Talent retention requires more than just words of encouragement and abstract ideas or ideology. One of the world’s biggest tech-hubs, Israel is proving this point with an enormous investment.
A renowned cyber venture capital firm has just tossed a $300 million fund aimed at retaining the top talent and putting a blockade to this ongoing brain drain. The fund would be granted to startups to keep their skilled labour from jumping ship to larger companies or worse, relocating abroad. The fund deals with a potential threat that could undermine Israel’s hegemony as a lone tech-hub in the world.
No doubt the country has garnered a legit reputation for being the home of the brightest tech-minds. Yet, a worrisome number of the country’s tech startups have been helplessly observing their engineers being poached away by “the other grass is greener” proposal to Silicon Valley and other competing tech-hubs.
The initiative goes beyond just money. It intends to provide the startups with the strategic support needed to tackle the competitive pressure in retaining the top talent.
But as they say, “if money could do it all”. Throwing money might not guarantee the success of the mission. Offering competitive or even higher salaries might not be all that is needed to keep your intellectuals to yourselves.
What remains to be seen is that would these startups be able to render an equity system, exponential career growth, and meaningful work contribution satisfaction, as such is provided in Silicon Valley and other developed or more advanced tech scenes.
In any case, the funding does scream volumes about Israel’s commitment to maintaining its tech superiority and global edge. It’s a testament to a very simple, yet often overlooked rule that maintaining leadership is more than just about out of the box ideas, it’s about the people who turn those ideas into execution.
