Five Tips to Keep Your IT Professionals

Web sites fire employees and go bankrupt one after another. Do IT specialists suffer? No, they are still in high market demand, notwithstanding the waves of lay-offs. It is the bosses who have to figure out a new way to keep their IT staff.

Tip 1: B2B - Raw Cash
Year 2000 began with people's exceptional optimism to dotcoms. Stock option is the single most powerful attraction to employees. Yet, as prices of tech shares rode on the downward-going roller coaster, stock option lost its colour. Thus, IT professionals no longer bet on stock options, but look for more material rewards. CountryTECH's president Chan Wai-Keung says IT professionals are B2B (back to basic) now, and it is salaries and bonuses that count.

Chan thinks cancelling stock option all together would be unfair to new recruits. He suggests that companies may replace it with sign-on bonus and add in project bonus to attract top professionals. Employees would get a bonus for serving the company for a specific period of time, and another bonus for finishing a project. This "raw cash" reward helps hold the people, reduce the possibility of employees being dug away, and hence the effect of a leaving employee on the company's operation.

Tip 2: Open Discussion of Prospect
IT professionals change jobs not merely for high salary. Witnessing all those dotcoms' closure, they'd think whether the company is making money, or just burning money, and change jobs out of this worry.

Danny Cheng, COO of Timeless Software (8028), believes that a clear direction for the company's development will give a vision to the employees, so that they see their return and prospect, and the company's ability to outrun the other companies. They'll then be loyal.

Tip 3: Internal Transfer for New Knowledge
IT is a fast-pace industry; if the practitioners cannot catch up with the latest technology, they block their own career. It is of course preferable if the company provides training, otherwise, changing jobs becomes the employees' most ready tactic: without spending a penny and they learn the new technology and knowledge. They may even end up with a 50% increase in salary! It's not surprising that 70% IT professionals change jobs for acquiring new skills.

To solve this problem, Timeless Software allows internal transfer between R&D, consulting and implementation departments, so that employees can learn various skills. Moreover, employees would also gain exposure to different technologies by serving customers who use different technology platforms.

Tip 4: Job Satisfaction
Employees also look for interesting jobs and jobs that allow room for their own initiatives. Boring jobs, no matter how high the salary is, will hardly find long-term holder. Allow room for employees' creativity and create a pleasant working environment, they will then be satisfied with their jobs.

Tip 5: Good Hierarchical Communication
Danny Cheng reminds that good communication between supervisors and subordinates is important. Any break-off of the company's structure will lead to loss of employees. He is a sincere advocate of this, and always keeps good flow of opinions between employees and himself. Sincerity and understanding their needs are the only ways to retain employees.

<Translated from "Management" of Internet Business (issue no. 37)>