Perks
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Did you get any perks when you got hired for your last job? Apparently new hires are getting some as employers look for more talent. The usual benefits, stock options and pay are there, but also it seems a quarter are offering more vacation and almost half are doing flexible hours. What's even more surprising is that child care, sabbaticals, and even cars are being given away as well.
I had lunch with a friend recently who went out on his own a few years ago when his company failed. He had been helping a couple businesses on the side with their networks and decided to try it full time. I haven't seen him in awhile, but a few years later he's doing well. Not getting rich, but making enough and having a flexible schedule. He said his main client wants him full time, but they didn't make a good offer. They use him around 20+ hours a week and he bills $90/hour. They offered him $40-something to be an employee.
At first I was shocked, but he said they'd let him keep other clients and they'd give him a car. While probably not the one listed above, you never know. All in all it wasn't a great offer, but depending on vacation and other perks, it might work out well.
A few years ago my wife's company was offering to lease a car for any employee that got 2 or 3 people hired. I can't remember which, but the cars were the choice of a Boxster, Mercedes SLK, BMW Z3, or something similar. I thought it was crazy, but doing the math, it made sense. Leasing one of those cars would be
It's a great way to motivate people and potentially retain them longer, something else that employers are looking at. And they should be. There's value in keeping people around at your company that goes beyond them just doing their jobs.
Perks are a great way to get some talent, but there's a lot more to it. If you need to give perks, then you should also ensure you have a retention strategy as well and you are continually refining your programs to ensure that you build and keep the kind of employee base you are proud of.
Steve Jones
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I'm for it... but where's my car
Actually I wanted to hit on a slightly different subject. I had a phone conversation with one of my fellow developers yesterday. We work for different companies so none of this applies to my employer.
His group is reorganizing and management is slowly letting everyone know this week what their new job will be and who they will report to. He expects to hear today, while others have heard earlier. Is that a good plan... tell some but not others, well maybe.
Anyway there's lots of speculation in his group as you might imagine. He transferred into this group about a year ago after working several years for another division. That division had been sold to another company and the IT staff had gone with the sale.
His old boss in the new company got word that a reorg was in progress so my buddy gets a call. "We have a place for you here if your interested" was the message. I know something about industry averages and the offer was on the high side
I'm not sure where this is going, no car was offered. However my question is about reorgs. Do they do a lot of good? Certainly a company should have right to rearrange it's employees jobs to get a more efficient work flow and management structure.
However, in my life, none of the reorgs I've been involved in had a positive impact on the productivity of the people reassigned. All had a negative effect on productivity
Am I missing the point here... Are reorgs a good thing? Not where I come from...
Bill
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Perks are fine, I suppose, but doesn't it sometimes make you wonder, "What's wrong with the place of employment?" Wouldn't it be better to pay fairly, and then defie the parameters of work fairly? The rest, especially the up front stuff, seems to be a way of hooking afish without long-term certainty that the fish will live happily in the pond.
As for reorganizations...I too have watched the majority of them fail, and I think the two issues -- perks and reorgs -- are actually quite connected: both of them often reflect that management decisions are being made by the market rather than the managers.
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I think it also depends upon how the "perks" are arranged. I worked for a cooperative for a few years and we got quite a bit of "perks". This was done because it meant the govenrment got much less of our money, so we wound up getting much, much more dollar value. As a consequence, we could charge less for the same services but we wound up with a better overall income / standard of living.
I'm working as a contractor now and also getting "perks" that are, on the first round, tax-free. I earn more for the same company rate and the money goes back into the economy where it does some good.
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I think creative perks are important.my company threw in an extra week vacation more than any previous employee and also a vacation package a year to any destination in the world for 2 -never heard about that.
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I want to stray away from material rewards and look at something more intangible. I'll draw a further delineation of intangible 'perks', categorizing them as "official" and "un-official". Many of the things outlined within the article and thread fall into what I'd term the "official" perks (materialistic or not). Many times we consider 'flex-time' and 'remote computing' as "official" perks. However many companies have policies strictly forbidding or severely regulating these perks, hence the categorization "official". Let's face it, we are DBAs. Our job and its role require us top work nights, weekends and stay on 24 hour call. Many organizations that treat their staff as valued resources will provide a great many "un-official" perks. As examples, in the last 14 years of my career, 2 of 5 different firms I was exposed to had any type of 'flex-time' policy and only 1 out of those 5 had any type of 'remote computing' policy. In these 3 instances things were offered, albeit in a highly regulated and worse, implemented in an inflexible fashion for IT staff. But, that was the "official" policy line. More or less, regardless of 'official' policy', managers/directors discretion ultimately determined "un-official" perks. In 4 out of the last 5 organizations I have been exposed to the "un-official" perks were tremendous. 'flex time' that was not on a strict schedule meaning it could vary from week to week or even day to day depending on the circumstance. 'remote computing' again, no strict schedule with variability to allow for tending to 'personal' things like ill children, repair service house calls (cable/phone/etc) in addition to the every one or two days a week you work at home. Oh, I almost forgot one of the most rewarding "un-official" perks, time off. There are times when you’re up late, say from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, tending a production issue. When all is said and done you send off the final email and get an immediate response saying 'good job' and since you worked so late, don't come in until the afternoon. Another common situation is during system deployments. Sometimes you work just one or two hours extra every few days for a week or two. Things settle down and you get a surprise email on Monday telling you to either take this Friday or Next Monday off to give you a long weekend. The significant point about this "un-official" perk is that it does not use up accrued vacation or sick time usually. So, great places to work with good perks have always been around. It’s just that the numbers of organizations offering them is increasing.
However, ‘caveat emptor’ applies. Just because an organization has great ‘perks’ it does not mean that this is a good place to work or that it is the place for you. If you do not like what you do; who you work with andr who you work for; all the ‘perks’ in the world will not make you a ‘happy camper’.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
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