IT Team Management Tips

WFA and Talent Retention: How to Retain Tech Talents Working From Anywhere

About $30 billion a day is saved while you work from home. That number is not a joke, nor is it something we are making up. Global workplace analytics confirms it, and they mention that almost 60% of the time, employees are not at their desks at the workplace. This just means that you should actually be working from anywhere, as long as you are working. 

While the coronavirus situation has not left us with many choices, companies can either make it through this pandemic wisely and with their workforce. Or they can be a little stubborn and lose their talent. It’s all about the choices that the management of a company makes during a pandemic. 

To be fair, many big companies already had a work from home policy in place. It’s just that they need to exercise this policy regularly, and rather than just working from one location now, an employee can work from anywhere they wish to. At the end of the day, the concern is to get the work done and ensure that nothing is affecting the flow between teams. 

At this point, companies must be willing to make any changes that they are supposed to. First, they need to ensure the safety of their employees. And second, they must make sure that their workplace policies are flexible enough to retain the talent they worked hard to hire. Because a pandemic or not, the world is still a competitive place. 

So as long as you are equipped with a computer and an internet connection, you can work from anywhere. Whether or not your employee is working from an office or working from anywhere, you need to ensure that they are happy. The happiness of an employee is directly proportional to their retention in your team. For some reason, if they are unhappy, there is no force that will make them stick around. 

Working from home:
5 tips to retain tech talents

What to consider when setting up WFA policies for your remote team?

What to consider when setting up WFA policies for your remote team

With the COVID-19 situation in hand, there is not much you can do, but make sure that your company has WFA policies in place to facilitate the employees. Here are a few suggestions:

  • Allow complete autonomy and flexibility to your employees.
  • Make sure there is a standard set of tools that your entire team uses.
  • When the restrictions are loosened a little, make sure you do in-person meets once in a while to facilitate better interaction.
  • Understand the needs of your employees, provide the expertise that they need to grow in their careers, such as paying for their certifications or e-learning modules.

Let’s admit one thing, when a high-performing employee leaves, there is more loss to the company than anyone else. Only because it will take a lot of time, energy, money, and resources to train anyone else in their place. It is always better to try to retain them than hiring someone else. 

How to retain tech talents working from anywhere?

The worldwide pandemic has literally left the companies with no other choice than letting their employees work from home or work from anywhere to keep the business running. Firstly, you need to ensure that there is a well-structured plan in place when managing employees working from anywhere;. You also need to ensure that they are adequately trained for both their personal and professional development. 

Take regular feedback

Like any other team, your tech team is essential, and they need to be looked after. As a team manager, you must ensure that you take regular feedback from your team and ask them about their goals, developments, achievements, and blocks. This will build a relationship that provides only productivity and leaves minimal scope for confusion. 

Provide regular growth opportunities

Tech teams are the ones that need constant grooming and constant development. Naturally, because the tech industry is continuously evolving, and there is a new update almost every other second. Your tech workers must be provided with growth opportunities that they demand and deserve. With many tasks being automated with AI and machine learning, humans are capable of so much more. They can be investing time in much more important things. That’s when you, the company owner, comes in and makes sure that they are being provided the resources that they need to learn and grow in their careers. You are supposed to provide them with mentorship opportunities that motivate, encourage, and build their careers.

Flexibility is the key

There is nothing much you can do about it, but you can be one of those companies that have a culture of flexibility. Provide flexible work schedules and let your employees hand in their work when they see fit as per the deadlines, of course. Let them plan work beforehand if they have to. It has been noted that the companies that support flexible working arrangements also retain their top talents easily. 

Subscribe to multiple collaboration tools

Subscribe to multiple collaboration tools

Tech teams generally need to collaborate with each other on a regular basis. You need to ensure that you provide them with ample options and tools to make their lives easy. These are challenging circumstances, your team needs the best possible ways to communicate. Use multiple mediums to collaborate with each other just to ensure that no one is left blindsided or hanging in a spot. Get your teams acquainted with various agile tools like whiteboards, Jira, Asana, Slack, and others for project management. 

At the end of the day, you must ensure that you hire people who believe in your brand. This is regardless of the pandemic in place because a person who believes in your brand and has the same ideals is more likely to hang around than someone who is just looking to use your company as a stepping stone. Always remember that these are unprecedented times, and the mental well-being of your employees is as important as anything else. So while you ask people to excel at their jobs, make sure they are looking after themselves. 

IT and talent solutions
Intersog is a leading IT solutions provider in the United States and other countries. The company has provided agile software engineering and staffing services for Fortune 500 corporations, tech startups, and SaaS businesses for over eighteen years. Why Intersog.
Intersog does not engage with external agencies for recruitment purposes. Learn more about this here.