In early 2022, MIT Sloan released an article surmising the top reasons for attrition, and found that toxic workplace culture was the leading driver of attrition. The study claimed that a toxic workplace culture was 10.4 times more likely to contribute to attrition than compensation. This statistic not only broke the narrative that compensation drove attrition in tech, but drove us to understand what constitutes a ‘good’ work culture for engineers. So, we asked our community and here’s what we found.

While some responses did indicate the need for more flexibility through policies such as unlimited paid time off, and flexible timings, an overwhelming number of responses implied that a good work culture is one where employees have upskilling opportunities, challenging work, collaboration and real impact.

This shows us that developers are passionate about their craft. They’re constantly looking for ways to learn new skills, challenge themselves, collaborate and cause impact. However, doesn’t this description of the ideal work culture sound eerily similar to the careers pages of most companies? That brings us to the next finding.

To paraphrase Patrick Lencioni, without trust, there will be a fear of conflict, a lack of commitment, a lack of accountability, and an inattention to team objectives. So, to build a good team culture, establishing trust is certainly the first and most important step. Here are a couple of principles we’ve instituted at HackerEarth so that our culture inspires trust.

Hire for IQ and EQ

When hiring someone, we look to grade their skills, but also look for indicators of the kind of human being they are. We also discuss each candidate with the rest of the panel so perspectives from all stakeholders are accounted for. While there are a lot more ways of gauging a candidate’s EQ, habitually doing just this much has helped us create a culture that is conducive to growth.

Provide opportunity

The truth is, at any given point in time, there are people in any given team who feel that they are ready for more responsibility. So, if productivity won’t be disrupted, we consider promoting a top performer instead of hiring someone new. We’ve seen that this has led to an increase in morale and motivation, resulting in an atmosphere that is conducive to growth.

According to the 2021 HackerEarth State of Developer Recruitment report, about half the companies surveyed said that they have been offering opportunities to underrepresented groups and running outreach programs with the goal of making the workforce more fair, diverse and inclusive. Moreover, according to Harvard Business Review’s analysis of S&P 500 earnings calls, the frequency with which CEOs talk about issues of equity, fairness and inclusion on these calls has increased by 658% since 2018. Clearly, the intent to encourage fairness and DEI is strong, but some companies are still falling short from the developers’ point of view.

Speaking out of experience, this discrepancy is likely due to the presence of unconscious biases in the recruitment process. They creep in, and before you know it, there is a gulf between the intentions of the employer and ground reality. We’ve learned that focussing purely on evaluating job skills and gauging the EQ of a candidate is the most effective way to counter this situation.

As a provider of HR-tech software, we are familiar with the role that automation can play in team management. Every hour of bandwidth we save has resulted in more lines of code being written, and has given HR leaders more space and time for building culture. This is to say that automation need not be a bad thing. It gives employers the freedom to think more strategically, and could potentially bring massive positive impact.

In the context of building work culture, we believe that the best way to utilize any surplus bandwidth is to make real, human connections with reportees. What we have realized is that the last few years have been quite taxing emotionally. So, some employees might be in a lull, while some might have a renewed sense of optimism. However, all of them have a need for interpersonal connections with their colleagues and managers after a long period of solitude. So it’s hugely important to make the workplace such that our colleagues are comfortable to be themselves.

Yes, our finding and the data point that followed seem to be in contrast, but consider this: what if an employee is unproductive, and at times, a bad influence on the rest of the team? Or, what if the employee’s growth trajectory and ambition do not match up to that of the company’s?

In both those scenarios, attrition might be a good thing.

Perhaps our biggest learning through the last few years was understanding that there’s no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ employee. Ultimately, it always comes down to fit. Which means that, as the employer, our responsibility is to create an atmosphere where an employee is able to learn and grow when they’re a part of the team such that both the company’s as well as the employee’s horizons broaden. In other words, we should want what is best for both the employee and the company - even if that results in attrition.