5 Signs Your IT Staff is Going to Quit

IT staff are among the most valuable employees in your company, and you should be doing more to retain them. Often, it is too late before companies realize that they should have done more to prevent a talented IT employee from leaving the company. Here is a look at five warning signs that you should watch out for in case your IT staff is going to quit.  

1.     Look At Your Training Program

One of the major reasons why IT employees quit their companies is because of poor training opportunities. Many employees state that the reason they left their previous company was that they were unable to acquire new skills because the company refused to upgrade to new technologies. These employees were losing out on learning new professional skills such as cybersecurity, big data analysis, and machine learning.

Organizations need to provide these formal training opportunities by QuickStart as not all IT employees are self-learners. If your training calendar does not offer such opportunities to your IT employees, you can be sure that they will soon be looking at these opportunities elsewhere.

2.     Signs of Burnout

Be alert for the physical and other signs of burnout in your IT staff. This can include frequent complaints about stress, taking a greater number of sick leaves and absences, or poor physical appearance. All of these are signs of stress that you should not ignore.

If you observe one or more of these signs, organize a meeting with your employees and learn about their concerns. You can avoid losing a valuable IT employee if you can offer a way of removing the factors causing burnout. Perhaps you can redistribute work responsibilities within the team or assign them an assistant.

3.     Skewed work-life Balance

Is your IT employee leaving the workplace late every day? Are they putting in more than their official duty hours? Are they working from home, or even worse, working on holidays? There are instances when we all need to pull up our socks to meet an important deadline or complete switchover to a new technological system.

But if this is a chronic issue in your IT department, then you should be concerned. Employees spending more time in the office necessarily means that their personal and family life is being neglected.

4.     Role of the IT department

You can look at the organizational structure of your company to see where the IT function stands. Regardless of the kind of activity your company is engaged in, the IT function plays a critical role in its success. Sadly, few companies realize, and even those that do, rarely offer that kind of visibility to the IT team.

If your IT employee believes that the company does not value the IT function in the way that it should, then they would inevitably look for a better opportunity at another company. IT can drive your company into new directions if you value their contributions and achievements. 

5.     Low pay Levels

In the end, it all boils down to the monetary question. What are you paying your IT employees relative to the competition? It is not only a matter of the base salary but also other perks and benefits. Remember, your IT employee is not only comparing his or her salary with peers in the industry but also with employees working in other departments of your company. Before you know it, they will have decided that it is no longer worth the effort at the cost of their financial wellbeing.

Taking timely action on the above issues can help you retain valuable talent and build the competitive value of your IT department.