Here’s Why Pakistani IT Companies Are Struggling to Retain Skilled Employees

Pakistan’s IT companies and software houses continue to witness staff retention challenges as employees are switching jobs frequently because of their high demand within the sector, which resulted in getting lucrative offers from competing companies one after another. According to a survey conducted by P@SHA, the number of professionals working in Pakistan’s IT companies and software houses who switched their employers surged by 23 percent for better employment opportunities, incentives, and workplace environments. The P@SHA Salary Survey for 2023-24 projects an upward trajectory showing the practice of switching jobs by IT sector professionals increased to 23 percent in 2022 from 19 percent recorded in 2018. In 2022, 33 percent of highly competent professionals working in the field of programming switched their jobs after receiving lucrative offers. Around 23 percent of technical professionals working in different niches left their company to join another in the said year. Besides, 31 percent of non-technical (including sales, HR and marketing) and 8 percent of management staff also moved to one employer from another. He mentioned that IT companies persistently face the challenge of staff retention, which affects the workflow and delivery of projects within companies of different sizes. He suggested that the government and industry, along with various stakeholders such as universities and NGOs, should organize boot camps to upgrade the skills of professionals and prepare the new workforce in this field to fill the increasing gap. In this regard, various IT companies and government departments have conducted remarkable capacity-building programs in the past, but there is a need for long-term and sustainable projects to produce competent human capital for the IT industry. Besides the high staff demand within the IT sector, the country’s high inflationary period also forces IT professionals to switch jobs from one company to another to make ends meet. It has been observed that besides going abroad, IT professionals are opting for remote jobs in foreign companies, getting reasonable remuneration and flexibility, which also increases the staff turnout rates in the industry. A number of companies started offering salaries in Dollars to their staff to maintain staff retention, on the other hand, a few of them also offer performance-based incentives such as bonuses and cars. Zeeshan Aftab, Co-Founder and Managing Director 10Pearls, said that IT companies maintaining a collaborative work culture based on human-centric values do not face high turnover rates; on the contrary, these companies become the employer of choice, and their workforce becomes a long-term asset and spend over five years with them. He pointed out that various aspects form a dream workplace culture for millennials that would motivate them to work for a company for the long term. These include a strong collaborative environment, lucrative remuneration packages, unique incentives such as a hybrid work environment, flexible work hours, and opportunities for learning and professional growth through challenging projects and training. In this highly competitive environment, working with international clients requires IT companies to have global HR best practices so employees feel valued and are motivated to work with the company, he added. About 20 different types of IT and ITeS companies participated in the survey. Hence, the latest edition features the data from P@SHA member companies, with an average of 55 employees per company working in 61 job roles and 352 unique job levels in IT and non-IT capacities. All roles have been further categorized into experience levels. The survey report serves as an exploration into the indispensable role of the salary survey, providing foundational insights for informed decision-making in the realm of remuneration.