Retention Tension

Nurturing Needed
Paying greater attention to helping seasoned and select talent advance their careers goes a long way toward retaining an effective staff, but organizations also need to spend more time grooming the next generation of IT pros. Scott Grossweiler, a telecom and tech-support worker at a large San Jose, Calif., credit union, says he's thinking of leaving IT altogether. Grossweiler, 24, has been working at the company since he was 19, while attending college. "But my responsibilities haven't grown," says Grossweiler, who often finds himself spending more time doing basic office work than advancing his tech skills. He's looking for another job and recently turned down an offer to take a telecom manager's post at a Washington, D.C., law firm because he just bought a condo in California. The D.C. job would have paid Grossweiler at least $10,000 more than he's making at the credit union. Still, Grossweiler isn't ready to give up just yet. "Baby boomers are starting to trickle off, and that could open up more middle-management opportunities for people like me," he says.

Newport News Shipbuilding Employees Credit Union is looking for business-savvy tech talent to fill a few new key IT positions, including a full-time LAN support person and Visual Basic and SmallTalk programmers, while also trying to replace a number of IT staffers who either left the company recently for new jobs or are planning to retire. "We compete with banks and financial-services companies for IT talent," says Jerry Nichols, the credit union's VP of information systems. "Actually, we compete with everyone."

Newport News attracts talent, but it's being picky, waiting for the candidate who can hit the ground running, Nichols says. "We get hundreds of applications, but we can't find network specialists or business analysts with a good mix of business and technology background," he says. Nichols also is planning for the long term, trying to build bench strength to replace valuable employees, including two senior systems administrators and a business-technology analyst who are expected to retire in three or four years. Nichols, who's 62, also is grooming his replacement for when he retires in three years. "It takes years to develop the business and technology knowledge that's needed," he says.

Deployment Delays
Among those positions that Newport News is trying to fill is a replacement for a customer-relationship-management analyst who recently left IT altogether, pursuing a life's dream of becoming a teacher, even though a teacher's pay can't match that of the typical IT worker. If the company can't find a solid candidate, it might delay deployment of a new CRM system next year, Nichols says. The credit union had plans to deploy the system this year, but that didn't happen, in part because of tight staff resources. Many of the credit union's IT staff were immersed in upgrading the company's core processing systems this year.

Until the recent departures, Newport News had been fortunate in retaining good IT workers. "People like the challenges and flexibility we offer," Nichols says, including training to develop new IT skills. In one case, the credit union gave a $10,000 merit-based boost in salary to an IT staffer, in part because she got a Microsoft certification.

That individual, network-security analyst MaryBeth Rummel, says it's not only the reward of extra pay for her new skills and solid performance that keeps her happy with her job at Newport News, it's the culture. "I've been in IT awhile, and often IT people feel left out unless something goes wrong, and then we hear about it," Rummel says. "But here, we're recognized for our expertise and skills. We get to try out new technology and feel that we're appreciated."

Newport News hasn't offered signing bonuses or paid relocation expenses in the past, but Nichols says the company may reconsider that, especially if it needs to expand its search nationally.

The Softer Side
Companies worried about retention of IT workers are using soft benefits, such as flexible work schedules, telecommuting, and more vacation days--tactics many companies put in mothballs during the recession. A new perk is the health-care concierge, in which an employer offers a liaison to help employees choose or set up health-care appointments, says John Challenger, CEO of global job-placement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Of course, more of the green stuff still has a certain allure, and pay to reward specific tech skills is on the rise again. After several years of flat salaries or tiny increases, pay has been slowly climbing, up 9.9% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year for 94 noncertified IT skills, according to a recent Foote Partners survey that tracks the pay and skills trends of more than 50,000 IT workers in 24 sectors, 71 U.S. cities, and nine European countries. Pay for certified IT skills also rose 7.9% for the year.

Larry Baumgardner, a technical-support technician for Ohio Northern University's law school, is on the lookout for a new job that pays better. "The pay is pathetic," he says. "I could be making double doing the same work elsewhere." For now, the biggest perk Baumgardner gets is a 98% tuition break to send his daughter, a freshman, to the university. His wife is trying to get a job at Ohio Northern, and if she does, Baumgardner will likely look for another IT-support job elsewhere and also take classes to earn a master's degree in technology management. The university will only pick up the tab for undergraduate-level classes, he says.

Perks That Work
Education is the kind of industry that must focus beyond the paycheck to keep valuable IT workers, since it often pays less than industries such as financial services. Certain perks work well in a higher-education environment, says Lewis Temares, the University of Miami's VP of IT and CIO. Among them: flexible schedules, access to health services such as a campus wellness center, and opportunities for personal and educational development.

Temares gives IT employees at the University of Miami $2,500 a year each to attend any conference they want. Another tactic: When a staffer leaves an IT job for presumably greener pastures, the university will take that person back at least once. "The three most important factors are culture, culture, culture," Temares says. To help foster a team spirit, he'll often wait until there are four or five vacancies before hiring application developers because people who start at the same time often bond more closely. "We have the mentality that we won't have turnover," he says. About 5% of UM's IT staff--or 10 to 15 people--leave yearly.

Ultimately, building loyalty among IT workers should translate into customer satisfaction. Whether that means happy IT users within the company or satisfied business customers, having solid technology expertise helps avoid frustrating and costly mistakes or miscalculations. For HCS's Gagné, he wants IT staff to understand they're invaluable to the company's success and enjoy being in that kind of high-profile role. Says Gagné, "They are the company."