How to retain your developers

Excellent software developers are a rare commodity. Talented developers can pick and choose between jobs - and they do!

So how does an organization remain attractive to new employees and at the same time retain their current developers?

Good salary and good benefits are of course good perks, but it's not the whole answer. Experienced developers seek the full package, and that includes being challenged, having autonomy, and opportunities to be creative.

With that in mind, here are our best advice to become the type of place where talented developers want to work.

Get rid of technical debt

Technical debt hinders you in more than one way. Technical debt is old technology, a deficit of features, workarounds, or old errors that are still waiting to be corrected. Most organizations have some form of technical debt, whether it's a system that was launched before all the features were implemented, persistent errors, or compatibility issues. It arises as a result of time pressure. Often we have to make some compromises to get the features to the users on time. However, technical debt is unattractive to new developers. It requires a lot of maintenance and emergency patches, which stand in the way of new development and interesting solutions. No one wants to be hired to clean up someone else's mess. Investing in solutions that minimize technical debt increases your profile and attracts creative people who see that they can make a difference.

Create space for creativity

It's pointless to hire developers who are good at coming up with solutions and designing new useful features if they actually don't have time to be creative. Often the fun or interesting aspects fade in comparison to the routine work of designing the foundation of applications. Implementing tools to assist with the basic parts of an application creates time for your developers to actually use their skills - and that's an attractive place to be! Developers can spend their time being creative, thinking about solid architectures, and implementing exciting new solutions and technologies. Time for your developers to be creative will also benefit you in the long run, as they will find problems and come up with better solutions.

Offer new skills

No one wants to stagnate. Encouraging and supporting employees in learning new skills keeps them motivated. As an additional bonus, investing in training and education ensures that the products will continue to be of high quality supported by the latest knowledge. Skills can be courses, conferences, or state-of-the-art tools and programming languages. But there is also value in getting to try out new working methods, implementing different workflows and methods. Listen to what your employees are interested in, and work with them to come up with exciting new ways to develop and acquire new skills.

Stay updated with the industry

Keeping up to date with the latest technology is a great way to attract developers. Not only is it an excellent way to expand your developer's skill set, it also increases the quality of your products. New languages and tools can save time from repetitive work and improve elegance in your solutions and features. Constant development is part of future-proofing your organization, ensuring that your products do not become obsolete - and that's an attractive place to work.