“Keep the Loyalty of Your IT Staff”

In this tight employment market, information-technology staff are entertaining daily job offers. You can improve the retention of your technical and IT staff by:

• Integrating brief job rotations into the orientation program, or rotating employees for longer assignments. This not only makes employees more valuable to the company, but boosts the likelihood that they’ll stay longer.
• Conducting behavioral interviews, which enable you to assess a person’s strengths and weaknesses. You can then personalize a job offer letter and include a personal career development plan. "Nothing sends a stronger message to technical employees that a company is serious about developing and growing their skills than receiving this kind of personalized, developmentally focused offer package," says Jillian Maver, Ph.D. and leader of the technology practice at Linkage Inc.
• Holding manager performance appraisals, which hold them accountable for the retention of their IT staff. This not only relates to hard numbers, but also to the coaching, clarity and feedback they provide to their staff.

Source: Linkage Inc., Lexington, Mass., 1999, (781) 862-3157.