The concepts of developing and retaining information technology (IT) employees go hand-in-hand. If you want your IT people to stay, you must give them opportunities for professional growth. If you want them to be worth keeping around, you need to make sure they continually get better at what they do.

Yet many leaders believe retention and development work at odds with each other—that if your IT people learn new skills, other employers will lure them away.

That’s always a risk, acknowledges Mike Atkins, vice chairman of the CUNA Technology Council and CEO of Open Technology Solutions, a credit union service organization (CUSO).

“The question that arises is, ‘What if we train our IT staff and they leave?’” Atkins says. “The right response is, ‘What if we don’t train them and they stay?’ Your credit union won’t get far that way.”

Brian Kidwell, executive vice president at D. Hilton Associates, echoes this sentiment. Consumers judge an organization’s strength and stability by the caliber of its technology, he says.

“They’ll look at the quality of your website and your technology services,” he says. “Without quality talent to drive your organization’s technology, you re done-for in the marketplace.”

 

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