- Career vs. Job
- Developing Job Roles
- SOC Job Roles
- NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework
- Role Tiers
- SOC Services and Associated Job Roles
- Soft Skills
- Security Clearance Requirements
- Pre-Interviewing
- Interviewing
- Onboarding Employees
- Managing People
- Job Retention
- Training
- Certifications
- Evaluating Training Providers
- Company Culture
- Summary
- References
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Job Retention
Often, the term competitive workplace refers to competition between existing employees. This view translates to an employee struggling with separating themselves from the other career-driven employees all vying for attention from management to gain a promotion. In the field of cybersecurity, the dynamic has switched in favor of the employee. Now the competition exists at the organizational and corporate levels, leading to organizations shopping for talent within other organizations based on the huge demand for talent. Employees with the right experience and skills will be bombarded with job offers daily, making job retention extremely difficult to maintain across all SOC positions. You need to focus on job retention or all of your time invested in finding the right employees will end up benefiting somebody else that poaches them!
Salary.com suggests a few benefits you can offer to your employees to improve job retention. Offering some of these items might not be possible or cost effective for every employee, but providing them when possible is ideal. The first offering is good health coverage for all employees, including part-time workers. Good healthcare includes wellness benefits such as gym memberships, healthy snacks, and other ways to keep employees healthy and strong along with traditional healthcare services. Healthcare services include preventative benefits, which cover all aspects of physical health, dental care, and vision. Healthcare also includes self-care benefits such as legal services to help with personal matters, discount programs, and mental healthcare. All of this will help reduce personal distractions and keep employees happy.
Salary.com also suggests offering telecommuting opportunities and flexible hours when a job role allows either. These benefits can be offered in small doses, such as once a week or more frequently, depending on whether employees in the role can provide the same value as they provide working in the office on a fixed schedule. Offering telecommuting and flexible hours also increases the geographical reach for recruiting people as well as retaining employees that have to move but still want to be part of the SOC, since they can continue work from their new living location. Factors such as the hours and availability of the SOC as well as location requirements will impact these offerings.
Another benefit suggested by Salary.com is encouraging employee training, workshops, and other forms of education. Offering training opportunities not only develops talent within the organization, but keeps employees motivated to stay and improve their capabilities. Completing training can be used as milestones for raises and other rewards, giving employees a clear direction on how they can advance their career. Make sure to consider all types of training and development, ranging from formal classroom training to on-demand online courses. Other development options outside of training include shadowing senior members for over-the-shoulder training, one-on-one coaching and mentoring, local networking groups, and adding members to special projects outside of their normal job duties. Also consider group rates if a specific skill or certification can be applied to multiple employees to save on training costs.
Some organizations use their investment in training to retain employees by offering to pay for training if the employees commit to remaining in their role or employed by the organization for a specific period of time. The benefit of this approach is that it discourages employees from leaving the organization since they would forfeit having the organization pay for their training. The downside of this approach is possibly discouraging some employees from pursuing training due to their unwillingness to sign a retainer agreement. An alternative to training retainers is to provide compensation awards in the form of stock or pay that pays out over a specific period of time based on the employee remaining within a role or at the organization. This approach also encourages employees who don’t want to commit to a retainer to obtain training.