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Such a common complaint. Usually with new junior hires. You train them for a year or two and then they bail for a much higher paying job. So you employ them when they aren't very productive and lose them when they are. Such a bad deal for the employer.
Which means these employers aren't paying market rates for well-trained employees. A large bump after they are well-trained would make them less want to leave. The fact that they leave for higher pay is indisputable proof that they were making below market rate at their previous job.
The even crazier thing here is you often don't need huge wage bumps. In my experience, even a 10-15% raise is enough to keep people and keep them happy.
Job hopping brings with it a lot of unknowns, and most people would rather stay where they are comfortable, it's surprising companies don't take advantage of this. Give these persons a gesture of a wage increase and they will stay longer and be more picky in their hops.
That's just not done. HR doctrine has annual raises much smaller than that within a band, and larger raises only with promotion to a new band. Promotions are spaced at a minimum of 2 years. (Of course there's exceptions, but fighting for them is likely harder than switching jobs). So unless you promote them immediately on being trained, they're underpaid.
It's unfortunate that it doesn't. With the vast number of smaller tech companies, one would think a few would hit "defect" and do it, and gain even more long term employees.
Medium sized to large companies just don't have the agility to do it. Mostly as @Mantergeistmann notes, it's HR departments "working to the industry best practices", but there's probably also a feeling among management types that if the techies want more they should fight for it they way they (management types) do. The way it does work is imperfect but adequate; if you want more money you jump ship more often (up to a point, usually a minimum of 2 years at a stint). The companies complain, the employees who move don't care, the employees who don't move complain and the employers don't care.
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