Please Don’t Go! Talent Retention Practices in IT SMEs

Companies of many kinds devote considerable resources to attracting, retaining, and developing Talent, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are no exception. Existing literature mainly focuses on Talent Management (TM) in Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and covers very little about the additional challenges SMEs find. Talent shortages are even more relevant for companies in the Information Technology (IT) services sector. This research tries to fill the existing gap in the literature by identifying Talent Retention practices performed by a cohort of Spanish IT SMEs. Considering the Research Question ‘What are the Talent Retention Practices of Spanish IT SMEs?’, we have conducted inductive research based on semi-structured interviews, and identified seven primary practices that have proven successful, which are discussed in detail.