Attracting and retaining great employees is a competitive sport in the tech industry. In the Seattle area, we regularly hear from senior executives, HR leaders and recruiters that strong candidates are difficult to find and even harder to keep. They ask us what other companies are doing to entice premier employees that somehow slipped through their hands.
Assuming a competitive salary, what are some of the successful strategies used by technology employers to attract and retain great talent?
The first step is establishing an intentional culture of employee engagement – connecting your team’s hearts and minds to a customer experience that aligns with financial results. This has to start at the top of your company – employees are immediately aware of less than genuine messaging coming from management. Leadership needs to acknowledge that culture begins with them and is their responsibility.
Next, keep a pulse on the health of your culture. Because you are in the tech sector, consider leveraging technology – such as online surveys – with your team to measure and correlate the key measures of employee engagement, client engagement, and business results.
Explore developing a more comprehensive benefits package. “Comprehensive” can mean many things depending on your geographic location, employee demographics, and target candidates. Make sure to work with a benefits consultant that can provide benchmark data, such as the Wells Fargo Benefit Analytics and Benchmarking Study, to compare your benefits to other employers in your region and in the technology industry.
Assuming you already include the basics of a comprehensive health benefit plan – medical, dental, vision, long term disability, short term disability, and life – consider making simple adjustments to your medical benefit. Increased limits on massage therapy, physical therapy, and alternative care such as chiropractic and acupuncture, are of increasing value to the millennial workforce and add very little expense to your overall health plan. Your benefits consultant should be able to quickly analyze your data and tell you the financial impact of changes like these.
A strong benefits consultant can make this work easier and bring you the data, strategies, and services that allow you to focus on growing your tech business rather than navigating the rapidly changing benefits landscape. A good benefits consultant can reduce HR’s workload significantly by offering effective support to you and your employees: providing member advocacy, data analytics, benchmarking, and regulatory compliance services.
Wells Fargo Insurance is a full-service employee benefits consultancy that brings innovative solutions to technology companies across the US. Our experienced consultants, compliance advisors, actuaries, and benefits administration professionals use a consultative approach to understand your specific culture and develop programs that will help engage your workforce, optimize your organization’s profits, and reduce your liability.
For more information, contact David Chambers at (206) 731-1291 or visit our website at wfis.wellsfargo.com.
