In a modern, competitive business environment it’s crucial to have top talents on board and be aware of how to attract them to our projects. To succeed you have to gain their attention, offer them something interesting, and keep them satisfied with the work done, so they will be there for you to support your business growth.

Financial benefits are the most obvious benefits that a company can provide, but there are more:

• flexible work schedules

• engaging company culture

• investing in learning opportunities

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

This one seems to be particularly interesting. Real IT aficionados seem to happily utilize employer-given training opportunities and they want to feel like the company really invests in them. Especially if they notice that some of the skills they already have slowly become obsolete while there are new technologies and tools worth learning. 

Especially if new technologies can help with automating some of the boring tasks which leaves them more time to actually bring something new to the table.

IDENTIFY POTENTIAL

While a lot of specialists learn by themselves, especially in areas where any “proper” courses are not available yet, if the company doesn’t utilize any of those technologies they’re learning about, it’s difficult to notice that there’s already a talent on board. 

Passionate IT specialists will know and learn about subjects that are not mainstream and require some dedication. Even if the past performance isn’t the best, that might be, because that specific person was training themselves in a new field and their work might offer some ideas there weren’t even considered before. 

That’s why it’s important to ask about ideas and offer some kind of profit for employees who provide interesting views on how something can be improved. Just because a skill an employee has isn’t in demand now, it doesn’t mean it cannot be used for your organization’s profit.

CAN YOU KEEP YOUR TOP TALENTS?

The survey made by Harward Business Review showed, that only 13% of employers were capable of keeping their talented employees. Finances were just part of the problem, usually the issue was the lack of satisfaction from work and the lack of flexibility. Those key factors probably didn’t change from 2022, however, with GenAI making its entrance in 2023 proficiency or even interest in GenAI tools should be something to discuss with your employees or future employees. 

That’s something particularly important because GenAI can help reduce the time spent on mundane tasks and your employees can use that time to improve either themselves (through courses and training) or the processes in the organization (by testing new solutions). The rise of GenAI will for sure create new job opportunities, such as prompt engineers or specialists responsible for ethical GenAI use. And that’s something to look for in the future.

What’s more, it’s important to keep in mind that the environment itself is one of the major factors responsible for deciding whether a company provides valuable experience or not. Money and other profits are relevant obviously, however, the team itself is an ecosystem that should provide comfort and satisfaction. That being said, it’s the team leader’s job to ensure, that employees cooperate with one another smoothly, they support each other, and the atmosphere itself is not problematic to anyone. It’s not about pretending that fellow employees are anyone’s second family, but making sure that people feel included and supported. 

For talents in particular neither of those scenarios are particularly appealing – whether they feel like they are the strongest link the team or everyone has a similar set of skills but they gatekeep their knowledge and do not cooperate. Managing a team of talented people is a valuable skill and hiring good managers in one of the factors responsible for keeping one’s employees happy with what they do.

Author: Cezary Dmowski, CTO at ITSG Global