The blush on the hiring rose may have faded slightly for dot-com companies, but nationally the demand for high-tech talent continues to soar. Companies are being forced to rely on a variety of prizes, perks, and sign-on bonuses to attract and keep the techies they need to compete.
Here are a few of the more prominent hiring and retention bonus plans we've seen or heard of recently:
Stock bonuses. Many companies make outright gifts of a few to hundreds of shares of stock as an incentive to land new hires or keep employees.
Stock options. A stock option allows an employee to purchase a set number of shares for a predetermined price at some point in the future. For example: An employee is given an option to buy 1,000 shares at $10 per share after two years of employment. If the stock has doubled to $20 at the end of two years, the employee can purchase 1,000 shares for $10,000, sell them immediately for $20,000, and pocket the profit. If the stock has gone down, the employee doesn't buy. Estimates are that the number of people currently holding stock options has risen from about 1 million in 1992 to roughly 10 million today.
Flextime. Like stock bonuses, flextime has been around for years and has become very popular with many high-tech start-ups. Four-day workweeks, recurring five-day weekends, extended vacations, sabbaticals, and a variety of other plans are in vogue.
Company car. Companies are adopting plans to make leased cars and other big-ticket items available to top producers at little or no cost. I recently heard of a telecommunications firm that rewards tenure and high performance with free use of a BMW Z3 for three years.
Educational benefits. This is another tried-and-true formula that has resurfaced with vigor in today's skirmish to land high-tech talent. Companies pay most or all of the cost and give employees time off to earn a technical certification or MBA.
Cash prizes, shopping sprees, paid vacations etc. You name it, and some company somewhere is offering it to keep existing employees or as a bonus for a successful new employee referral.
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Amy Schurr is an editor for Network World's Management Strategies and Features sections. If you have any career topics you'd like her to cover or want to comment on this newsletter, you can reach her at aschurr@nww.com.
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