Staff retention pays off for all parts

12. August 2013

Conscensia has a low staff turnover at seven percent, because the company prioritises good working conditions for their employees, and options for professional development. It’s all about retaining the best brains to be able to offer clients the best possible value.

There is an idea amongst many Danish companies that a high staff turnover is one of the factors that you have to calculate with if you are considering outsourcing parts of your IT development. It is true that there are many IT companies and many competent IT developers on the job market in a country like Ukraine, but with a targeted focus on staff retention, Conscensia has proved that it doesn’t have to mean installing a revolving door in your business.

Staff turnover is only at seven percent, and this is primarily due to Conscensia investing significant resources in HR.
Conscensia’s HR department consists of seven people, and two of them are Recruitment Manager Olha Radzishevska and Career Advisor Nataliya Kuksa. According to them, a lot of Conscensia’s success in retaining staff is down to working hard on giving employees good opportunities for development.

“If some of our employees indicate that they would like to build a career, as for example becoming team leaders, then we do whatever we can to offer them that opportunity. If it is not possible within the project they are currently working on, then we will look at making changes across projects, so we ensure that we keep their knowledge in-house. The alternative would be that they would leave us to fulfill their ambitions in another place,” says Olha Radzishevska.

Appreciates personal relationships

The reason for Conscensia prioritising staff retention is simply that it creates a direct value for the clients.
“The longer a developer is attached to a certain project, the more value he will add – mutual knowledge means, amongst other things, that you communicate more effectively. Furthermore, we can feel that our clients appreciate the personal relationships, so therefore we would like to keep them. It is also about us investing a lot of time in recruitment to find candidates with both the right technical and personal skills, and that is an investment we would like to nurture,” says Nataliya Kuksa.

Team spirit more important than salary

The key to efficient staff retention is to understand what motivates employees and what gives them job satisfaction. This is why Conscensia continuously conducts satisfaction surveys.
“This way, we always have our finger on the pulse, so that we know what is important to our employees, and so that we can continuously improve our effort. For example, we ask our employees what motivates them. Contrary to what many people think, salary is not the most important thing. Team spirit is. A good atmosphere in the team, so that you can go to work with a smile. The second most important thing is having challenging tasks, and a good salary then comes in in third place,” says Olha Radzishevska.

Danish clients are attractive

If team spirit is to bloom, the outer settings must be in order, and Conscensia can offer their employees attractive working conditions.
“We have a beautiful and modern office environment that is decorated in Scandinavian style with lots of space and light. There are good meeting facilities, a good kitchen, and the possibility of taking a break from work in our fitness room. It is important for work satisfaction that the settings are ok,” explains Olha Radzishevska and continues:
“At the same time, it is an advantage that we can offer good working hours because the clients are located in Denmark, and not in USA where there is a big time difference. Ukrainians like working for North European companies because they generally have bigger focus on people than many other places do. It is not “Developer 1” and “Developer 2” – the clients know the developers’ names and personality, and that is important to work satisfaction,” she says.

Opportunities for education

Good development opportunities are significant to employees, and besides the chance to advance, it is also about making it possible for employees to improve their skills. This is why Conscensia runs internal training courses, both for the newly employed and for experienced employees.
“We have a Competence Manager who arranges various training programmes. All new employees are trained in scrum, email etiquette, Danish culture and more, but we also run more general courses about new developments within IT technology, so we ensure that we are well-prepared for the jobs of the future,” says  Nataliya Kuksa.
Many of Conscensia’s employees are experts in their fields, and they want to share their knowledge. Therefore, employees from Conscensia sometimes take part in external IT events in Lviv, where they for example train others in Java.
“This also helps strengthen our reputation in the industry, so that we keep being an attractive workplace,” says Olha Radzishevska.