Re: Y2000 Incentives

Incentives....

More money
Paid overtime
More vacation time
Nice Laptop
Ability to work at home
Office versus cubicle
Diverse projects
Internet Access
Training
Business Cards

Look around you and see what you like about your position and what could
be made better. 
Then compare them to what your employees are recieving.  If that doesn't
work, ask 
them what they want to make the workplace and their jobs more enjoyable.

Just my opinion,
Gary

> > >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 (-:)...
>
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