Everybody makes assumptions. But with the breakneck speed at which the rules change in the tech world, your beliefs should be constantly changing too – unless you want to get left behind.
To help you stay ahead, we recently busted some of the biggest hiring risks that can quietly wreck your pipeline and scaling plans with Head of Data Engineering at Sand Technologies, Mercia Malan; Talent Acquisition Lead at TROOP, Jonathan Coetzee; and Senior Fullstack Engineer & Tech Lead at Specno, Marlon Demas.
Myth #1: Developers don’t want to come into the office anymore
Developers have definitely become used to working from home, but a return to office is unlikely to be the reason why they might refuse or leave a role.
OfferZen data shows that the real reason developers tend to avoid the office is because it doesn’t make a difference to their productivity. Their biggest challenges when working on site? A lack of space for deep, focused work and long commutes eating into their time and bank balances.
“The thing that many companies get wrong is that they set up remote policies without thinking about how their people will be affected. We’ve all adapted to remote working and built habits around what works for us, and forcing people to break those habits purely for visibility or to put business needs first doesn’t work,” said Mercia.
According to the panel, strategy matters here. Keep in mind that hybrid is now the dominant workplace policy and that being in office doesn’t need to mean exactly the same as it used to.
“Be strategic about how you set up your work policy. Where we see companies getting it wrong most often is they have a non-negotiable policy. Rather involve your developers, allow for some flexibility in your policy and be transparent around the reasons for your decisions,” Jono remarked.
“There must definitely be transparency and an understanding about why the policy is the way it is. Otherwise there won’t be any trust and developers will just feel like they’re coming into the office because you want to watch them, more than you want to improve productivity, for example,” added Marlon.
Myth #2: The only thing that matters is the size of the salary you’re offering
Money talks, but it doesn’t solve every problem. While compensation does matter to developers, remote work, growth opportunities, challenging projects and company culture are usually the trump cards companies hold.
“Most of the time, when developers switch jobs, it’s because there’s a misalignment between their values and the company culture. They might feel left out or unseen in their role, so they go elsewhere for growth opportunities, more meaningful work or challenging projects,” explained Marlon.
Here, Jono noted, it helps to have a “North Star” in your compensation philosophy and to be transparent about what that guiding principle is early on in the recruitment journey and employment relationship.
“Salaries get increasingly important when we’re talking about retention. Compensation is a big part of how we look after our core team once we’ve built it, but it’s not the only thing that matters,” he said.
“Succession planning, job titling frameworks, training and development frameworks, these are all things that form part of your company values and feed into your company culture. So focusing on building these frameworks and being transparent about them is crucial.”
“Ultimately, people want to make an impact. They want to be challenged and they want to do cool stuff more than they want a big salary,” said Mercia.
“Transparency is a big layer here. Just having open lines of communication and showing developers that they’re being heard when they give feedback about these things can go a long way.”
Myth #3: Loyalty’s a lie – developers will leave if something better comes along
Developers usually prefer not to job hop, but they will look for another role if you aren’t offering them a good work-life balance, a great work environment and potential for growth. Getting them to stick around means striving to be the kind of company that they don’t want to leave.
Mercia highlighted that “culture is massive” here. “When I talk to candidates about why they’re looking for a new role, the answers I hear the most are about wanting to be treated better, wanting to be challenged more, wanting to have more impact and wanting better growth opportunities.”
“Developers are looking for a place where they’ll feel welcome or they think they’ll have a chance to grow the most, especially now that we’re seeing a lot more people coming into the market and companies have a lot more options available,” added Marlon.
When it comes to retaining developers, it’s important to have a growth strategy in place and communicate that with your team right from the outset.
“For us, it’s all about succession planning. We believe in organic growth and so we’ve really focused on hiring the right people in the right spaces from day one. We’re constantly looking for the top individual contributors and developing them into leaders and managers,” said Jono.
Myth #4: Adding a co-pilot to the team = AI success
Adopting AI can give you a major competitive edge. Unfortunately, giving your team the green light to use AI tools isn’t the same as AI adoption.
Despite the majority of developers using AI tools, 60% of that number aren’t using them at work. The problem isn’t access or know-how – it’s knowing where the tools fit into your day-to-day operations.
“It’s important to be thoughtful when embracing AI as opposed to just having these tools for the sake of having them. You want to be looking at how you can use it as a vehicle to innovate because, if you’re not, you’ll find that your competitors might start overtaking you,” said Jono.
Both Mercia and Marlon agreed on this point, noting that we should be focusing more on the “how” and the “why” of using AI than anything else.
“There’s a lot of hype and pressure around AI, but what you really need to do is understand how using AI can help with your workflow. Of course, you don’t want to have it doing all the work for you, so it’s giving developers the tools to understand when and how to use it to be the most effective,” said Marlon.
“Saying that your team needs to use AI just because everyone else is using it without giving a reason isn’t helpful. If you aren’t showing your developers why it’s beneficial to use AI in their processes or explaining the risks involved, then you’re not setting yourself up for success,” added Mercia.
Building a workplace developers stay for
While remote work and salaries are important, what really matters to developers at all career stages is having the opportunity to work for a company with great culture and good growth prospects.
To get the best for your business, you’ll need to be willing to listen to your developers and experiment with your setup to find a rhythm that supports growth, productivity and retention.