The Great Resignation has given employees a better idea of the type of work environment they prefer. If their employer won’t budge on flexibility, they’re willing to switch jobs to achieve it. If you’re not yet discussing how you can combat turnover, it’s time to make this a priority.
What can you do to create a work environment your employees prefer?
Establish a deep and well-defined tech stack. It’s simple, and yet low Operational Maturity Level (OML) companies make too many exceptions when it comes to tech stacks. A standardized tech stack provides less variation for your employees and therefore makes it easier to document all products and train new employees. As a result, you’ll have happier clients due to faster resolution times.
During IT Nation Evolve 2022, Peter Kujawa stressed the importance of a non-negotiable tech stack for employee retention and said, “Happier clients are a whole lot more fun to talk to all day long, so your chance of losing your people goes down.”
As a high OML company, you cannot make exceptions. It might seem like a customer service perk to support your best customer with a technology piece outside of your tech stack if one of your team members can support it. But what happens if that employee is no longer with the team, and you can no longer support that technology? Your employees will be left to scramble and learn this specialized technology skill, causing frustrated employees and longer resolution times for your customer. In turn this is more costly to you when multiple employees are required to tackle it.
Tech stack and standardization can help you hire top talent
Employee retention starts with recruitment and onboarding. Your employees are going to expect the latest technology and they’re going to expect it to be fully functional upon onboarding. As a technology company, you should use this with your recruiting to attract top talent because a trained staff with a well-defined tech stack reduces stress and is really attractive to technicians.
Collabrance, a master MSP, has embraced standardization and encourages customers to simplify their tech stack.
“A great way to keep team members engaged and customers satisfied is through a standardized tech stack. This is one of the most important but often overlooked factors, which can lead to streamlined processes, consistency, and minimized exceptions,” Corey Kerns, Vice President and General Manager of Collabrance said. “Often times in managed services or IT, we like to complicate things and we need to remind ourselves to stick to the basics of standardization.”
Additionally, your internal tech stack should match that of your customers. People will support what they know, so your customers will receive fast and top-of-the-line service at a lower cost to you. Standardization becomes a win-win for your customers and for your employees.
Related: To Win the Hiring War, Focus on Retention
About GreatAmerica Financial Services
GreatAmerica is the largest independent, family-owned national commercial equipment finance company in the U.S. and is dedicated to helping manufacturers, vendors, and dealers be more successful and keep their customers for a lifetime. A $2.4 Billion company with life-to-date finance originations of $13.5 Billion, GreatAmerica was established in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in 1992 and has a staff of over 600 employees with offices in Iowa, Georgia, Minnesota, and Illinois. In addition to financing, GreatAmerica offers innovative non-financial services to help our customers grow. The Connected Technologies Group is dedicated to the IT, Managed Services, and Telecommunications industries. GreatAmerica helps thousands of telecom providers, MSPs and independent VARs evolve their businesses through targeted and innovative solutions. www.greatamerica.com
About Collabrance LLC
Collabrance LLC, a GreatAmerica company, is a privately owned Master MSP located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Collabrance helps managed services providers achieve greater success through its portfolio of IT solutions and white-labeled end-customer support. Collabrance has been named consecutively as a Top 250 MSSP by MSSP Alert and was named in the top 200 on the 2021 MSP 501 list. In addition to providing a U.S.-based, live-answer Service Desk and NOC, Collabrance builds strategic, long-term customer relationships through value-added sales support, customer onboarding and ongoing business planning. www.collabrance.com
Author: Lori Berry, Director, Strategic Technology, GreatAmerica Financial Services
