
From attraction to retention: Building tech teams in higher education
From attraction to retention: Building tech teams in higher education

Attracting top tech talent is only half the challenge for higher education. The real test is keeping them.
In a market where skilled professionals have plenty of options, retention has become just as critical as recruitment. For TA and HR leaders in universities, this means going beyond hiring campaigns and building an employee experience that tech professionals want to stick with.
Why tech talent is moving on
The education sector isn’t immune to the same pressures seen across other industries: cost-cutting, heavier workloads, and an increasingly competitive talent market. Tech specialists, whether engineers, data scientists, or AI leaders, know they’re in demand, and they’re prepared to move if their expectations aren’t met.
Three themes continue to dominate the conversation:
- Pay that keeps pace: With cost of living pressures rising, salary remains a key driver of turnover. Institutions that aren’t regularly reviewing and benchmarking pay risk losing people to private sector roles that can stretch further.
- Flexibility that’s real: Hybrid and remote work are no longer perks, they’re expectations. Universities that can offer genuine flexibility around hours, location, and responsibilities are far more likely to retain talent.
- Meaningful work: For tech professionals, impact matters. They want to know their skills are being applied to projects that excite them, whether that’s driving AI adoption, supporting world-class research, or making systems more accessible for students.
What tech talent expect in 2025
Today’s workforce wants more than a job description. To keep top performers, tertiary education institutions need to deliver on a few essentials:
- Clear career paths: Opportunities for progression, visible development programs, and clarity on how careers evolve within the university.
- Wellbeing and balance: Workloads that are sustainable, supported by wellness initiatives and family-friendly policies.
- Flexibility as standard: Hybrid models, adaptable hours, and the ability to manage personal and professional responsibilities side by side.
- Alignment with purpose: The chance to contribute to meaningful initiatives — from sustainability to research innovation to advancing digital equity.
One area where purpose and opportunity collide is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Our latest survey of higher education leaders found:
- 89% believe AI will positively impact their role in the next two years
- 53% say their institution is still at the experimental stage of adoption
- 18% are planning to hire an AI specialist or leader within 12–18 months
This presents a double challenge for retention: universities need to hold on to the digital and data talent they already have while preparing to bring in new skillsets in AI and automation.
Practical strategies to retain tech talent
It’s one thing to know what tech professionals want, the next step is delivering it in tangible ways. Here are some strategies higher education leaders can put in place to respond to the essentials of pay, flexibility, wellbeing, and purpose mentioned above:
Clear career paths
- Map out role progression for technical staff, and demonstrate how skills can transfer into leadership, research, or specialist pathways.
- Introduce mentoring programs that connect junior tech staff with senior leaders across IT, research, and innovation.
- Provide access to professional development budgets for certifications and training in emerging areas such as cloud, cybersecurity, or AI.
Wellbeing and balance
- Regularly review workloads and resource allocation to prevent burnout, particularly in lean IT or project teams
- Offer wellbeing programs that go beyond tick-box initiatives, such as confidential counselling services, wellness days, and ergonomics support for hybrid staff.
- Actively promote the use of leave and encourage leaders to model health work-life boundaries.
Flexibility that’s real
- Formalise hybrid policies that give staff clarity while still allowing room for choice.
- Invest in collaboration tools and digital infrastructure so hybrid work is seamless, not second-class.
- Consider flexibility beyond location, such as adjustable hours or compressed work weeks, to accommodate diverse needs.
Meaningful work and purpose
- Give tech professionals visibility of the real-world impact of their projects, whether improving student experiences, enabling world-class research, or advancing sustainability.
- Involve teams early in innovation projects such as AI pilots so they feel part of business or tech transformations, and not just the implementers.
- Celebrate contributions publicly through internal communications and recognition programs.
By turning broad expectations into practical actions, universities, colleges, and other higher education institutions can transform their retention strategy by creating an environment where tech talent sees a future worth committing to.
The bottom line for retention
Hiring great people is hard. Losing them is even harder. For TA and HR leaders in higher education, the focus now is building the kind of environment where tech talent can thrive long term: competitive pay, real flexibility, clear pathways, and work that feels meaningful.
At Talent, we work with universities across ANZ to not only attract niche tech specialists but retain them — reducing turnover, cutting costs, and helping institutions build the workforce they need for the future.
If you’re ready to strengthen retention in your higher ed tech teams, get in touch with us today.