Ivan Gevirtz

In another article, I discussed the importance of recruiting employees, and discussed some mechanisms to do so successfully.

But how to retain employees, keep them motivated and maximally productive?  Some general ideas are:

• project time
• tech talks: internal, industry luminaries.  writing seminars.
• variety
• ownership -- balancing responsibility with authority
• foster creativity, make people feel important.
• education incentive programs
• promote from within.
• employee library
• dogfood & telecommute
• patents, public speaking, participation in industry, standards, IEEE, ACM, etc...
• travel
• cool and useful stuff when you ship, like shirts, mugs

It is also important to recognize the human side -- different people have different needs.  What motivates one employee may be different than another. I think "compensation" is best viewed in this light. Someone may want more money. Someone else may want more equity. And a third may want more time off, or unusual hours, the ability to work from home, a free bus pass, or the opportunity to change roles/careers. The key is making the employee happy. Happy employees are productive employees.

• Some people may want more time off.
• Others may want longer lunches.
• Still others may just want money.
• Many people are ambitious, and want the ability to move up the corporate ladder.
• All good engineers want to learn.
• Some want more responsibility.
• Some want more leadership.
• Some want to leave it at the office when they go home, and have a good work/life balance.
• Some want to work at home and telecommute.
• some want to go to conferences.
• Some may even want to present.
• Some people want to travel, and others don't want to travel at all.

One incentive program that I've considered but never implemented is to give employees upgrades.  You get a better chair, a better monitor, a cool mouse, more computer memory. Something that is useful at the office, and has geek chick, as well as productivity value.