Step 3: Retaining Great Developers
Too often, staff can be forgotten once they've been recruited. It's important to have a well-planned induction process and an ongoing career development process. Once you've hired someone you usually don't want to lose him or her! This employee cost a lot of money to find and train and, after a surprisingly short period of time, accumulates an intrinsic worth that's hard to quantify-the employee's knowledge is of high value (for example, they know how the company operates and all about its clients). All in all, you really don't want to lose good people. One of the ways to address this issue is to realize why people up and leave. People generally do this because:
- They're not being rewarded in a manner commensurate with the effort they're expending
- They feel they're not valued in some other way
- They're not being stimulated or challenged in their current role
- They're not getting the recognition they feel they deserve
- They can't see how to progress within the organization (or feel that they can't progress, period)
There are other reasons, of course. Typically, remuneration is not the main reason people leave; so long as they're getting a fair rate and they don't have any of the above complaints, they're happy.