Despite layoffs, hiring freezes and entering into a recession, demand for tech talent remains at all-time highs, with more than 3.8 million tech jobs posted in 2022 so far. Technology professionals continue to fill a vital role in businesses across nearly every industry and vertical.
In this section, we present data on the impact of your brand as an employer when it comes to attracting and retaining tech talent, why evaluating a candidate's alignment with your organization’s values is important, trends in employment benefits post pandemic, and average attrition and times-to-hire rates considering the tipping of the scale we’ve seen in technology professionals’ openness to changing employers.
Employer Brand and Reputation
How an organization is perceived in the marketplace strongly influences a technology professional’s decision to join that organization. In our survey, nearly 90% of respondents said that they feel an employer’s brand is important when considering new employers and nearly 8 in 10 tech professionals said they would not apply for a higher-paying job at a company with a bad reputation.
When you are considering a new employer, how important to you is an employer’s brand?
Would you apply for a role at a company that offered you higher pay, but had a bad corporate culture and/or reputation?
No
Yes
The importance of reputation as an employer was already making a resurgence before the pandemic, and the mass re-assessment of work and life many employees made during the pandemic has only heightened the importance of how you and your organization are perceived — and you recognize this. Nine out of 10 HR professionals surveyed indicated that their reputation as an employer effectively influences candidates to join their organization.
When it comes to measuring the effectiveness of employer brand, internal employee surveys were the most popular feedback channel with monitoring reviews and metrics on sites like Glassdoor, and monitoring employee engagement with the organization on social media, following close behind.
If your employer brand, reputation or company culture could use some work, this is your sign to prioritize it. Check out our Guide to Employer Branding for a step-by-step guide to establishing and building your brand as an employer, or the Employee Resource Center for articles on employer brand essentials, how to build a tech-centric employer brand and more.
From a list of four factors (though there are many more that make up employer brand) — culture, corporate reputation, product and purpose, and commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging — tech professionals ranked “culture” as the most important factor of an organization’s brand.
Thinking specifically about each component of an employer’s brand, how important are each of the following to you when considering a new employer?
Company culture remains critically important to attracting and retaining tech talent. Creating and cultivating a company culture that is inclusive and supportive leads to higher employee morale and productivity, lower attrition (less demand for hiring and training) and better collaboration across teams.
If your company culture isn’t attractive enough to talk about on a job posting or in an interview, consider investing time and energy into:
- Connecting employees to your organization’s purpose in meaningful ways
- Creating opportunities for employee engagement and connection
- Instituting employee recognition programs
- Being more transparent in your internal communications
- Giving teams more autonomy
- Scheduling regular one-on-ones
Another fairly novel concept is, when asking for references from technology professionals or other candidates, offer references of your own (either what it’s like to work there, or if you’re the hiring manager, references on what it’s like to work with you). It can be a great way to generate some immediate trust, and like candidate references, offers an outlet for the all-important “don’t just take it from me” element of any relationship.
Alignment with Mission and Values
Half of HR professionals surveyed said that a candidate’s alignment with organizational values has a significant impact on the decision to hire, while just 6% report that values alignment has no impact on hiring decisions. This makes sense when you consider employees who feel aligned with company values are more likely to stay with that employer.
Beyond technical understanding, it’s important to evaluate a tech candidate’s potential alignment with your organization’s values and mission, especially when 56% of employees would not even consider a job at a company if they did not agree with its values. With values alignment being so important to technology professionals, it’s worth spending time during the recruiting and interview process evaluating this alignment with each candidate.
Assessing a tech candidate’s alignment with your organizational values can be easier with a little preparation. Consider your organization’s values and think of actions a candidate might talk about or reflect on during the interview that would demonstrate this is also a value for them. For example, if you’re looking for curious employees who like to learn, listen for instances of any new skills the candidate has recently picked up and their motivation for learning those skills.
How much does a candidate's alignment with your organization's values play into the decision to hire?
Trends in Offered Benefits
Of the employment benefits technology professionals ranked as most important in the Dice 2022 Tech Salary Report, HR professionals reported in our latest survey that their organizations mostly have these covered. Gaps still appear in some non-traditional benefits when it comes to what tech professionals want and what organizations currently offer.
Benefits Gap
Benefits Gap
Opportunity lies in those benefits which exhibit gaps between what technology professionals want and what’s currently being offered. With more than half (54%) of tech professionals indicating stock programs are important to them and just 40% of organizations currently offering this benefit, if your organization has the ability to offer stock programs, this is a benefit which you could leverage to win and retain tech talent.
If stock programs aren’t an option for your organization, there are plenty of other benefits tech candidates desire that are not yet widely offered such as child/elder care options, college tuition reimbursement and work-from-home stipends.
Attrition Rates and Times-to-Hire
Most HR professionals we surveyed indicated that their times-to-hire have been faster in 2022 than in 2021. That could be due to the need to fill roles, considering nearly 50% of respondents indicated that attrition rates for technology professionals in their organization are higher than in 2021.
How have your hiring timelines (time-to-hire) for technology professionals at your organization changed since January 2021?
Compared to last year, how has the attrition rate at your organization changed, if at all, for technology professional roles?
With the Great Resignation still impacting employers two years after the pandemic (remember, 52% of technology professionals surveyed said they will likely change employers in the next year), it’s no surprise that attrition rates are up for tech professionals and that employers are working as quickly as possible to fill open roles to keep the business moving.
While it puts an immense amount of stress on HR professionals, this shift offers some key learnings:
Be flexible
Flexibility is key. We were all forced into changes at a frequent and rapid pace during the pandemic. Many are still adjusting to this new world we’re all now working in with new caregiver responsibilities and financial burdens. Understanding this and allowing for flexibility in their work will show tech professionals you value them as individuals and not just as employees.
Have empathy
Supporting employees’ work and life outside of work is critical to retention. Priorities have shifted and employees are looking for employers who understand and support their interests and needs outside of work. Offering employees more paid time off, mental health and wellness programs and resources for elder and childcare go a long way in showing you care.
Give purpose
Help employees find a sense of purpose in their work. Connecting each tech professional’s work to the overall mission of the organization has become increasingly important. Tech professionals are motivated by the purpose their work has in contributing to the success of the business.
Be flexible
Flexibility is key. We were all forced into changes at a frequent and rapid pace during the pandemic. Many are still adjusting to this new world we’re all now working in with new caregiver responsibilities and financial burdens. Understanding this and allowing for flexibility in their work will show tech professionals you value them as individuals and not just as employees.
Have empathy
Supporting employees’ work and life outside of work is critical to retention. Priorities have shifted and employees are looking for employers who understand and support their interests and needs outside of work. Offering employees more paid time off, mental health and wellness programs and resources for elder and childcare go a long way in showing you care.
Give purpose
Help employees find a sense of purpose in their work. Connecting each tech professional’s work to the overall mission of the organization has become increasingly important. Tech professionals are motivated by the purpose their work has in contributing to the success of the business.