Module summary

The success of your organization depends on your ability to retain skilled and talented team members. But with soaring budget freezes, and more engineers leaving jobs at a quicker rate than ever, retaining high performers is getting tougher. Retaining talented engineers starts with establishing a unique and engaging culture within your teams and proactively making sure that engineers feel supported and valued. So, as an engineering manager, what can you do to retain skilled engineers? In this module, we’ll explore practical ways to foster a positive workplace culture for your teams that’s built around appreciation, collaboration, psychological safety, and growth opportunities.

Homework and takeaways

Congratulations on completing Module 6 of Nurturing Effective Engineering Teams! In the module ‘Retaining your team’

In this module, you learned:

• Retention is a tool but not the goal - Building long-term sustainable and high-performing teams is the right goal and isn’t the same as 100% retention. 
• A lot of the retention decisions are often outside of the hands of engineering managers. Many of those things are often also subject to policy budgets and executive decisions that are outside the control of many engineering leaders. But some factors are directly in the influence and control of engineering managers - 
  • Creating the environment everyone on your team works in is a huge factor in retention by building psychological safety and having a clear sense of what growth opportunities your team members are actually interested in.
  • Retention starts with a purpose and setting that vision. Be very clear with your team on what your strategy is, what vision it aligns with, what your mission is as a team, and how your value ties to the end.
  • Make sure that everyone on your team understands that purpose.
• People outgrowing companies is a good sign. It means that they’ve gone to where they could go within your company and are now ready to move on to a higher level, more impactful role and the role that probably wouldn’t have been available to them internally.  
• You cannot think about retention in a disjointed fashion, but you should think about people and their connections – so systems. From finding the right people by giving them individual purpose, creating shared purpose, and forming strong teams who will then grow and develop together.

During your breakout session - you discussed the upcoming business challenges and identified how you could set up your team and teammates for success. 

You’re now able to: 

• Understand how to create an environment that fosters a culture that supports retention on your team: 
  • Building psychological safety through a strong feedback culture 
  • Having a clear sense of what growth opportunities the people on your team are actually interested in 
  • Connecting people and individuals with growth opportunities that are aligned with what they want
• Create a succession planning for your teams that are aligned with business needs and individual growth desires
• Identify how you can set up your team and teammates for success. 

More concrete actions you can take to retain team members! Here is an exercise to help you follow through with the succession planning for your team.

1. Thinking about your team, write down the names of  2-3 high-potential employees you want to retain.  
2. Once you have written down their names, make sure you check your biases: Do the employees you selected bring a range of diverse skills, backgrounds, and life experiences?  
3. What growth opportunities can you create? - Consider new projects that are coming up, but also areas like mentoring, collaboration, or facilitation of teamwork and joint learning.  Write down concrete, relevant experiences that: 
   1. Increase knowledge and skills
   2. Expand internal exposure
   3. Show readiness for new roles
4. Put a reminder in your calendar to revisit and update your succession plan every quarter.

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