It’s always been challenging to retain good engineers, as they tend to be ambitious people who know what they want and are constantly in demand. But in the wake of COVID-19, with one in four UK workers planning to join the “Great Resignation”, the challenge has become a crisis.
To retain your best engineers, you need to make sure they’re always moving forward in your organisation. Here’s how.
Mentorships
Engineers tend to enjoy hands-on learning and gaining real-world experience of how things work. Whether you go the formal mentorship route or simply encourage your senior engineers to take rookies under their wing, mentorship can make a tremendous difference to young engineers. Having a good mentor tends to inspire feelings of loyalty that will boost your employee retention.
Opportunities
It’s also vital to provide your top engineers with good opportunities if you want to keep them around. That could be a lateral transfer to an office in a location they want to move to, or the chance to work with more senior engineers on an exciting project. The objective is to make sure they’re never bored, because a bored engineer won’t stay with you for long. Don’t just focus on your new recruits, make sure your old hands get plenty of interesting opportunities too.
Training
Offering your engineers extra training is another great way of keeping them on board. Most engineers love learning. Whether you offer expert-led training in-house or reimburse them for external courses, giving your top engineers a way to keep developing their expertise will encourage them to stay with you.
Career Guidance
Every engineer has a different idea of their ideal career path. Offer multiple routes to senior roles in both the engineering department and the C-suite. Not all engineers will be interested in executive roles, but those who are should be able to see a route to the corner office.
If you’re looking for brilliant engineers who can help your company achieve its goals, get in touch with our experts today to find out how we can connect you with the top talent.