Will your tech-talent stray to smaller pastures?

by Nicola Middlemiss | 29 Sep 2015

Large corporations could previously offer salaries much higher than most start-ups but the landscape has changed – major businesses must adapt in order to retain top tech talent, argues industry debate panel.

“I’m seeing people jump ship from big to small,” start-up expert Bindi Karia said during ‘the Future of Workforce’ debate.

Karia, formerly of Silicon Valley Bank and Microsoft’s Emerging Business Team, said start-ups were now head-hunting employees with corporate experience in order to give more structured growth to their own seedling businesses.

So if hiking salaries isn’t the solution – what is?

According to the Work Crowd’s CEO Alice Weightman, big businesses should go back to basics.

“We need to go back to old-fashioned principles,” said Weightman, who’s also MD of Hanson Search.

“If we just double money and shareholder options we’re exposing ourselves in attracting talent in but then losing it very quickly,” she continued. “We need to go back to what are people looking for."

So what are people looking for?

Rewarding work

“Business leaders are very much talking about sense of purpose and why people want to go to work,” says Weightman. “Why people want to go to work is a great environment.”

SAP UK’s director of government relations says HR managers would be well served to start thinking about employee sabbaticals and strong CSR initiatives – such as SAP’s project teaching coding to children in Africa.

Team feel

The panel members also reflected on the need for large organizations to engage with remote workers and freelancers.

“Face time is more important than ever because technology makes it so easy to be isolated,” said Karia.