Retaining Talent in Tech: The Power of a Robust Talent Experience Strategy

The recent trends of quiet quitting and the ongoing challenges of employee turnover highlight the critical impact a toxic work environment can have on retaining talent. This is especially true in the tech industry, where demand for software developers remains high, but competition for top talent is fiercer than ever. 

Today, engineers are no longer just looking for competitive salaries—they’re seeking meaningful work, supportive cultures, and alignment with company values.  As a co-founder of BEON.tech, an IT staffing agency, I am deeply aware of the challenges faced by the tech industry in finding and retaining the most suitable software engineers. It is clear that ensuring the engagement of engineers is crucial to their success in every project they undertake.

But what is the most effective approach to retaining talent in tech? The answer lies in building a robust talent experience strategy.

Whether you are an VP of engineering, HR manager or executive striving to retain top-tier IT talent, I invite you not to miss the valuable insights I will share in this article.

In this article, I will delve into:

• The concept of a talent experience strategy.
• The benefits that a talent experience strategy brings to the tech industry.
• The key components of a talent experience strategy in the tech field.

Let’s get started.

What a Talent Experience Strategy Entails? A Quick Definition

A talent experience strategy serves as a robust framework aimed at elevating the morale, satisfaction, and productivity of tech teams. By bestowing professional recognition, identifying gaps in projects, and aligning collaborative efforts, this strategy becomes the propelling force behind achieving business objectives.

With a well-crafted and comprehensive talent experience strategy in place, executives can foster the growth of their tech talent, enhance key performance indicators (KPIs), and ultimately shape the success of cross-company activities.

Retaining Talent in Tech: Benefits of Implementing a Talent Experience Strategy

In a rapidly expanding tech industry where companies strive to attract top-tier software engineers, it becomes key to consider talent retention. Why? It’s simple –  better workforce experiences lead to better outcomes.

So, let’s go back to the question: why does your company need a tech talent experience strategy to achieve this? Allow us to explore the advantages of implementing a robust talent experience strategy:

Boosting Developers’ Motivation and Productivity

Implementing a comprehensive tech talent experience strategy is crucial for increasing developers’ satisfaction and motivation. It goes beyond offering competitive salaries; now more than ever, it’s essential to enhance their sense of belonging.

Why is this important? Let’s see some numbers.

In 2023, a third of employees in the United States resigned due to a misalignment with their employer’s values. Similarly, an equal proportion of UK employees left their positions because of poor management.

Moreover, as we enter 2025, many companies are reevaluating their remote work policies and embracing the hybrid work model as the new norm. While a blend of office and remote work may seem appealing, it presents new challenges in tech talent retention.

According to Konferry’s 2024 research, 72% of developers would be willing to accept a lower salary if they could enjoy a flexible work-from-home schedule.

In a nutshell, if your company lacks transparent processes, fails to recognize developers’ achievements, forces them to work solely from the office, and disregards their work-life fit, they are likely to be tempted by offers from other companies. By establishing a comprehensive and robust talent experience framework that places a high premium on developers’ well-being, flexibility, and continuous career growth opportunities, you can create an environment that fosters their long-term commitment. 

Enhancing Retention Rates and Mitigating Turnover

Approximately 70% of all companies’ operating expenses are attributed to headcount costs. This underscores the importance of implementing effective retention practices to prevent new hires from leaving within six months. Failing to do so can result in significant costs associated with wasted onboarding efforts.

A strategic talent experience approach can help establish strong partnerships with developers, prioritizing their learning curve and commitment to each project. This approach enables BEON.tech to maintain an attrition rate of less than 11%, showcasing the organization’s robust and stable workforce.

Helping Developers Familiarize with the Company’s Culture

According to The Barton Partnership’s survey, 36% of employees in the consulting industry and 41% in other sectors intend to switch jobs within the next 12 months. As well as higher compensation and fresh challenges, this inclination is primarily driven by a better company culture.

In fact, 94% of entrepreneurs and 88% of job seekers affirm that a robust company culture is a crucial factor for a thriving business. Organizations with strong cultures are correlated with improved productivity, employee engagement, and profitability.

A talent experience strategy cultivates a cohesive IT team that values the company’s vision and has true familiarity with the internal processes. At the end of the day, tech teams with well-established interpersonal skills and a solid corporate culture are less likely to lose their top performers.

What Makes Up a Tech Talent Experience Strategy?

Understanding the advantages of implementing a talent experience strategy within your company is just the beginning. Now, let’s cover the essential components that make up a successful talent experience strategy in the tech industry.

To create a robust tech talent experience strategy, it’s crucial to focus on the following aspects:

1. Effectively evaluating developers’ performance.
2. Recognizing and valuing developers’ emotions, enthusiasm, and career expectations.
3. Prioritizing remote work and embracing flexibility.
4. Implementing team building activities tailored for remote teams.

Let’s take a closer look.

Effectively Evaluating Developers’ Performance

To ensure optimal performance from your developers, it is essential to closely monitor their progress on every project. At BEON.tech, we take this to the next level with our dedicated group of experts known as Talent Experience Managers (TEMs). They play a pivotal role in our evaluation process, following a comprehensive Talent Experience Framework that includes:

• Seamless onboarding support. It ensures a smooth integration process, helping professionals quickly become part of the team and start delivering value. This includes setting up equipment, introducing them to stakeholders, colleagues, and leaders, managing workload and work-life fit, and clearly defining responsibilities.
• Regular feedback loops. These are semi-annual performance review sessions where the Talent Experience Manager, engineer, and client collaborate to assess the developers’ technical and soft skills. They gather feedback from all perspectives, set new objectives for the upcoming six months, and closely monitor progress in subsequent reviews. Successfully meeting these objectives can result in a rate increase. All objectives are aligned with each developer’s career plan.
• Semester reviews. These reviews involve providing detailed feedback and setting measurable and ambitious goals for the next period, taking into account developers’ roles and projects. TEMs also place significant emphasis on motivation and involvement while identifying areas for improvement.

In short, our Talent Experience Managers prioritize the well-being of developers to enhance their work environment and achieve business objectives. They enable early issue detection and promote talent retention by valuing personal growth, facilitating effective communication, fostering proactive and problem-solving teams and cultivating a comfortable and motivating atmosphere.

Recognizing and Valuing Developers’ Emotions, Enthusiasm, and Career Expectations

Besides tracking developers’ performance, it’s crucial to make them feel part of something bigger. Collaborating closely with an internal culture and communications team is a good idea to achieve this. They can ideate and implement some activities to promote talent retention.

At BEON.tech, we have a Loyalty Program with different levels with the goal of mapping out clear paths for developers’ careers and continuously challenging them. Basically, our culture and communications team helps developers improve and acknowledge their efforts.

Developers can enjoy various benefits based on their Loyalty Program level, including:

• Cool innovation projects
• Progression opportunities
• Budget for training
• Opportunities to deliver compensated tech webinars or workshops
• Remote working
• Healthcare
• Remote employee benefits
• Possibility to conduct tech interviews and provide mentoring to other developers
• And more

To sum it up, this is our way to ensure that employees love their work: we analyze leadership skills, provide access to new opportunities, and ensure that their project contributions create a genuine impact.

Prioritizing Remote Work and Embracing Flexibility

Software developers are known for their goal-oriented work style, allowing for adaptable schedules that align with their workload. Consequently, remote work has become increasingly enticing to these professionals, providing a better work-life fit. 

To retain top tech talent, companies must integrate remote teams and offer flexibility.

Implementing Team Building Activities Tailored for Remote Development Teams

Team-building exercises can also contribute to talent retention. So, I recommend incorporating them into your talent experience framework, especially if you’re responsible for a remote tech team.

It’s worth mentioning that team building activities have benefits beyond just enjoyment. They enhance collaboration, facilitate networking, improve communication, and are useful to celebrate company successes.

At BEON.tech, our communication and culture experts engage developers through various approaches:

• They foster camaraderie through gaming leagues within different groups of developers.
• On special celebrations like Halloween, they host entertaining trivia sessions.

But not all of our activities take place online. Once a year, we offer our developers the opportunity to visit our headquarters in Buenos Aires, in an event known as Ambassadors’ Week. This special occasion strengthens our team, fosters cultural exchange, and allows for engagement in activities beyond work, creating stronger bonds among us. Additionally, we actively encourage and facilitate in-person activities between software developers from different countries. For instance, recently, our developers from Brazil had a wonderful meetup after work.

Developers have multiple internal meetings and continuously need to update clients on progress. Since these interactions are remote, providing them with a moment to relax and connect with their coworkers can make a significant difference in their day.

Creating a sense of well-being and trust among team members is invaluable, which is why our annual attrition rate stands at 9%, significantly lower than the industry average of 17%

Wrapping Up

In this post, I explored the benefits of implementing an actionable tech talent experience framework, along with providing a step-by-step guide to help you achieve it.

As you can see, this endeavor necessitates collaboration between culture teams and IT project managers to create an exceptional workplace experience for software developers. But, trust me, the effort is worthwhile. By intentionally aligning those talent experience best practices, you’ll be able to foster dedication, enthusiasm, and motivation, leading to remarkable business outcomes.

I hope you’ll find my insights valuable and that you can apply them within your organization. If you’re interested in learning more about retention and recruitment in tech from an expert perspective, feel free to download our playbook.