The Internal vs External Voices

For those of us “tech workers” (engineering, product, design, QA, etc.), the job market is mostly tipped in our favor. The sheer number of open positions alone would make tech workers the most in-demand group of people. Such market dynamics created a thriving niche in the recruiting industry — tech recruiting.

These tech recruiters are seriously good at what they do. Anyone in tech with a LinkedIn profile has probably been contacted, by a variety of means, by at least one tech recruiter. I admire the skill set a tech recruiter possesses that is the distilled essence of a salesperson, a storyteller, a visionary, a project manager, and a non-engineer who commands the nomenclature of whatever technical vertical.

Like many engineering managers, we all know about the cyclical nature of the “recruiting seasons”. Typically at the beginning of the year, around summer, and towards the end of the year. The volume of recruiting bombardment has a direct correlation to the number of impromptu meeting invites often titled “quick chat”. When I receive such invites from some of the top-performing engineers on my team, my brain immediately injects a high dose of cortisol into my system that works more effectively than any energy drink you can buy.

The recruiting pitch from the tech recruiters is carefully crafted to render a grand vision of the perspective company, with the best culture around, working on an amazing product, tackling the problem with cutting edge highly available, and scalable technologies, with the exit event of the industry on the horizon. These external voices are tempting. They are telling a compelling story of why you should join the new company with a better opportunity. These external voices are often the engine that keeps tech talents moving from one company to another.

I am always playing defense in those “quick chat” meetings. I typically ask “why are you leaving?”, “what can we do to keep you on the team?”, or “are there other teams at the company you are interested in?”. But both attendees of the meeting clearly know that we have reached the point of no return. I feel powerless. I often wonder if, as a manager, I am defenseless against the external voices from tech recruiters.

It just occurred to me recently that if external voices exist, are there internal voices that tell a compelling story of why people should stay?

I spent some time to examine the responsibilities of every role and function on the team, in an effort to identify a potential source of internal voices. I wasn’t able to pinpoint a role with clear ownership. With such ambiguity, it suddenly became clear to me that maybe, as the engineering manager, this is my responsibility. My defense has never yielded any positive results, why not take a proactive approach, create my internal voice, and become the internal tech recruiter?

This is the aha moment I have been searching for. To do this right, I need to think, plan, and act like a tech recruiter. I need to craft an internal recruiting pitch with a vision of the company, an exciting growth opportunity, the impact an individual can create, the great people on the team they can learn from, and the culture that resonated with them in the first place.

I also realized that such internal voices are a living organism. As the product priority and the people on the team change, the core messaging should evolve to match the current reality. It takes much more effort to broadcast the internal voice to your team since this is a continuous effort, likely throughout the tenure of the individuals on the team. It may seem a little unfair that external voices are only happening in short bursts with the help of automated email campaigns, but I think this is a fair game. Often we stop trying to keep our team motivated, engaged, or inspired to stay on the team after they have started. The most common topics we discuss are project updates, performance, and OKRs, etc. It’s almost like we start taking our hires for granted after day 1.

Though it takes more effort, there are some clear advantages the internal voices have over the external voices.

Many more points of contact. We meet, in person or virtually, with our teams much more frequently than tech recruiters. Every touchpoint is a potential opportunity for us to weave the internal voice into the conversations.

You have a warm conversation every time. Often times tech recruiters send out mass email campaigns to start the outreach. These are “cold calls” in that the recruiters have to break down the trust barrier to further the conversation. You already know your team and the trust has been established.

You have trusted people as social proof. We often verify the sales pitch and statements from a tech recruiter by googling or asking our network. The results are often inconsistent or inclusive, which produces doubt. We have teammates, coworkers from other teams, colleagues from other departments to potentially help reinforce and validate our pitches. The (hopefully) consistent positive messaging will help boost effectiveness.

I created a few versions of such internal voice pitches with some personalized customization and I have been inserting different pieces of the pitches during team meetings, one-on-one’s, and casual conversations. The results have been very encouraging. I have been sensing a higher level of engagement and motivation among all the team members, even though our interactions have been mostly virtual via video calls.

One additional benefit of proactively retaining your team is that the positive result doesn’t just stop when the conversation ends. It has long-lasting effects that are also contagious to others your team interacts with. This proactive approach levels the playing field for the managers, and to the people on the team, they feel much more appreciated.

I hope the internal voice can become an item in your manager’s toolbox to keep your team together and motivated.