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Ask Slashdot: Best Incentives For IT Workers?
New submitter Guru Jim writes "Our company is currently looking at our incentives program and are wondering what is out there that helps motivate IT workers. We have engineers/sys admins as well as developers. With both teams, we have guns who are great and really engaged in looking after the customers, but some of the team struggle. Sometimes it is easy to say that there isn't too much work on and goof off and read Slashdot all day. This puts more pressure on some of the team. Management is being more proactive in making sure the work is shared equally, but we are wondering what can be out there that is more carrot than stick? We already have cake day, corporate massage day, bonuses for exams and profit share, but what is out there that is innovative and helps build a great workplace?" If you're reading this, the odds are good that you work in or around IT (or hope to); what would you most like to see your workplace implement?
Fire 'certified jerk' managers - that'll do wonders.
I will skip the obvious free drinks/food/social events and financial incentives.
When it comes to work, it is about this: Autonomy, mastery, purpose.
Give everyone meaningful, important and challenging work, so that their head is just above the water.
Let them be responsible for their work and reach the goal with their means and in their style as much as possible.
Let them improve themselves by doing so, send them on courses as well.
Automatise everything that can automated to get rid of repetitive, boring work.
Optimise anything, and challenge people to go back to the beginning.
Demand innovation, and allow time for it by doing "innovation time off" / "hack time" / 10 percent time.
rational and transparent decision making processes
merit based rewards structure
aggressive correction and eventual culling of counterproductive employees
pay me enough that I can get my own massages, keep your stupid toys out of my office, and
run an effective business
Good hardware, good monitors, good tools, allow them to pick some of their own (IDEs, OS, editors, etc). Keep up to date with technologies. Treat people like people, not "resources". After that, use some agile/XP principles like scrums to enable problems to be out in the open, and pair programming to get the weaker people improving. Give bonuses for outstanding quality and quantity of work. Listen to what people complain about and try to fix it.
Give them flexible working hours.
There's nothing worse than coming to work in the morning and trying to "work" after your kid puked the entire night and you haven't had half an hour of solid sleep, or if you have a splitting headache that just refuses to go away on its own, but would likely go away if you could nap or walk for a couple of hours (depends on the person).
IT is a line of work where flexible hours are possible. Give them that, but still keep work clocked every week.
If you haven't come across this already, this is a good place to start: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9137708/Opinion_The_unspoken_truth_about_managing_geeks?taxonomyName=Management&taxonomyId=14
As an IT worker myself, one of the most difficult things I struggle with is the frequent lack of acknowledgement and respect. I don't mean simple 'thanks for helping me' responses - although those do count, and workplaces where all employees belittle IT will experience a lot of IT turnover - but for the big things. When we break out all the stops to achieve some huge project, or put in extra unpaid time - we're often salaried, after all - to help someone, the reward is sometimes to have expectations raised, rather than to understand that was an exceptional effort. That discourages us from trying so hard next time.
It's difficult for management to understand what we do, and what they don't understand, they sometimes don't respect. Bonuses are nice, as is comp time. But I really just want to keep things working, and it is distinctly aggravating when I can't prevent a recurring problem because it requires changing the behavior of someone superior to me that doesn't care to make a change, as I'll always be there to clean up their mess. In some cases, it feels like not bothering to install toilets in a restroom because that's what the janitor is for.
All of that said, when it comes to weeding out those that aren't contributing anything... some sort of tracking system is essential, for techs to keep tabs on what they've done. They'll rightfully treat it with skepticism if such a system comes from On High, as the plausible reasoning is to find out how much they can shrink the department. But when brought in with the cooperation of the staff and their immediate management, it can be trusted more. It's also a tool to demonstrate to upper management just how much work we ARE doing, and to justify extra manpower. Simply saying that you need an extra hand often goes nowhere, since IT is frequently seen as a money pit.
And, of course, listen to the techs, the experienced ones in particular. They're the ones that can feel that a piece of software isn't working properly, or that a piece of infrastructure is not up to the task. You don't need to do what they're talking about, but consider their opinion. They're here to understand, fix, and instruct people in how to use technology. Knowing that they're being heard, and seeing visible changes in response to that feedback, does a lot to make a tech feel valued.
If I need a "brag" about my achievements then I need a new workplace. Let me manage my own time, provide me with the tools to effectively complete my work, randomly drop-by my cubicle once or twice a week to informally chat for a few minutes (2-5 minutes). If my co-workers are screw-up, fire them. if my co-workers are bullies, in any sense of the word, fire them. If you, as my manager, cannot meet this requirement, you should be fired. If I need two days to mentally attack a problem, leave me alone. If I need you, as my manager, to approve some out of office time, be available and do not require me to make-up the time. My mind works on your problems, consciously and subconsciously, 24 hours a day; respect me as a professional rather than as a cog in the machine. Weekly written status reports I can handle. Above all, if a co-worker is disrupting the cohesion of the team, fire the co-worker. Passive-aggressive co-workers kill an enjoyable workplace.
this only works if there is trust with management. I use to work for a company that did this and the upper management always picked goals that miraculously never could be met. This happened for years....
Of course you're right. This isn't chinese algebra. It's a pretty simple equation. Reasonable compensation, reasonable working hours and being treated with a modicum of respect is all most people want out of a job.
The rest is bullshit.
One of the ways this country got into trouble is when companies started looking for innovative ways to screw employees: They thought they were clever when they gave workers "benefits" like health care and pensions instead of simply giving them pay raises, and oops, people started living longer. They sold workers on 401k plans and "matching" instead of fixed-income pensions and oops, we're going to have a generation of senior citizens in poverty.
There are tales of CEOs so insightful that they realized by paying workers a living wage it would create a prosperous middle class that would fuel the most robust consumer economy ever, but apparently those CEOs are long gone. Today, they believe that somehow they can continue to degrade workers' incomes and it will not ever effect their own bottom line, so we have corporations that are looking for income streams that have nothing to do with their core business and it fucks everything up.
I've lived through the most amazing social transformation: from a vibrant, prosperous middle class to a burgeoning class of working poor. And there's no sign of it turning around.
It's not a political problem, or a government problem. It's a problem of an economic elite that has been allowed to exempt themselves from all the social rules and expectations. It's not that corporations are people, but that people are becoming corporations, and in doing so are allowed to become completely amoral. They have obliterated the social contract that raised so much of the world out of backbreaking wage-slavery and are now on an express train toward neo-feudalism.
You are welcome on my lawn.
"Guru" Jim is asking the wrong people.
If he really wants to know what incentive structure would be better for his IT staff, he should ask them to design one for him. Give them a budget limitation, as appropriate.
Seriously, they'll be happy to do it and they'll do a much better job than either his management or someone answering generically who doesn't understand his employees and his business.
If he calls the people he considers his best workers "guns" and so on from the question, he doesn't understand IT well enough to create a good environment on his own anyway. However, I'm sure the experienced folks in his IT department know exactly who is worth their salary in the department and how to measure that for the managers to be able to figure it out also.
You've hired experts in the field, and you're asking on the web for how to manage them? They're supposed to be the experts on the IT needs of your company. Try asking them. Of course, I suppose that's a little too obvious and may produce too much information that reflects poorly on their management. So Caveat Emptor!
The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.