We are a small technology and services company (100 people) with two types of technical teams.
We have excellent retention among our product development teams despite there being a fairly flat structure due to the company size.
However, in our Services team (specialising in IT Consulting services to a range of clients) we are finding it increasingly difficult to retain our
mid-experienced staff. We are good at training up new grads and we tend to do extremely well in retaining the few staff who we can provide a recognised senior position within the team. However, the bulk of our IT Consulting team work in what is a very flat structure. Through exit interviews we have established that the main reason for leaving is the lack of real career progression potential. We have implemented a role hierarchy structure where there is a difference between a level 3 and a level 4 consultant – but in a very small team it is pretty difficult to attribute very different work to these roles and on the whole this has not provided a real career potential impetus. We have also tried a range of training and soft skills career development. The company culture is excellent and it is the one thing consistently stated as the best thing about the company. Remuneration is competitive but not as high as the City.
Does anyone have any ideas, or any innovative way of motivating/engaging and retaining consulting teams in small companies. Any ideas gratefully received.
Lynn Hebb
