What Makes Top Talent Want to Work at Your Tech Company?

74% of women in technology say they love their work, yet they leave their careers at more than double the quit rate of their male peers. More than half of technical women leave at the “mid-level” point of their careers (10–20 years), just when the loss of their talent is most costly to companies.

The costs associated with this attrition are high.

Replacing any mid- to senior-level employee can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more, not to mention the opportunity costs, loss of institutional memory, and detrimental effect on team cohesion. Some have even argued that great employees are simply not replaceable.

Furthermore, over a decade of research has proven that companies who succeed in retaining and promoting women financially outperform their competitors with fewer women leaders. Tech companies who lose their women employees mid-career are watching their future senior leaders — and their revenues — walk out the door.

Where do these women go when they leave?

Women’s departure rate from technology is not closely related to child-rearing. 80% of women who leave tech continue working. About half of mid-career women who leave their jobs in tech start their own competitor companies or pursue technical roles in non-profit and government. The others abandon technical roles altogether in favor of non-technical jobs at competitor companies or in other industries. Only 20% leave to take take time out of the workforce (e.g. to have children).

Why do women leave in the first place?

When asked why they left tech, these women cited a lack of flexible work policies, an unsupportive work environment, and inadequate compensation as the primary motivators for leaving. They also frequently discussed the discomfort of working in company cultures that felt overtly or implicitly discriminatory towards women as a leading factor in their decision to leave tech. The additional discrimination some of these women experienced related to their race, age, or sexuality (on top of their gender and sometimes their status as mothers) was often a compounding factor.

For many women, the simple discomfort of not fitting in in an otherwise homogeneous setting was enough to push them out.

It’s difficult to be “the only one” at the company or on the team when you’re a member of an underrepresented group. This is true for the only woman at a company, the only person of color, the only one over 45… and it’s that much worse if you happen to be, say, a woman of color over age 45. This is why it is so critical for companies to take their diversity debt seriously and to hire in cohorts whenever possible. (The Rooney Rule won’t help very much if the person who’s hired eventually quits from the stress of being “the only one.”)

How can technology companies ensure that the talented women on their teams want to stick around?

At recruitHER, we match our candidates with roles at companies where they can thrive and grow. We do this by choosing to partner with clients who have demonstrated their commitment to diversity and who are taking important steps to provide an inclusive and supportive workplace.

We asked our candidates directly what they look for in evaluating a potential employer. Their responses converged around the following themes:

Inclusive & supportive workplace policies

The suite of benefits and workplace policies that a company creates have a significant impact on the company’s ability to attract and retain talent. Top talent wants:

• fair compensation and benefits
• healthcare (+ trans-inclusive healthcare)
• flexible hours, remote work option
• paid parental leave (maternity & paternity)
• reasonable work hours
• ability to achieve balance, unplug from work

The wage gap in tech, while smaller than in other industries, still has a detrimental effect on earnings and job satisfaction for those who are not white men. Companies who want to stay competitive offer market rate salaries for top talent that keep their employees happy. They also perform internal audits to ensure pay equity across salary bands.

Candidates of all genders, but women in particular, express the importance of being able to control and flex their work schedules without experiencing professional penalties for doing so. The most attractive companies offer flextime and remote work policies and track metrics to ensure that the options are a) being utilized and b) not having detrimental effects on those employees who take advantage of the option. This is especially true for parental leave, which larger tech companies are already recognizing as a core component of their workforce development strategy — and startups aren’t far behind.

Candidates are looking for companies that support their ability to pursue personal lives outside of work. Savvy companies want their employees to be healthy and productive, and it’s hard to keep talented folks around for long if they’re being run into the ground by long hours and working on weekends and evenings. Companies who want to keep their employees around long enough to grow them into core leadership positions recognize this and take steps to facilitate time away from work that is genuinely free of work responsibilities.

Note: Some employees want work/life balance. Others prefer work/life integration. The most successful companies will be those who accommodate workers’ different styles without showing preferential treatment for one style over another.

Inclusive & supportive workplace culture

Beyond the policies themselves, candidates are looking for companies whose culture and shared values mirror their own. Here are the main characteristics candidates are seeking in a workplace environment:

• Ability to contribute, have their voice heard
• Collaborative environment
• Transparency, open communication
• Low turnover
• Opportunity to give back to the community

The type of culture candidates describe above is actually precisely the type of environment that is best able to sustain and support the inclusion of diverse employees. Diverse teams create broader thinking and surface more ideas and perspectives, which means that competing ideas and perspectives inevitably come into conflict. Companies whose internal cultures support open communication, transparency, and collaboration are best able to negotiate the discomfort that naturally arises from the debate and constructive conflict generated by diversity. Employees who feel like valued contributors to the team — who feel like their ideas are heard and given fair consideration — are much more likely to continue to offer new and valuable perspectives and to work in collaboration with their teammates to arrive at the best solution to a given problem. Companies with the most effective managers discuss and establish agreed-upon values and goals as well as methods and ground rules for debate and giving constructive feedback.

Candidates are also seeking workplaces where — in addition to feeling proud of their work and valued as a member of the team — they are part of a larger organization that cares about giving back to the community. This is particularly true of millennials: more than 50% reported that the charitable causes companies support are an influence when deciding where to work.

Opportunities for growth

Over and over, candidates say that they want to find a great company, stay there, and move up the ranks. This is good news for companies — talented candidates actually want a company where they can stay put, grow, and thrive. Companies who succeed in providing a work environment that facilitates employee growth will be rewarded with huge business benefits.

In order to succeed in keeping top talent, companies must create clear paths to advancement that are fair and ensure that promotion processes are free of unconscious bias. (Hint: for more accurate, less biased performance reviews, collect less information from more people.) Make sure that your mentorship programs are effective regardless of gender or other identity characteristics and that they focus on core competencies. Provide funding for professional development and send employees to conferences and trainings to improve their skills and knowledge.

Finally, the best way to assure a prospective employee that they have the opportunity to grow and thrive is to have diverse leaders already represented at the highest levels of your company. Companies should also work hard to go beyond token representation in leadership.

Once a woman lands one of the five highest-paying executive spots in a given firm, the chances of another woman joining the executive team are a whopping 51% lower.

Getting started is more important than being perfect.

At recruitHER, we understand that being a top performing company in all areas of diversity and inclusion is a long road. Our candidates are excited to work for companies who explicitly acknowledge the value of diversity and who walk the walk when it comes to implementing policies and practices that create inclusive working environments.