Recruit, develop, retain - how to create your future talent today

“What if we design jobs to be achievable and flexible, create cultures that encourage open and honest communication and have an inclusive and transparent approach to progression and development?” 

It sounds simple, yet many tech companies simply aren’t adopting these practices. And this has significant consequences in the search for future talent. 

Last year, we attended Victoria Johnson’s talk on talent management at the Bath Digital Festival 2019. Talent management is a hot topic, with businesses finding it increasingly challenging to attract technical talent in this candidate-driven market. But Victoria wasn’t blaming low unemployment rates, elusive skills or even Brexit for the war on talent. Instead, she was shining the spotlight on companies. 

Many businesses, especially in the tech industry, are failing to recognise how their actions today directly influence their talent of tomorrow. To help, Victoria outlined three key areas that businesses should focus on now.

1. Recruitment

Many tech businesses are stifling their recruitment campaigns by focusing on highly technical skills that they’ll need tomorrow. Instead, try reducing your criteria by focusing on flexible skills and development mindsets. Not only does this widen your pool of talent, but it also helps you to create a workforce that can adapt to future requirements, whatever they may be. 

However, attraction is still crucial. Emerging talent is still attracted to businesses offering competitive salaries, meaningful benefits, achievable workloads and remote working opportunities. 

2. Retention

Recruiting talent is great - retaining talent is even better. Key to employee retention is creating a workplace culture that is rewarding, engaging and caring. This includes:

• Delivering the benefits offered during the recruitment phase;

• Encouraging open and honest two-way communication; and 

• Regularly checking in with your employees about their work and overall happiness. 

Importantly, everything you do to retain employees must be genuine. It’s no use saying that you offer flexible working when in reality it’s restricted to emergencies or senior positions. 

3. Development

Having been involved in the tech and digital recruitment industry for ten years, we know just how fast this sector moves. Employee development helps to keep your team relevant and skilled no matter what the future holds. However, employee development is more than a big training budget and annual certifications. 

Firstly, discover what future talent you already employ by talking to your employees about their career and personal aspirations. Secondly, create a succession plan that identifies your future leaders. Finally, upskill employees with practical skills and knowledge by implementing coaching programmes, reverse mentoring and secondments. 

If you’d like to know more about how you can recruit, retain and develop your tech talent for tomorrow, get in touch with one of our technical consultants today.