CIO
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David Hume, vice president of permanent placement for St. Louis-based Bradford & Galt, answered readers’ questions on CIO.com about why IT professionals become burned out and what managers can do to prevent it
Q: Information technology encourages talented individuals to job hop because demand is so high. IS departments hire young talent to minimize salary costs. When these employees build skills and con1/2dence, they move on because they are given too much work to complete in Internet time. Any suggestions for retaining these talented people?
A: It’s hard to 1/2ght the free market. If you’re giving them marketable skills, about the only highly effective retention technique is to keep their salaries quickly escalating in step with their rising values in the marketplace. If some of that compensation is deferred and would create an incentive to stay around, that might be OK. A great 401(k), stock options or retention bonuses are all possibilities. Great managers also help. The more flexibility in the workplace, creative freedom and learning opportunities you provide, the better. But all of those things may be overshadowed by an offer of $20,000 more than what you’re paying. You could also tie a tuition-reimbursement program into a contract that requires staying for a period of time to avoid repayment. But it isn’t always productive to have someone stay just because they’d owe you a lot if they left. Usually they’ll make you pay by producing less and by having a negative effect on morale.
Q: I work for a large Fortune 500 retailer. This company has been through an abnormal amount of executive management changes in a single year. Each change has brought with it different management styles and expectations. Over and over the employees have adapted and changed course. Now they are tired and becoming wary of the start/stop mentality. They have stopped thinking for themselves and are becoming cynical of moving forward with any agenda. Any ideas on how we can improve this situation?
A: The best option is to open up the lines of communication as much as possible. Being frustrated is one thing; being frustrated and feeling like you can’t express your opinion is even worse. The management style at this company sounds very "top-down" and the constantly changing priorities and lack of buy-in are reflective of a disenfranchised staff. I would test the limits of how much information you can give the staff and
