Retention
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(As a side note to my previous post, as a consultant I do get health/dental benefits, but that’s it.)
I fully agree that employees need to feel valued to help keep them. They also need to be respected. I spent 9 years as a DBA/developer at a major law enforcement org at my previous major job as an employee. I left because I was burned out and didn’t know it. I was frustrated because I had no peers with which to discuss problems (I was sole DBA over half a dozen pretty busy SQL Servers plus an optical jukebox, I was also one of three network admins for 30-40 file/print servers), I’d been promoted to a higher grade and subsequently lost the promotion because I didn’t get any managerial training, and my boss did not do what I told them to do.
This is not about dictating things. This is about respect and responsibility.
I went on vacation. The systems were stable, the dumps and backup jobs ran like clockwork, nothing new was due to be rolled out. I left very specific information that if there was trouble to call me, I was reachable, and I didn’t mind. Again, I TOLD THEM to call me. Well, we had a developer (consultant billing something like $150/hr) who wanted to tweak the production payroll system. He applied the patch and broke the whole thing. On an extract day, which is a day when we produce files to transmit payroll info to the City payroll dept to cut checks. Don’t ask me why he didn’t do it to the development database and test it first.
They didn’t call.
He spent 4-5 hours manually undoing what he did, causing delays on the City side because they had a very specific schedule for how the payroll process was done. Also, naturally, idling our entire payroll department who would normally be down for about an hour.
Had they called me, I would have told them to restore the noon dump and the transaction logs leading up to his “patch”. They would have been up in half an hour, max.
I’ll never understand how this guy could command that kind of a billing rate and not know how to backup and restore databases.
This is a fundamental lack of respect of someone who has been in a job and knows the system. No one else could function as a DBA, I encouraged other developers to learn more about the system they were writing for so I could at least have a backup, hell, I practically begged.
No dice.
Eventually I left for a variety of reasons, but it boiled down to the fact that I didn’t feel respected. Management would not include me in project planning, they wouldn’t take my recommendations, and they wouldn’t provide me with support or training.
My then-manager is now in charge of the entire IS department and apparently is quite skilled at taking the credit when things go well and slandering people when there’s blame to be spread.
So all I can say to managers out there is: treat your people with respect. If you don’t respect them, their skills, their opinions, why the heck are they your employees?
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[font="Arial"]Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it. --Samuel Johnson[/font] -
The recurring theme seems to be respect, which I definitely don't disagree with!
What I'm curious about are the reasons given by your friend's senior people for why they left: Big promotion? More money/more benefits/more vacation or time off? Closer to home? More time with the family?
Or were the real reasons like: Stagnation? Limited room for growth? Tired of being double- or triple-jobbed because of wave after wave of layoffs? Burnout from overwork from firefighting and constantly changing priorities? Frozen wages and benefits? Fear of being outsourced?
Perks like game days or Starbuck days are fun and even necessary, but the real perks come from working with a cohesive team doing challenging work; having real management (not just your immediate manager) that knows how to manage, how to listen, and how to actively communicate with you; having supportive team members; and being recognised (of course, monetarily and otherwise) for doing good work--heck, I'd burn both your and my midnight oil for that--even if I don't get 2 weeks of paid vacation per annum.
Environments like these are extremely difficult to create, if not foster. This is a philosophy, NOT an attitude! In the well over 20+ years and 50+ development projects I've worked on (mostly as a consultant), I've experienced this only twice (and felt darn lucky to experience a second time, after realising how rare having a first time was!).
People change, need to grow, need something different, so turnover is an expected part of life.
But when corporations don't realise that retention is a 2-way street and the prevailing attitude is "oh well, we can always find a plug-compatible part at a cheaper rate", then turnover, unfortunately, becomes a regular cycle of corporate life.
BTW, a recent report in the Economist magazine seems to support your "$80,000 developer with a few years of experience with your business is often a much better bargain than a $30,000 new hire every two years" statement.
The company cited in the article was Costco. The article stated that Costco pays its staff over 50% more than the industry average (thus attracting a higher-quality staff). Yet its staff turnover rate is a mere 6% compared to the industry average of 59%. Something for you to chew on...
E Levey
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It wasn't a slight on Canada it was a back handed compliment. My admitedly limited experience of Canada (Ontario/Quebec) and word of mouth from relatives in Vancouver, Grandfathers journal entries from his time as a pioneer in Saskatchewan lead me to believe that Canada is probably the best place to live on planet earth.
My comment referred to the having to work in a cube farm knowing that just outside the door there is an embarrasment of riches.
Now if you live in a total s*** hole, say Stoke on Trent, England (where I was born) then any dingy basement is going to be a big improvement on the outside world!
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Factors I think encourage staff retention (in no particular order):
1. Mutual earned respect between employee and manager.
2. Sufficient renumeration.
3. Pleasant working environment.
4. Equal give and take on both sides.
5. Being valued as an employee, not just as an individual.
6. Respect (earned of course) of colleagues.
If you find yourself having to beg to attend a FREE MS Seminar on SQL2005 and you are a DBA then there is something amiss.
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David:
I hope with number 5 you meant "being valued as an individual, not just an employee?"
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Adam Machanic
whoisactive -
Adam, I'm not sure what you are getting at.
It is possible to be valued as an individual but be irrelevant to the organisation.
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In my experince the bad situations occur when you're "just another employee" -- i.e. not an "individual" in management's mind at all. Rather, you're nothing but a job description -- a replaceable cog. "Get me another DBA, this one is broken!"
On the other hand, if you're thought of as an individual... "Get me another David Poole?" I don't think so.
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Adam Machanic
whoisactive
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