The number of certified cybersecurity professionals is not growing to meet demands, as an estimated three and a half million cybersecurity positions will go unfilled by 2022. The lack of talent to hire is not the only threat companies face when staffing for cybersecurity. Retaining cybersecurity talent is a new challenge, and traditional retention strategies often do not work for cybersecurity employees. Cybersecurity is a unique and fast-paced field, and retaining talent presents unique challenges.
Why Does Cybersecurity Talent Leave?
As simple as it sounds, morale is the number one factor in determining a company’s productivity and staff retention. Employees must feel valued and appreciated. Recent surveys show that almost 25% of all new employees quit within the first year. The main reason they give for departure: the lack of skills development and job growth provided by the company.
Cybersecurity staff are unique from other departments and are the hardest to retain. Compared to 25% of all employees, 65% of cybersecurity workers are actively considering leaving their position. Moreover, the average tenure of a Chief Information Security Officer is less than two years.
Some of the unique reasons IT staff give for leaving a job are:
- Lack of cybersecurity buy-in from upper management – surveys show less than 40% of CEOs are engaged in cybersecurity.
- Unclear job expectations – over 60% of cybersecurity workers report having no clear statement of duties and responsibilities.
- Lack of mentorship – the high cybersecurity turnover rate has created a knowledge gap at most companies.
- Lack of formal skills development opportunities – 60% of cybersecurity workers report leaving a company due to poor growth opportunities.
Training is a huge source of personal growth opportunity, and many employees feel training is lacking in advanced certifications, such as the Security Operations Center Analyst training.
How Do Businesses Retain Their Cybersecurity Teams?
There are many unique strategies businesses have developed to retain their cybersecurity teams. Some of the key steps a company can take to retain unique cybersecurity talent include:
- Allowing project work outside of regular day-to-day activities.
- Reducing stress / improving work-life balance.
- Providing strong leadership.
- Increasing upper management buy-in.
- Providing training opportunities for personal growth and career development.
Of all these retention strategies, providing training opportunities is by far the most important. Cybersecurity is a high-stress field of work, and employees need to feel valued and appreciated. Moreover, it is a constantly evolving field. To feel competent in their field, employees must stay abreast of the current threats and industry needs through continuing education, such as penetration tester training like that at Cybrary. Studies have shown, time and again, that training is the number one to make employees feel this way.
The Importance of Training in Cybersecurity Talent Retention
Many companies wrongly feel that providing their employees with quality training prepares them to leave for higher-paying positions with competitors. However, the reality is that training makes employees feel invested in by the company, which in turn makes employees want to invest back into their company.
Some other important statistics about the impact of training on cybersecurity staff retention include:
- Over 70% of cybersecurity employees are motivated primarily by skills development and career advancement opportunities.
- Lack of skills development opportunities is the number one reason cybersecurity employees give for leaving a company.
- Based on a Linkedin survey, over 90% of cybersecurity employees reported that they would stay with a company longer if it offered learning opportunities.
To meet the training demands of the modern cybersecurity workforce, Cybrary for Teams has developed a large library of Nist NICE and DoD8140 aligned cybersecurity courses. These courses provide the professional and personal development that cybersecurity profeswsionals desire. Cybrary's training also offers CEUs for certified cybersecurity workers and course tracks for gaining new certifications. Additionally team managers can build custom training paths, work with dedicated customer success reps, and track and assess learning and skill profiency growth all in the Cybrary for Teams platform. These types of training opportunities for personal growth and management's guidance and tracking of learning are what cybersecurity experts need for their company, and providing them access to the training technologies Cybrary offers markedly boosts employee retention.
Cybrary provides all the resources your company needs to both retain and develop a highly-qualified cybersecurity team. For more information on Cybrary for Teams and the retention benefits it can provide your business’ workforce, request a free demo today.
