Invest in a culture of belonging and your retention rates will soar

Despite best efforts to improve recruiting practices, implement and expand bias training and cultivate environments that support women and BIPOC groups, diversity across the tech industry remains elusive. The number of women in tech still only represents roughly 25% of the workforce, and is down from 35% in the 1990s, while representation amongst minority groups remains in the low single digits. Retention rates are even worse, with nearly 50% of women dropping out of the tech field by age 35.

These numbers not only paint a clear picture of diversity issues in the tech field, but also of a "leaky talent pipeline" where marginalized groups are falling off or disappearing from career and leadership trajectories more often than their white and male counterparts. This is made even more visible in the current spate of layoffs across Big Tech, which have overwhelmingly and disproportionately impacted women and people of color, setting many tech companies even further behind in reaching their own DEI goals. 

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Most employers know that getting diverse talent in the door is half of their battle. This has energized creative approaches to expanding talent pipelines, by dropping college degree requirements, or adopting apprenticeships and other "learn and earn" programs as tools for finding and developing diverse talent. While this is a step in the right direction, we need to be clear-eyed that getting people into tech jobs isn't the same as helping them grow there. 

So how can employers move beyond just sourcing diverse talent, to fostering a culture that keeps diverse talent thriving throughout their careers? Consider the new-age evolution of the apprenticeship — the "stayship".

Turning apprenticeships into "stayships"
A study from Boston Consulting Group found that employees who feel a sense of belonging at work are three times more likely to say they are happy with their job, and four times less likely to report wanting to leave their jobs in the next six months. Another key indicator of happiness at work is mentorship. A CNBC/SurveyMonkey Workplace Happiness Survey found that over 91% of employees that have a mentor at work report also being very happy with their jobs. 

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Successful companies know that cultivating happiness and belonging is critical to their success. This is why over 70% of Fortune 500 companies have formal mentorship programs, and 90% have employee resource groups (ERGs) which are a proven programmatic way to increase feeling of belonging in the workplace. 

Where we can all do better is connecting the powerful retention benefits of mentorship and community building to the solutions companies are already adopting to boost diverse hiring. 

This is where a stayship can help. To take an "apprenticeship" to a "stayship," employers must design a work-based program that leaves workers with a strong sense of identity and a foundation for lasting growth in the field. Stayships go beyond hard-skill training, by providing non-traditional talent with more thoughtful support and mentorship throughout their career journey, and not just at the start. 

Organizations like Adobe and CVS are already partnering with apprenticeship providers General Assembly and Interapt to build stayships in-house, where they are not only investing in training their global workforce, but in supporting employees during the first 2-3 years of their journey from novice to proficiency. This extended timeline allows for a more holistic approach to mentorship and coaching that includes assessing workforce readiness, career pathways, internal sponsorship, and cultural fit. 

Read more: Education platforms are the key to closing the gender wage gap in tech

The results speak for themselves. Across General Assembly and Interapt's apprenticeship programs 96% of participants are retained in their roles past the one year mark, with 26% of apprentices promoted within 2 years. More broadly, we've seen growing popularity of similar support-focused programming with the rise of "returnships" — programs designed to help women and working mothers who left the workforce during the pandemic re-enter, and revitalize their careers. Championed by companies like Oracle, Amazon and Goldman Sachs, these mentor-focused programs have seen long-term retention rates upwards of 80%, which is nearly double the average retention rate in America according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

A self-sustaining cycle
The good news is that by viewing hiring, training and retention as a single, unified talent strategy, employers are actually able to save money and drive more impactful business results. General Assembly's own research has found that U.S. companies spend an average of nearly $30K to fill tech positions, wasting 7 weeks on average trying to hire for roles. Combine this with the cost of training individuals once you do hire them, and adding the cost of attrition, which for diverse talent is estimated to be $16 billion per year nationally. The thoughtful implementation of a stayship allows companies to streamline and ultimately reduce the costs of finding, training and retaining talent through one united effort. 

On a macroeconomic scale, when companies invest in skills and culture development, they are actively combating what author and researcher Anne Kim has called "the crisis of disconnection," where the lack of access to skills prevents access to a work community -  which in turn creates generational setbacks in wealth and even increases drug use and criminal activity. In short, there is a serious societal benefit to employers picking up the tab when it comes to training and developing workers, that when implemented en masse could have lasting positive effects spanning families, communities and generations. 

Read more: Allstate's returnship program ensures career breaks aren't career enders

By rethinking talent strategies from the ground up and rolling out 360-degree stayships we have the opportunity to future-proof the workforce from both ends – helping employers build more effective and diverse talent pipelines while providing strivers across industries with an opportunity to access tech careers that they may have otherwise been excluded from. And perhaps more importantly, we have the opportunity to help tech workers stay and grow in an industry where they are both needed and belong.