Beyond Corporate Benefits: How to Build a Strong Workplace Culture for Tech Teams

Building great software development teams is one of the most important things companies can do, especially those focused on digital transformation. But stability is a moving target. As demand for trendy IT roles surges, the best software engineers are being aggressively recruited. How do you keep them? Your workplace culture can play a huge role.

An effective company culture is one of your biggest assets when it comes to attracting top-tier software developers. But we’re not talking about ping-pong tables and free snacks. Your workplace culture is the reason your company exists and it should be reflected in every aspect of your team. How can you hope to compete with the high turnover rates and aggression of the tech industry? It’s time to think differently.

In today’s post, I’ll share valuable insights about our people-first culture efforts at BEON.tech that led us to achieve a lower attrition rate. But first, let’s talk about why a successful organizational culture is more important than ever for companies that want to hire top rated software engineers. 

Why Create a Strong Workplace Culture Matters for Tech Teams

In IT, having a company culture strategy is not a bandwagon to jump on. It’s a necessity. Knowing how to build a strong safety culture is one of your biggest assets when it comes to retaining software engineers and helping them grow in their careers. But creating effective and reliable procedures isn’t easy. Despite having competitive salaries and perks, many companies lost their best and brightest in the past few years to two main reasons:

• A change in mindset among younger generations who are more open to job-hopping. In fact, according to a recent Harvey Nash report, 45% of tech professionals plan on jumping ship within the year. 
• A lack of talent in your specific tech stack.

It’s also worth mentioning that IT jobs are in high demand right now, and unemployment in the field is going down. World-class software engineers, especially those in hot tech stacks, have never had more options. With so many opportunities, loyalty to a single company is a thing of the past. 

So it’s more important than ever for companies to focus on strengthening their workplace culture. 

Developing an environment where employees feel supported and valued not only helps retention but also fosters long-term growth. At the same time, adopting a people-first culture is key. When your team knows that their well-being is prioritized, they’re more likely to stay engaged and committed to your company’s mission.

At the end of the day, it’s about timing with the right approach. What works for everyone doesn’t apply to your best software engineers. And to do so, you need to understand what success means to them and help them achieve it.

In the next section, I’ll walk you through how to build an amazing company culture that attracts your best people. We’ll share a ton of best practices we use at BEON.tech that have helped us achieve a fraction of the industry average attrition rate.

How to Create a Company Culture that Attracts & Retains your Best Tech People

Ready to create a positive team culture that supports your tech talent? Here’s how to level up your company and retain your best software engineers:

• Define and communicate your values and mission;
• Create a growth-focused and learning-based workplace culture;
• Build a community and encourage open communication;
• Recognize and empower your software engineers for a better work environment;
• Monitor key metrics and iterate on your workplace safety culture.

Let’s dive into each.

Define & Communicate your Values and Mission

If you haven’t already, define a mission and values that resonate with employee engagement. Your software engineers need a reason to care, and a true mission with clear values can give it to them.

Communicating and living by your company values can:

• Strengthen your culture;
• Build your teams;
• Motivate your teams.

Pro Tip: Get your software developers into fun Slack channels. At BEON.tech we have a channel for favorite books and movies. We also have a spanish-portuguese channel where team members answer weekly questions in their native languages. It’s helped our language learners practice their skills and is a great way to get to know each other.

Create a Growth & Learning-Based Workplace Culture

As software engineers grow in their careers, they avoid companies with rigid structures and predetermined career ladders. These stifle exploration and put them through bureaucratic hell to get things approved to advance in their careers. A people-first culture, however, embraces flexibility and promotes development by allowing engineers to chart their own paths.

Personalize professional development to each engineer’s interests and goals. Be adaptable and responsive to their unique needs and expectations. If a developer is passionate about a specific tech stack, like DevOps, give them the room and resources to explore and lead in those areas.

Pro Tip: Hire teams of talent experience specialists to own the experience of your software engineers. At BEON.tech, we call ours Talent Experience Managers (TEMs). They create career plans tailored to each engineer with goals, feedback, and development in mind. We set a minimum of 2-3 years for someone to be in the company and move into a leadership role.

Build your Community & Communicate Openly

Communication is key to getting things done and making your people feel comfortable in their new teams. But building a community can be tough, especially if you’re a large company with multiple offices. Your crew may never meet in person.

For software engineers, being connected to a network of people working on similar tasks is crucial. It helps them learn from each other and share experiences. A great way to do this is to have your own software engineers mentor and guide those who need it. This way, your best people can help others and everyone can lift each other up, which is key when considering how to create a healthy work culture focused on collaboration and growth.

Pro Tip: Plan events that promote positive team culture by encouraging idea-sharing and fostering personal connections among teammates. We host an Ambassadors’ Week at our Buenos Aires office that brings all our Latin American software engineers together. It’s a great way to build connections and get everyone working together in workshops.

For more insights on how to build a strong organizational culture when working with remote teams and integrate them effectively read this article. 

Recognize & Empower your Software Engineers

A senior software engineer can make a huge impact on your product or service. Give them ownership to make them care. Instead of treating them like contractors, make them feel like part of the team and an extension of your business.

Pro Tip: Develop a relationship with your software engineers that includes them in the business as a decision-makers. Have them work directly with your stakeholders, present to them, and gather feedback to iterate and improve. Our developers are responsible for their projects and present to stakeholders regularly to get feedback and improve.

Establish Feedback Loops for a Better Work Environment

Feedback is key to building strong relationships within your teams and helping everyone learn and grow.

Do semester reviews to set goals and create actionable plans with the right resources to get there. Also, let your developers play with new tech and frameworks whenever possible. It helps them learn and adapt.

Pro Tip: Budget for training or subscription to sites like Udemy with tech courses. As part of our people first culture, our software engineers take courses, get certifications, and attend workshops and we have Talent Experience Managers (TEMs) to help them with their plans and provide coaching. We also focus on soft skills like time management and prioritization with training and workshops.

Measure Key Metrics to Iterate your Safety Culture

At this point, you’re probably wondering: how do we know if our company culture is effective? What are some indicators that we should pay attention to? We need to look at some key metrics that will help you understand the health of your culture. Here are a few metrics you may find interesting:

• Leadership Development Rate shows your commitment to employee growth. Promoting from within not only increases productivity but shows you value your team’s contribution, and therefore your technology teams’ engagement and retention. In fact, a LinkedIn study says 94% of employees would stay longer if offered training and development.
• Salary Competitiveness Ratio. Compensation is a major factor in job satisfaction. Pew Research found 63% of employees quit in 2021 because they felt underpaid. Check your salaries against industry standards to attract and retain top talent.
• Top Performers Retention Rate. Your best engineers bring unique productivity and knowledge. McKinsey & Company says they can be up to 800% more productive. This helps you identify and fix cultural, compensation or employee career growth issues.
• Employee Referral Rate shows employee satisfaction and belief in your company. Referrals fit better culturally and perform well, as per SHRM. A strong referral program builds team trust and satisfaction and ensures a steady flow of good new hires.

Pro Tip: Offer development programs, ensure competitive salaries and implement referral rewards. At BEON.tech we have a multi-tiered rewards program and referral bonuses to keep software engineers engaged and satisfied. Invest in these areas to build a great tech team culture.

Hiring World-Class Software Engineers Takes Too Much Time? We’re Here to Help!

In this post, I walked you through why building a strong workplace culture is so important for attracting and retaining your best software engineers. However, I know it can be overwhelming to build a robust culture in the workplace without enough time and resources. That’s where we come in at BEON.tech.

As a top IT staffing agency, we connect the top 1% of software engineers from Latin America with elite U.S. companies. But we don’t just introduce you, we help you make it work. Our Talent Experience Management™  (TEM) Framework ensures:

• End-to-end onboarding from paperwork to setting up equipment–we get your engineers ready for success!
• Feedback loops to keep your software engineers performing at their best.
• Bi-annual reviews to plan out clear career paths for the next semester.

We help you hire the best and build a workplace culture that helps them grow. If you’re interested in learning more, schedule a free consultation today!