Software developer BroadJump serves its employees catered lunches once a week and offers them free broadband service at home. Employees also have access to the company's in-house recreation room, with a basketball court, a pool table and weightlifting equipment. "We've made a habit of providing these perks because we realize how hard our employees work," says Julie Kirk, vice president of human resources at BroadJump, which sells software for self-installation of broadband cable access.
Even in these leaner economic times, many companies are still striving to treat their IT employees well. Businesses realize their "human capital" is the key to long-term success. And to keep their top IT employees happy -- and on staff -- businesses like Ipswitch and BroadJump are offering a balance between work and outside interests, as well as a greater sense of job security, whenever possible. Human-resources executives say job satisfaction is more about quality-of-life issues these days than salary and stock options. That's why many companies offer telecommuting, on-site day care, and on-site health clubs or gym memberships, for instance.
This evolution of employee benefits has contributed to job satisfaction and, ultimately, employee retention, analysts say. Typically, the acceptable length of stay at an IT job is about two and a half to three years, but employers are hoping to hold onto good people longer (see "I'd Love To Stay, But ...").
In an industry where employee turnover averages 22 percent a year, the IT department of optics manufacturer Corning must be doing something right: The annual IT turnover rate hovers at a low 3 percent. Corning attributes its success to innovative employee-retention programs such as offering monthly department or "team" outings and schedules that give new employees the flexibility to find housing. And every Friday in Corning's helpdesk department, the manager pulls a name out of a hat, and the winner of the drawing gets to go home two hours early.
If that sounds appealing, how about this: free dinner for new hires from Monday through Friday in their first few months with the company. "We unofficially call it the 'Men Without Lives Club,' " says Brett Whitney, IT recruiter for Corning, because so many of the new hires have spouses who have not moved yet, so the employee needs help with relocation and in meeting new people on the job.
BroadJump, meanwhile, has come up with an awards program to keep its employees happy. Each department has a discretionary fund to reward outstanding efforts by individual employees.
In BroadJump's Peer Excellence Award Program, colleagues nominate the award recipients and managers pick the winner, tailoring the award to the recipient. One BroadJump programmer, also a bride to be, won a day at a spa. A team of developers received a free weekend trip to Las Vegas for working around the clock for several weeks to test software for a product launch.
"The total cost [of this program] doesn't touch even one year's annual salary," Kirk says. "The cost of turnover is twice the salary of an employee, so we consider these bonuses no-brainers."
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FYI
There are 305,835 non-IT companies in the U.S. with more than 50 employees, compared with 13,842 IT companies with more than 50 employees -- that is, there are 22 non-IT companies for every IT company in the U.S.
-- ITAA
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Replacing an IT employee can cost twice his or her salary, or even more, recruiters say, because hiring a new IT person comes with the inherent recruiting and training costs, and the inevitable downtime during the job change. So it makes economic sense to hang onto the IT talent you have.
A Doctor in the House
SRA International has a free on-site medical clinic and wellness program to help keep its workers healthy, happy and employed. "We see our program as a way to retain employees by demonstrating that SRA understands and cares about what's important to them," says Ann Denison, vice president and director of human resources for the systems integrator, which also offers consulting and e-commerce software and services. "We found health issues were a common concern that we could proactively address."
Two part-time nurses operate the clinic with support from a pair of doctors who serve as medical directors. The clinic provides allergy shots and disease-management programs for asthma, diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses. It also provides wellness-program luncheons on specific health topics like breast cancer. SRA's nurses answer questions by phone for the more than 900 employees working outside the company's Washington metropolitan-area headquarters. Another bonus: The program is available to all employees, spouses and their children, and it's independent of any other insurance coverage.
The clinic costs SRA about $156,000 a year, which company officials say they consider a small price to pay since a weekly visit to the doctor for an allergy shot can easily consume half a day of an employee's time in travel and waiting, for instance. SRA justifies the cost of the program in time savings alone. "That savings can add up to hundreds of hours per employee per year," according to Denison. SRA has 1,700 employees nationwide and revenues of $340 million.
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