A large number of factors contribute to a great company culture, ranging from core values to the way your employees interact to the actual office environment. Everything that impacts the way in which your organization’s people communicate and work can influence your culture, allowing them to feel appreciated and empowered or, on the other end of the spectrum, exhausted and negative. In the midst of the current, challenging IT talent landscape, cultivating a positive corporate culture has become key to successfully attracting and retaining the talent you need. We’re investigating three ways your company culture can help you beat the tech talent shortage.

Attracting Strong Candidates

First, building a culture in which IT professionals want to work helps to attract and recruit top candidates. According to a LinkedIn study, 60% of candidates report that the first thing they want to know about your organization is your culture and values. Broadcasting your organization’s positive culture can entice job seekers who are looking through your company website or social media. This means sharing pictures on social media, writing blogs about company events or philanthropy, and raising your employees’ visibility makes tech talent more likely to want to work with you and seek out open roles. A social media campaign that highlights what makes your company unique may actually be the most direct route to showing your culture, as 40% of HR professionals say social media is where employer branding has the most benefit.

Beyond social media, employees are your greatest assets for attracting highly skilled tech professionals. Employees who are happy in their jobs and engaged in company culture will spread your organization’s strong reputation, talking about their love for their job with friends, neighbors, and others in their networks. Positive employee reviews also make a significant impact via review sites like Glassdoor and Google, as 78% of job seekers find such feedback influential when deciding where to work. Building a reputation as an employer of choice and sharing your culture online can get the word out to tech professionals, making them interested in your organization before you’ve even reached out.

Engaging Potential Employees

A great company culture can also be a powerful tool once you’re involved in the hiring process. Showing this culture to potential employees can build their interest in a position with your company and provide an engaging candidate experience. Integrate your corporate culture into the interview process through the information you share and by having potential employees meet with their future coworkers. This gives them the opportunity to learn how the team works together and provides the team an opportunity to share what makes your company a great place to work.

The most important part of your organization’s culture to share is the way in which you communicate, especially if you have a long hiring process. Engaging transparently with candidates throughout shows them what to expect and creates a trusting relationship that will make them want to join your team. According to the American Psychological Association, 20% of adults do not trust their employer. Those who do not trust their organization are more than four times as likely to report plans to look for a new job within the next year. Establishing transparent lines of communication from the start can keep them engaged in the hiring process and show that your environment is a great one in which to work.

Retaining Top Performers

The tech talent shortage makes it imperative to retain your organization’s strongest employees, and company culture makes a huge impact on their desire to stay. In fact, Glassdoor reports that corporate culture and values is the most significant predictor of employee satisfaction. The likelihood of turnover for business with a strong culture is only 14%, yet it is nearly 50% for a company with a poor culture. This difference can make a massive impact.

Clearly, a great work environment helps to retain top IT talent. Making the workplace an engaging place for employees, somewhere they feel motivated and valued, keeps tech professionals excited about their jobs and more likely to stay with your company. When only 31% of employees in the U.S. and Canada report feeling engaged at work, maintaining a strong culture is the kind of differentiator that sets your organization apart.

Using Company Culture to Beat the Tech Talent Shortage

Maintaining a positive culture helps your organization at every stage of the talent process, from attracting applicants to providing a great candidate experience and avoiding turnover. As demand for tech skills continues to rise, recruiting and retaining IT professionals will only become more difficult. This makes it critical to put your company’s best foot forward, and a true talent partner like Smart Resources can help.

Are you seeking tech pros who are right for your organization? Determining culture fit is a key part of our process.