customer focus, people first, innovation, teamwork, and mutual respect.
 
The initiative aims to help current talent and alumni have access to support to enhance their capabilities and continuously build their careers. Key proactive elements of our Connections initiative include:

• Targeted training opportunities
• Mentoring programs that not only guide younger talent, but also encourage experts to help other experts
• Proactive opportunities for our alumni in their next career moves.

While still young, the Connections program has proved helpful in retaining our employees and keeping them focused on our client engagements, so there is less time lost on training new staff, as well as increase client satisfaction. It’s evolving as a vital component in our effort to make sure talent feel they are a valued and integral part of our team and our success story. We’re happy to share our experiences with IT leaders seeking to keep their own talent happy and engaged. In the meantime, learn more about the Kaygen Connections talent program. 

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