The modern workplace is changing. Today's technology professionals expect more than an excellent salary and benefits package; they want a professional environment that's challenging, nurturing, and engaging.
As the technology world grows increasingly complicated, the demand for specialists in everything from coding to networking has increased. This means that tech experts have their pick of employment opportunities while growing businesses must implement strategies to attract, maintain, and motivate their staff.
The problem is, as the workforce takes on more Millennial employees, traditional methods of motivation might not be enough to keep your team productive and satisfied. In fact,only just over 32% of people feel engaged at work. Since your tech talent is the key to happy customers, innovative products, and new ideas, it's important to think about how you can keep these unique individuals happy.
1. Listen and Adapt
Every recruit you bring into your company has different ambitions and skills, particularly in this multi-generational era. To motivate diverse people, you'll need to start by listening to their hopes, goals, and aspirations.
While some of your team might want endless opportunities to explore new technology, others might want to develop particular skills to an advanced level.
It’s critical to have one-to-one meetings with your technology hires as part of the onboarding process. There, you can create a 1-3 year plan for growth, where you focus on giving each employee the resources they need to thrive.
2. Embrace New Technology
Your tech specialists chose their career because they love the industry. One of the easiest ways to motivate people with a passion for all-things IT is to make sure that you always embrace new opportunities to explore technology that's relevant to your business.
Consider asking your tech team to get together once every few months and make suggestions on which new software or hardware you might benefit from. Alternatively, you can send individual IT experts to conferences and networking events where they can try out the latest gizmo’s, software or applications.
Remember, once you've decided to embrace something new, you'll need to put training strategies in place to ensure everyone from your engineers to your sales groups knows how to use your resources to their advantage.
3. Provide Opportunities for Growth
All employees, no matter their skills, appreciate opportunities for expansion and promotion. However, since the technology sector is continually evolving, IT professionals can be drawn more to business development opportunities in other organisations chances than most.
Managers must work alongside their staff to find out exactly what they want to achieve in the future. While some recruits will prefer to focus on technical work than embracing a managerial position, others will want to build their soft skills alongside their digital talents.
Providing your team with plenty of chances to grow and excel in their preferred areas can go a long way to keeping them motivated. Remember, you can provide opportunities outside of the workplace too, by helping professionals to sign up for classes or courses that interest them.
4. Offer Plenty of Recognition
No matter what technology role you're hoping to fill, you can expect that your candidate will be looking for a workplace that offers plenty of respect and recognition. IT experts, particularly those from the Gen Y and Gen X generation crave praise and feedback for their work.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways for your company to celebrate success. Depending on the preferences of your new hire, you can publish a monthly newsletter where you give staff a quick shout out. On the other hand, you might design a culture where executives frequently interact with the team to give them comments on their work.
Take the time to find out what kind of recognition your people respond best to, then make sure you keep on top of it.
5. Create a Flexible Environment
Technology-focused professionals are some of the most passionate people you'll ever meet. While they give 100% at work, they also spend their free time brushing up on their knowledge and keeping up with the latest trends.
However, if you want these specialists to really thrive in their new role, then you need to give them the freedom to build and expand their skills. Sometimes, this means merely delivering chances for in-house training, while in other cases, it will mean putting flexible work schedules in place.
Tech employees know better than most how to make the most of remote working software and applications. If your staff can do the same job at home that they would do from your office, consider allowing them to choose their own workplace every now and again. This option for mobile working may both motivate your team, and encourage them to innovate more on behalf of your business too!
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