| |
|
|
Attracting (and Keeping) Top Performers
by Paul Lemberg
Published on this site: April 17th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Good people are hard to find, the saying goes. For example,
by the year 2000 over 190,000 computer programmer and other
information technology jobs will be vacant, according to a
Bureau of Labor Statistics report. (This is now a bit out
of date, and although the dot-com bustups and the 2000-2001
recession has eased things a bit, it is still difficult to
lure top talent.) It may be easy to fill these empty positions
if you are a software giant like Microsoft, but there is a
tremendous
challenge attracting (and keeping) top performers if you are
smaller and less well known.
According to chief executives and industry recruiters who
were interviewed for this article, there are three main areas
on which to focus: the quality and market position of your
product or service, environment, and compensation.
Leading edge technology and a high perception of quality will
lure top technical and design people, salespeople and support
people, all for different reasons. Technology people relish
the challenge of developing something new, plus they need
ongoing opportunities for skill enhancement to remain fresh.
As for top sales people, a strong product means they can earn
bigger commissions, and their egos are fulfilled by being
on the leading edge. And top support people are smart enough
to know that a quality product makes everyone's job easier,
and it enables them to earn their incentives. For everyone,
superior products will earn your company better returns, enabling
more reinvestment in R&D, providing challenges and adventure
for your technical people, and more and better product for
your sales and marketing team.
What if your product is not cutting-edge, or your quality
not up to snuff? Appealing to top performers is not going
to be your only problem. Unless you control a mature market
niche, your company will need to update and upgrade to remain
viable - this requires high caliber people. If you want to
survive in the marketplace you must concentrate harder on
the next two factors.
Environmental factors - the corporate culture, the caliber
of co-workers, the attitude of your management team, and your
physical environment can be pivotal in finding and retaining
talented people.
Corporate culture is one area smaller companies have an edge
- that "hell-bent-for-leather" attitude makes it
exciting and challenging to come to work, and there are fewer
layers of bureaucracy people find so stifling. Real teamwork,
where success is shared and the team affirms a common commitment,
will draw other top professionals.
Having a smart, talented staff will captivate more smart,
talented people. So will a collegial atmosphere which values
the opinions of the rank-and-file along with open-management
policies keeping the troops informed on the state-of-the-company.
A training plan, designed career paths and professional conference
attendance are more ways to attract and keep people. Other
small but significant options include dress code, flextime,
telecommuting, offices with walls - these all help.
Last is the issue of compensation. The big salary problem
is no matter how much you pay, a competitor can pay a little
bit more. So in terms of salary level itself, you simply have
to be at or near your market rate.
Pay-for-performance however, can take compensation much higher
while avoiding salary inflation. A system of carefully designed
bonuses and incentives will enable you to pay people for exceptional
production.
Equity - stock grants, options and equity-like phantom stock
- is a powerful way for smaller companies to entice people
at all levels. Plus, smaller companies can grant equity without
the usual waiting period required by public and larger companies.
(Just remember to include a forfeiture clause in case of early
termination.)
What does all this mean in real terms? Some of the ideas in
this article are harder to implement than others, and some
describe conditions you simply can't achieve. Must you arrange
for every item mentioned above? Of course not, but systematically
providing your people with the challenge to be their best,
the opportunity to learn, the freedom to be creative, the
incentives to perform and produce, a feeling of ownership,
and the respect as professionals - these are the things that
will make top technical and sales people want to join your
company, and have them stay.
Paul Lemberg To get a copy of our "Keeping Top Performers"
checklist go to http://www.paullemberg.com/toolsandtips.html
|
| |
|
|
