The global tech hiring market has cooled down significantly over the past few years. With less investment flowing into the space, businesses aren’t necessarily able to offer developers the big annual increases and bonuses they did in the past.
In this climate, companies whose budgets have been affected run the risk of losing top talent to those who can offer more attractive remuneration packages – unless they’re able to tap into what really drives developers and give that to them.
OfferZen’s Head of Engineering Nic Botes recently spoke with SweepSouth Group COO Luke Kannemeyer and Bash Engineering Team Lead Thabang Tseboho about how tech businesses can build a reputation of great leadership to attract top devs and encourage them to stay on your team.
The top reasons why developers leave their roles
OfferZen’s 2024 report on hiring and retaining developers showed that one in three developers are planning to move jobs this year.
According to developers, salary is the top reason they look for new roles, but money is certainly not the only motivator. Following better pay, a large portion of devs cited poor management, lack of career and growth opportunities, and poor work-life balance as the biggest factors driving their job search.
This shift in focus from currency to culture is positive news for tech teams that are working with smaller budgets. However, it presents what might be a bigger challenge for some businesses: building trust with developers.
How to compete beyond salary and stability
Predictability isn’t exactly a hallmark of the tech industry, especially for those working in the startup space. As a result, rethinking your leadership approach to build trust among developers can be tricky.
Fortunately, there are a few strategies that you can use to attract and retain developers to ensure that your team thrives.
Share your ‘why’
Developers are natural problem solvers. They’re motivated by producing impactful solutions that will help end users overcome challenges.
Here, Thabang highlighted that going back to the fundamentals – or the why – of your business can be highly beneficial in motivating software engineers to stick around, especially in an environment where developers have access to global opportunities and foreign currency salaries.
“If your main strategy for retaining people is money alone, it’s not going to work. You need to go back to the fundamentals and articulate your vision to get buy-in. Get people sold on your business goals and create alignment with their own career and the growth they’re seeking,” he said.
“The types of people who are going to remain engaged and stick around will be the ones who want to contribute to that mission in a measurable way. They’ll stick around when things are getting tough.”
Show your impact
Giving your developers a look at exactly how their work makes a difference in practical terms is a great way to keep them motivated and strengthen their trust in your ‘why’.
“One of the best things that we’re able to offer at a startup like SweepSouth – but also in the wider tech marketplace – is showing our teams that what they do is really going to get someone more employment or bring more money into households that need it,” said Luke.
“Really showing the developers on the team that they’re having a tangible impact, rather than just letting it go into the ether and moving on to the next product, shows them that their work is meaningful and gives them that dopamine hit that many of us knowledge workers don’t really get.”
Meet your developers where they are
For Thabang, like many developers, the decision to stay in or switch roles is about more than just money. This is something that hiring managers and team leads need to keep in mind if they want to avoid attrition.
“It's balancing the equation: are you learning or are you earning right? To earn in your career, it’s best to learn because you can always turn that into earning more. So it's a matter of getting that balance right,” he said. He also mentions the importance of avoiding the blank approach as a manager and embracing a ‘people first' ethos:
“It’s important to realise that different people value different things and you need to get into the details of what that is for each of the developers in your team and understand that for each of them.
“Some engineers want to dive deeper at a technical level, some want to get more involved in product conversations, some want to see the ideas all the way through every iteration to the final impact. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so it’s important to build trust so that you can incentivise people in a way that you know will encourage them to stay.”
Communicate, communicate, communicate
Transparency is fundamental for building trust. Being open in your communication and sharing information with your team, even when it might not be something they want to hear, is one of the best ways to reduce the fear of uncertainty and make your employees feel valued and secure.
“There needs to be honesty about what things you can provide and what you stand for so that everyone can be on the same page and we can have a healthy environment,” said Luke.
“People want to know when they’re doing well and they want to know when they’re not. There’s nothing worse than someone feeling like they’re failing, but no one is upfront with them about where they’re going wrong or supporting them to get on the right path.
“A lot of leaders get this wrong by thinking that, because one of your company values is respect or empathy, that means not having difficult conversations. But I think that if you aren’t able to have those conversations, you’ll often end up losing the devs who are performing or the devs who are delivering, or both.”
Thabang noted that a growth roadmap can be extremely useful here. “Codify what growth looks like. Not necessarily in such a strict way that it becomes a checklist for promotion, but in a wide enough way that it can help someone quantify if they’re growing and where they’re going,” he said.
Hiring (and retaining) happy developers
While hiring developers is becoming more and more challenging, there is some good news: the pool of talented tech talent in South Africa is only increasing.
While building trust with your team takes time, there are two quick ways to help you attract outstanding candidates for your team:
- Go remote first: “People want flexibility. The easy path is something that we're already seeing – it’s remote work,” said Thabang.
- Create a great candidate experience: “The interview is one of the first signals you’re giving devs of what it’s going to be like to work for your business,” noted Luke.