Attracting top tech talent in Greece: an approach to success
Pick up tips and strategies to attract the best tech talent in Greece's growing software development market. Learn how competitive compensation, positive company culture, and stimulating work environments can be your key to hiring and retaining exceptional engineers.
Are you operating in Greece? The market for software development in Greece has grown steadily in recent years, attracting both local and international companies looking to hire talented engineers.
However, with so many options available to top-tier engineers and tech talent in Greece, it can be challenging to attract them to work for your company instead of a foreign one.
In this blog post, we explore some tips and strategies for attracting the best talent in the Greek software development market – particularly those that have worked at Workable.
Contents
1. Offer competitive compensation and benefits
One of the most important factors for engineers when considering a company is the compensation and benefits package. To compete with international companies, it is suggested to offer a competitive salary, health insurance, paid time off and bonuses.
It is also recommended to consider offering perks like flexible working hours, remote work options, and opportunities for professional development.
At Workable, we have consistently offered salaries that exceed the market average to maintain competitiveness. During and after the COVID era, we recognized the impending changes in the engineering market. Consequently, we implemented a strategic plan to elevate our compensation schemes to 20-30% above the Greek market average.
This proactive approach aided us in retaining our software engineers, enhancing their productivity, and attracting superior talent.
When engineers are happy with their compensation, they will promote their organization throughout their own communities.
2. Foster a positive company culture
Creating a positive company culture is the key in attracting and keeping the best talent for a long time. This is especially true in the close-knit software development community of Greece where news, good or bad, spreads quickly.
We take pride in the positive reviews we get about how we hire people. We don’t just look for expertise in certain programming languages or tools. Instead, we search for skilled developers who have a solid foundation and a good understanding of the best practices in the industry.
Our engineering team has put together a detailed training program. This includes online learning and hands-on experience to fully prepare our new team members in their first few months.
When it comes to hiring tech talent in Greece, we look for potential. We feel proud when we see our employees advance in their careers and earn pay raises due to their hard work and dedication. This success comes from bringing on board individuals with potential and talent.
We organize our teams in a way that encourages employees to stretch their professional limits.
3. Provide a challenging and stimulating work environment
Engineers seek stimulating and challenging projects. Attracting top talent requires an environment that encourages creativity and innovation. This means providing access to advanced technologies and tools, allowing engineers to experiment and take risks, and cultivating a collaborative and team-oriented culture.
At Workable, we appreciate that the best candidates are adaptable engineers eager to learn. We don’t concentrate solely on the specific technologies an engineer knows, but rather on strong computer science fundamentals and best practices. We achieve this by providing challenging technical assignments that potential candidates can excel in.
Small hackathons, like those we’ve hosted in the past, can also help us uncover talented individuals. Lastly, we maintain a the Workable Tech Blog where we share the latest technical updates at Workable with the community, to attract talent.
4. Emphasize the impact of the work
At Workable, our engineers deliver valuable tools to recruiters, with client feedback on new features uplifting our team. We hold all-hands meetings quarterly to update everyone on company goals, progress, and our product roadmap. In these meetings, we also highlight our engineering teams’ achievements and future projects.
Product managers announce newly developed features on our Slack channel across the company, acknowledging the efforts of the involved team members. This practice brings a sense of achievement and recognizes hard work.
This way, everyone at Workable stays updated and collaborates towards shared success.
5. Emphasize the benefits of working locally
Working for a local company can offer many benefits that working for an international company cannot. For example, for tech talent in Greece, working for a local company can offer a better work-life balance, as engineers will not have to deal with time zone differences or long commutes.
However, offering the option of a hybrid working model can also be a huge advantage, as it allows for more flexibility and a greater work-life balance. At Workable, we offer both options to our employees, with offices in Boston, Athens, and London, and a flexible remote work policy.
When working on premises we provide our employees with perks like parking, fresh food, snacks, and a variety of drinks daily, and we also have various games like tabletop board games, foosball, programs with vendors for mental and physical well being and to make their day more fun at the office and bring them closer together as teams.
Additionally, we organize an annual company retreat as part of our employee engagement initiative, fostering a sense of unity and camaraderie among team members.
Related: The power of a corporate retreat: 5 reasons why you should do it
Moreover, we acknowledge the contributions of our remote employees and understand the importance of face-to-face meetings for certain business needs. To facilitate this, Workable covers the travel expenses for our remote employees when they are required to visit the office. We believe in supporting our team members regardless of their location, and ensuring they have all the resources they need to be successful in their roles.
6. Offer opportunities for career advancement
Engineers want to work for companies that offer opportunities for career advancement. This includes things like training and development programs, mentorship opportunities, and opportunities to take on leadership roles.
By providing engineers with opportunities to learn and grow, you can keep them engaged and motivated to stay with your company for the long term. In Workable, our development plan gives engineers the opportunity to grow as an individual contributor or as a lead of a team.
This means training in new tech skills, training in soft skills, salary raises and other compensation benefits.
The Greek software development market is highly competitive, and it can be a challenge to attract top talent in Greece to your company. You can get around that by offering competitive compensation and benefits, providing a challenging and stimulating work environment, emphasizing the impact of the work, and fostering a positive company culture.
Add to that the benefits of working locally or remotely and opportunities for career advancement, and you can convince talented engineers to work for your company and help it grow and thrive.
Want to learn about attracting top tech talent in Boston or London? We’ve got those covered as well:
Frequently asked questions
- What are some key aspects needed to attract talented engineers in Greece?
- Competitive salary and benefits, stimulating projects, impacting work environment and positive company culture play crucial roles in attracting top-tier engineers.
- Does an accommodating company culture matter?
- Yes, fostering a friendly company atmosphere plays an important role in not only attracting talents but also retaining them over time.
- How does Workable maintain competitiveness within the Greek market?
- Workable maintains its competitiveness by providing elevated salaries above local average while creating positive working conditions for staff members.
- Where are Workable’s offices located?
- Workable has office locations in Boston, Athens, and London with options of remote working available as well.
- What is implied by ‘opportunities for career advancement’?
- Opportunities for career advancement could be new tech skills training, mentorship programs or roles involving leadership responsibilities.
