Job satisfaction and employee retention

January 26, 2001 —

With a little luck you managed to assemble a crackerjack, technology-savvy team. OK, now the hard work begins: keeping them. Survey after survey of high-tech workers finds that their chief motivating factor is not how much money they make (as long as it compares with industry standards), but how challenging their job is and how much room they have to grow and learn. Growing and learning are the keys to keeping a staff productive and satisfied. In this special report on employee retention and job satisfaction you'll find articles on the best places to work in IT and on what some innovative companies are doing to keep their employees. Remember when you lose a key employee it's usually a double-wammy: most likely your competition has hired him.

Your top concerns

Managing employees worries you most, finds an exclusive Network World survey

A breakdown of your chief concerns by job title

Nothing is more important to a technologist than technology, so the best places to work make sure their full staffs share access to hot projects, key skills and leading-edge development critical to the business

Satisfied workers

The best IT employers know that the key to finding and keeping talented workers is to listen to their ideas, invest in their careers and be flexible with their jobs

Why staffers stay: With job turnover at record levels, trust, training and technology still top the list of what keeps IT workers happy and on the job. Unfortunately, many managers keep missing the message.

The best way to give IT employees a sense of involvement and contribution is to team them up with folks from other departments.

Job Satisfaction Survey: IT professionals say they still feel largely ignored, overworked and underpaid. Fortunately, most say they're still loyal to their masters.

"If you really love me, you'll give me..."

Job perks get perkier

Imagine coming to work, logging on to a Web site, inputting your personal to-do list, then having someone else perform the tasks. You could if your employer offered concierge services, one of the latest perks aimed at attracting and retaining high-tech talent.

When it comes to basic job perks, IT pros want them all -- plus a fat paycheck. The Best Places to Work use that as a starting point and throw in some unusual offerings to really sweeten the pot.

Top 10 retention tactics

When money talks, nobody walks. Here's how to make your dollars speak volumes.

Are you doing enough to hold on to your young IT staffers?

Invest in people

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