Steady, deliberate hiring and growth strategy boosts talent retention in a volatile market
Most companies reacted to the pandemic with either panic hiring or rapid layoffs. Neither move leads to long-term strength. At Bloomberg, they did what’s often undervalued in tech, kept things steady. No wild expansions. No massive cutbacks. Just focused, compound growth. What followed was a workforce that didn’t just grow but one that stayed.
Adam Wolf, Bloomberg’s Global Head of Engineering, has guided that strategy. He’s been there over 20 years, joining as a trainee. That sort of tenure isn’t common in tech for a reason: most companies aren’t built to be places where people want to stay. But when half of Wolf’s training class from 2004 is still around, that isn’t luck. It’s strategic. Bloomberg’s engineering team has grown over 50% in five years, but none of that expansion came at the cost of cultural stability or team trust.
They also didn’t gamble on market sentiment. While others overhired during the boom, then slashed during economic correction, Bloomberg kept hiring with intent, slow and focused. That kind of stability builds a resilient culture. Engineers don’t fear for their jobs every quarter, and leaders aren’t distracted by reorgs.
C-suite decision-makers should take note: Hiring with consistency over hype reduces volatility and lets you invest in people over headlines. If you want teams that innovate with confidence, drop the high-speed hiring and focus on building institutions people don’t want to exit.
A hybrid work model strengthens retention and collaboration
Remote work proved useful during the pandemic, but it’s not a complete solution, especially not for engineering. Bloomberg saw this early. Fully remote engineers began leaving after only nine months. Turnover spiked. People felt isolated. Connections weakened. The speed of hiring couldn’t compensate for the loss of cultural depth.
Adam Wolf responded with structure. Bloomberg shifted to a hybrid model, three days in-office for engineers. It’s simple, and it’s working. Not just for retention, but for collaboration. People mentor better in-person. Conversations happen faster. Teams perform because they trust each other, and trust builds quicker when people connect in real life, not only through a screen.
Engineering, by nature, is collaborative. It requires real interaction to align on architecture, debug complex problems, and push projects through. Bloomberg’s hybrid approach doesn’t dismiss flexibility; it amplifies what matters, human connection, problem-solving, and spontaneous communication.
Executives leading global teams should understand this: fully remote isn’t always a productivity win. There’s value in seeing people face to face, especially in high-performance industries. The companies that figure out this balance early keep their best talent and move faster than those that don’t.
Prioritizing cultural alignment and hiring selectivity promotes long-term employee loyalty
Most engineering teams are chasing numbers, getting resumes in, making fast offers, hoping for the best. That’s a short-term game. Bloomberg operates differently. They don’t just hire to fill seats. They choose engineers who actively choose them over other top-tier options. That signals alignment. It also means those engineers are more likely to integrate and stay.
Adam Wolf is clear on this. If a candidate has multiple offers and still picks Bloomberg, that person isn’t just technical, they’re invested. That mindset contributes directly to retention. The company avoids the drag of constant job-jumping and minimizes friction that comes when people leave after only a few quarters.
Hiring with intent lets leaders build smarter teams. You don’t just get skills; you get commitment. And commitment translates to lower turnover, stronger collaboration, and more productive teams. Wolf made clear that they’re not looking for temporary talent, they’re building a community of long-term contributors.
Executives should consider this: recruiting for cultural fit isn’t a soft metric, it’s risk management. Hiring the wrong people costs time, morale, and continuity. Hiring selectively, with culture in mind, gives engineering organizations the stamina needed to evolve without breaking stride.
Continuous analysis of employee departures informs strategic enhancements
Retention isn’t passive, and it shouldn’t be reactive. Bloomberg treats exits as hard data. Every departure has a story, and the company puts in the work to understand those stories. They track why engineers leave, compensation mismatches, uninspired work, limited growth, and use that data to improve every part of the employee experience.
Adam Wolf summed it up directly: “We’re always in competition,” and to stay ahead, they focus on compensation, engagement, and on-the-job development. That means benchmarking pay regularly, offering meaningful learning opportunities, and building roles that evolve with the engineer, not just the business.
This isn’t just about staying attractive. It’s about building feedback loops into talent strategy. When companies map exit feedback to real change, they earn credibility with their engineers. That translates into trust, higher performance, and a reduced need for panic hiring.
For the C-suite, this is execution-level leadership. Proactive retention strategies anchored in data give you a clear view of what works and what doesn’t, and more importantly, the power to adjust before disruption hits.
Active contribution to open source reinforces ethical, technical, and motivational advantages
Open source isn’t something you just use, it’s something you participate in if you want long-term gains. Bloomberg understands that. They don’t only consume open-source technology; they contribute to it. That includes submitting patches to widely-used tools like TypeScript, and supporting smaller, individual-led projects.
Adam Wolf is clear on the reason. When Bloomberg relies on a tool, they invest back into it. That’s not just good ethics, it’s smart engineering. Contributing upstream means fewer integration issues, faster access to enhancements, and easier adoption of security updates. It also prevents the need for forks, which become liabilities over time.
But the benefits go beyond clean architecture. Engineers gain pride and motivation when their work impacts the broader tech community. It increases engagement, sharpens skills, and reinforces that their company trusts them to represent it in an open, global forum.
For executives, this is about positioning your teams, not only to consume innovation, but to shape it. Participating in open source signals technological leadership and shows that your company doesn’t only adapt, it defines what the future looks like.
Incorporating open-source working models and asynchronous communication improves global team collaboration
Bloomberg operates across cities like New York, San Francisco, and London. With engineers in different time zones, they needed workflows that reduce blockers and maintain momentum. So they adopted working models from the open-source world, like asynchronous communication and a request for comments (RFC) process.
These models allow teams to make progress without waiting on meetings or live discussions. Engineers write things down, share structured plans, review with peers, and move forward. That’s how they make global work efficient. And it applies to high-level design as well: the RFC process is used for decisions like whether to add a new interface or adjust a system’s architecture for scalability.
Adam Wolf clarified that these tools are specifically chosen to support collaboration, but they’re used in moderation. Too many formal processes slow things down, especially when dealing with frequent, tactical updates. Bloomberg applies structure where it adds value and avoids it where it doesn’t.
C-suite leaders managing distributed teams should take note: remote collaboration isn’t binary. It’s not about choosing one platform or policy, it’s about defining workflows that scale with your people and products. The goal is simple: keep teams aligned, efficient, and able to execute, regardless of location.
Key takeaways for leaders
- Steady hiring builds retention and culture: Maintain consistent and intentional hiring to avoid the volatility of growth-surplus-layoff cycles. A stable approach fosters loyalty, strengthens team culture, and minimizes disruption.
- Hybrid work supports connection and performance: Use a hybrid structure to restore team cohesion and reduce attrition linked to isolation. In-office interaction drives mentorship, collaboration, and deeper engagement across engineering teams.
- Hire for cultural fit, not just skills: Focus on selectivity and long-term alignment during recruitment. Engineers who actively choose your company are more likely to stay, contribute meaningfully, and strengthen team continuity.
- Learn from exits and act fast: Use structured feedback from employee departures to adjust comp, growth paths, and work experience. Leaders should treat retention as a continuous strategy, not a one-off response.
- Open-source contributions offer strategic ROI: Encourage developers to engage in the open-source ecosystem to drive technical alignment, avoid forking pitfalls, and boost team morale. Supporting upstream also strengthens talent retention.
- Use open-source workflows to scale globally: Embrace asynchronous collaboration and structured decision processes like RFCs for distributed teams. Apply process where it adds clarity; remove it where it slows execution.
