Re: Y2000 Incentives -- MIDRANGE-L

Dave,

In a message dated 97-06-02 09:24:32 EDT, you write:

> >You don't NEED a Y2K incentive, you just need to do what is
>  >necessary to keep a valuable employee in ANY marketplace.
>  
>  The problem here is that it takes more than just cash to keep the best 
>  programmers on board, though admittedly it does no harm. They demand 
>  challenging development work using up to date techniques. Y2K programming 
>  changes are perceived as repetitive, oppressive, unstimulating and 
>  de-skilling.

Well, that's true.  I thought that Charlie's ideas were GREAT myself!  What I
was trying to say was that, if you think you NEED a Y2K incentive, you
probably have larger employee satisfaction problems than Y2K.  Keep your
employees well paid, educated, and involved during this boring period.  Try
to swap them out to non-Y2K projects on a rotating basis -- they'll stay
current, and you'll have a broader knowledge department-wide of legacy
systems if someone leaves (and they will).

Offer comp time (even if you have to work around YOUR manager or company
policy to do it).  I certainly didn't mean to imply that money alone would do
it, it doesn't for me.  Full-time employees often comment to me (as a
consultant) that "Whoa, I bet you're loving all this overtime -- you get paid
for it!", to which I usually reply "Oh yeah, I stopped missing my family
weeks ago and you KNOW how much time I've had to enjoy all this money!".

>  I think Charlie's ideas were _good_ ones; he sounds great to work for.
Most 
>  programmers would kill for a chance to have their own AS/400 at home, 
>  although their SOs might not be quite so keen. :-)  Why not go a step 
>  further and let them do as much as they want of the conversion effort on
the 
>  home machine without even showing up at the office most days as long as
the 
>  work keeps coming through on time?

Agreed on all counts.  The gist of the matter is that, if your site is boring
you're going to lose people regardless of what you pay them.  Just be sure
that you ARE paying them market rates -- it's a LOT easier to give an
employee a $6K/yr raise than it is to hire someone for $10K more and train
them on your systems.  Remember too, that areas like my own (Research
Triangle Park) have unemployment rates of below 2%, and are offering GENEROUS
relocation benefits for technically trained personnel (not me personally,
though (-:)...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"Visualize whirled peas." -- Anonymous
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