If you’re struggling to attract and retain top tech talent, adding gimmicky perks to your benefits package is not the answer.
Benefits that Help Attract and Retain Top Tech Talent
A competitive job market might tempt you to add trendy perks such as free snacks or game rooms to your office to attract a large pool of applicants. But a LinkedIn survey of over 3,000 full-time US workers confirmed what many of us have suspected for years – only 19% of respondents considered those types of benefits attractive. Not to mention, in remote settings, those perks are no longer options.
The real key to attracting and retaining top tech talent is to invest in the workplace benefits that matter most to them. That includes PTO, parental leave, health insurance, and professional development opportunities.
What is Professional or Career Development?
Professional or career development refers to the continuous education or career training that happens after someone has entered the workforce. This type of skills training is critical for employees to achieve success in any career field and particularly important for those in tech, as technologies and best practices are always evolving and progressing.
Did you know:
- 76% of millennials think professional development opportunities are one of the most important elements of company culture?
- Employee retention rates are 34% higher among jobs that offer professional development opportunities?
- Employees are 15% more engaged when they can access career development opportunities?
Professional Development is a Top Priority
It should come as no surprise that Mediafly’s leadership team has always considered professional development a top priority. (There’s a reason we’ve landed on Crain’s Best Places to Work list for four consecutive years.)
But this year, amid a global pandemic, continued transition to remote work, and widespread conversations about burnout, Mediafly’s leaders are working tirelessly to ensure all employees have ample opportunities for desired career development.
In addition to companywide professional development initiatives, including time management workshops and the rollout of Gallup’s CliftonStrengths assessments to help employees harness the power of their inherent strengths at work, Mediafly also introduced an exciting new career development opportunity for our invaluable engineering team.
Mediafly Introduces Codeapalooza
Codeapalooza, an optional 3-day event, offered Mediafly’s product team an opportunity to step away from their day-to-day jobs and spend full workdays learning about new technologies. The event combined structured training with self-guided exploration to cater to a variety of learning preferences. And team members were encouraged to explore any technology they desired, although roughly 60% of the 12 participants chose React.
“An important part of building a strong engineering culture is providing the mental space necessary for engineers to explore, build, and progress in their skills,” said Jason Shah, CTO at Mediafly. “Our Codeapalooza event was exactly that. This multi-day event gave our teams the space they needed to progress on their endeavors and advance their skills. And they were able to bring those skills back to their day-to-day job. For example, some of our team members elected to dive deeper into React. As we continue to transition many sections of our frontend to React, they were able to apply what they learned the very next day.”
Participants were asked to complete a pre and post-assessment to help gauge the success of the program. Responses to the post-assessment questions were overwhelmingly positive with 100% of participants stating they’d like to see Codeapalooza become an annual event.
Professional Development is Critical to Attract and Retain Top Tech Talent
When you offer your employees professional development opportunities like Codealooza, you don’t just keep existing talent happy and engaged at work, you also impact your organization’s ability to grow by combatting skills shortages, keeping staff up to date with industry and tech trends, reducing turnover, and attracting better talent.
Employment of software developers, quality assurance analysts, and testers is projected to grow 22% over the next decade. It’s a competitive job market. Are you offering the career development opportunities required to attract & retain top tech talent?
If you’re interested in working at Mediafly, check out our Careers page for open positions.
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