By Chelsea Babin

Boo! Did I scare you? Probably not. But, if you do one or more of these 15 things at your company you will scare away top technical talent. Make sure you aren’t doing these 15 things if you want a top-notch technical team and a low turnover rate.

1. Limiting Autonomy: One of the best things you can offer top technical talent is the room to experiment, own projects, and have plenty of autonomy. If you’re limiting autonomy you’re scaring away your best technical employees!

2. Ignoring Ideas: Top technical employees want to go above and beyond, contributing ideas that are taken seriously and implemented. If you’re ignoring ideas from top technical talent, don’t be surprised when they jump ship.

3. No Room to Grow or Explore New Technology: There’s nothing scarier than a dead end for your top technical talent. If there’s no room to grow or explore new technology at your organization, you can expect the best technical employees to leave quickly or never want to be a part of your company in the first place.

4. Zero Tolerance for Fun: A lot of technologists have the same mantra, “work hard, play hard”. If your company has zero tolerance for fun while your employees are getting the job done, you may scare away the best technical talent you have. From festive decorations to company events to leaving a little room for levity in the workday, the best technical employees are looking for a job where they can work hard and have fun along the way.

5. Hiding Company Goals: Everyone wants to know which direction the company is heading in and this is especially true for top technical talent. If you’re hiding company goals, expect your technical employees to be scared away.

6. No Mentorship or Leadership Opportunities: Whether it’s mentors for junior level technical talent or mentorship and leadership opportunities for senior level technical talent, you’ll scare away the best technical employees quickly if you don’t have room for these at your organization.

7. Forgetting Work-Life Balance: When a project deadline is fast approaching or something breaks, it’s understandable that top technical talent will need to work overtime to get their jobs done. But, if you’re forgetting work-life balance on a regular basis and expecting them to constantly work on vacation or during their free time, your technical employees will burnout, get scared, and run for the exits.

8. Zero Training or Tuition Reimbursement: While most top technical talent spends their free time learning new technology and staying up to date, a lot of them want training opportunities or benefits like tuition reimbursement at work to help them continuously improve. And, if you don’t offer them, they may leave to find an opportunity at a company that does.

9. Promoting Based on Favoritism Over Results: If a top technical employee is constantly improving, adding more value, and they see someone promoted around them on the basis of favoritism rather than results, they’ll either stop working so hard or they’ll be scared away to a new opportunity.

10. Disorganized Bosses Leaving Employees in the Dark: When there’s disorganization in a company, employees are often left in the dark and they feel unsure about what direction the company is heading. This will scare away your top technical talent, so make sure your company is running smoothly and keeping top technical talent in the loop in times of disorganization or chaos.

12. Lack of Competitive Raises, Bonuses, and Other Forms of Compensation: Let’s face it, top technical talent is in high demand at every company and if you aren’t willing to offer competitive compensation, raises, or bonuses your employees will find it elsewhere.

13. Letting a Toxic Culture Fester: If there’s toxicity in the air at your workplace, you need to squash it fast. Figure out if it’s coming from leadership, an employee or group of employees, or another source. Make sure you don’t let a toxic culture fester because it will scare away your most valuable technical employees.

14. Forgetting Recognition: A simple thank you, good job, or congratulations can go a long way in reducing your technical employee turnover. Forgetting recognition is a common error that scares talent employees away.

15. Only Focusing on the Bottom Line: While the bottom line should always be kept in mind, it shouldn’t be treated as the end-all-be-all above your employee’s and client’s or customer’s happiness. When top technical talent choose a company they work for, they often want to work on valuable projects they can be proud of. If they feel like they’re just going after money and not contributing meaningful work, they’ll often look for work elsewhere.

16. Micromanagement or Other Bad Leadership: Nothing sinks a ship faster than a captain no one wants to follow. Whether you have micromanagers or other leaders with bad leadership skills in place, nothing scares away top technical talent faster than a bad boss.

Nothing is scarier than being unable to fill your open technical positions or reduce your technical turnover rate! Stop doing these 15 things and you’ll stop scaring away top technical talent.