Nervous about IT workers jumping ship? Try these five retention tips

It can be challenging to find great IT employees, but keeping them may be even harder, new research from Robert Half Technology suggests. Although most CIOs (72 percent) rate their workers’ satisfaction levels high, more than 35 percent of IT workers said they plan to look for another job in the next year, and another 35 percent are unsure about whether they’ll stay.

Workers were also asked, “If you plan to look for a job next year, what are your primary motivations for leaving your current firm?” Forty-eight percent said that they need a new challenge, 47 percent said the lack of advancement potential and 38 percent said that they’re not adequately paid.

Robert Half Technology offers five tips to help you retain your best and brightest:

1. Pay competitively. Salary isn’t the only key to job satisfaction, but underpaying technology professionals will prompt them to seek other career opportunities.

2. Offer new responsibilities. Top performers want to advance. Even when you can’t give a promotion, offer new areas of responsibility -- the best IT pros want to continually build their skill sets.

3. Create a learning culture. Reimburse staff for relevant online classes, educational conferences and courses offered by professional associations or local colleges. If employees seek IT certifications, consider reimbursing them for the costs to obtain and maintain their credentials. If your firm doesn’t have the budget to pay for classes, consider starting a mentoring program.

4. Provide attractive benefits. Ask technology professionals what perks they want -- from health plans to flexible work hours to paid time off -- and do your best to deliver them.

5. Address burnout proactively. Promoting realistic workloads, bringing in project professionals when full-time employees are at capacity, and tackling morale issues immediately can help prevent employees from feeling overburdened and stressed.