Hiring a talented and experienced high tech worker is an accomplishment, albeit only part of the equation. Retaining that employee is the ultimate goal of most competitive companies.
More and more cutting-edge firms are realizing the importance of long-term employees and are offering incentives in hopes of keeping these heavily sought-after people from leaving.
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“Companies are taking steps to ensure that employees critical to the company’s growth remain with them for a long time,” said Juli Ann Reynolds, a high tech recruiter with Russell Reynolds Associates’ Boston office.
Reynolds’ job can be made extremely difficult or quite easy depending on the benefits companies offer its employees. It’s hard to persuade employees to leave a company they have stock in, or where they have a chance for promotions, or where they are developing new and exciting products.
“Stock options have been the way to go for the last three years,” explained Reynolds. “If every year you’re getting more and more shares, by the time you get vested it is like having a nice little bonus in your pocket. That will keep people at a job.”
David Croston, an account executive with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, who works with the state’s high technology firms, said stock options are popular here.
“Due to the nature and the size of Rhode Island companies and because we’re probably not paying the same salaries on a base level like the Route 128 belt, stock options are a real incentive used in keeping employees,” he said.
Croston said training is also a consideration for employees. People want to work for a company that will invest in their continued education to help in their growth as a professional.
“On average companies are willing to give employees up to $5,000 a year in training. Employees recognize and appreciate this commitment,” he said. “What I haven’t heard of these days is money being thrown around to retain people,” he said. “Clearly cash bonus are still being given for the right people, but its not that prevalent.”
Nigel P. Hebborn, chief financial officer at Nestor, a Providence software company, said cash bonuses are just not a reality in most companies.
“You hear rumors or otherwise all over the place, like up-front cash bonuses and things like that. Some times you wonder if companies that are doing that are masking something else within the company,” said Hebborn.
He said Nestor offers stock options, but that is not the only measure the company uses to retain employees. “The biggest indicator if a person will stay with a company is if he or she is happy and that usually has to do with whether they are challenged by their work,” he said.
“Nestor has had a very good track record of keeping employees and I think it has a lot to do with the work being challenging. Employees find the technology and products challenging and find the customers enjoyable to work with,” Hebborn added.
Reynolds identified several other benefits that exist in the high tech world, as well as any business, that help sweeten the pot, but by no means makes the decision to stay or go for an employee.
“When someone gets (his or her) health care completely paid for or golf club fees paid for it can be a big attraction, but in itself it is not the main reason to stay,” she said. “For example, I can have a candidate for a job picked up in a corporate plane, but that is not going to be the reason for them leaving a job they enjoy.”
Reynolds said respect for an employee’s ability to do work on his own in a flexible environment is always high on the list of her recruits.
“I would say the freedom and flexibility to do the job the best way they think it should be done is important. Opposed to having someone tell them how to do the job,” she explained. “I’m always looking for the individuals who don’t have the freedom or the ability to move up the ladder. Those are the employees who I can bring to a company that will give them the chance to do so.”
