Along With Stock Options,
Companies Turn to Other Benefits to Keep Workers
You get up in the morning and throw on your favorite pair of jeans and a T-shirt. You grab Networth and Megahertz, your two black labs, and pile into your Xterra sport utility vehicle. It’s off to the office.
Once at work, the doggies run free amid the cubicles as you pour yourself a cup of Starbucks, toast a bagel, smear on some cream cheese and help yourself to fresh organic strawberries.
For lunch, you play some hoops on the office court, shower, hit the fridge for a fruit-pick-me-up and head back to your desk.
As you sit down, you think: “This is cool. I get to do what I love, bring my dogs to work and play basketball in the middle of the day for $65,000 a year plus stock options. It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Or does it?
When you check your e-mail, there they are: Headhunters.
They’re after you, tempting you with better pay, more benefits and all sorts of perks. What’s a young technology worker to do?
“By the time they’re trained, they’re gone,” said Leslie Saleson, president and chief operations officer of Abbott Resource Group Inc. in Irvine.
Workers used to stay with an employer for 10 years. Now the average is about three, she said.
Turning to Training, Pay
That’s why high-tech companies are coming up with fun and innovative ways to bolster their recruiting and retention. Stock options, once a big carrot, have lost some of their appeal in the wake of March’s downturn in technology stocks.
But stock options will remain a staple benefit just like healthcare and retirement, according to human resource industry executives. The National Center for Employee Ownership in Oakland estimates 7 million to 10 million employees receive stock options in the U.S. today. Ten years ago, only a million did.
With the recent lull in the stock market, though, employers are turning to more time-tested tactics: higher pay, more training, better opportunity for career advancement and benefits like weight-loss programs and therapeutic massage. Perks like bringing your dog to work and having plenty of stuff in the fridge are on the upswing, too.
At PairGain Technologies Inc. in Tustin, employees play hoops on the roof. Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. gives employees free fruits and beverages and “low-cost” meals throughout the day. Families are welcome in the employee caf & #233;.
And for 25 cents, workers can raid Broadcom’s vending machines filled with healthy and not-so-healthy goodies. For a hard day’s work, a trainer is available at the onsite gym. Of course, stock options still are big at Broadcom.
Free Salsa
But not every company is going to such heights to recruit.
Santa Ana’s SRS Labs Inc., a small audio technology company, doesn’t offer peeled grapes, shelled nuts and pony rides, said spokesman Chris Rocke.
“When I occasionally whip up a batch of salsa, I’ll bring it in,” he laughed. Workers fill up on Starbucks coffee and SRS offers flexible hours, he said. But the people SRS attracts are very specialized and are looking for the opportunity to work with Tom Yuen, the company’s chairman and a co-founder of now-defunct computer maker AST Research Inc.
“They are looking for us as much as we are looking for them,” Rocke said.
Aim to Retain
Irvine-based Sage Software Inc. has a big banner in its lunchroom that reads, “We aim to retain,” according to Jean Tung-Navarro, director of public relations.
Sage takes the motto seriously, she said. The company uses an annual employee survey, conducted by an outside firm, which gives management feedback on what workers think about Sage, their jobs and supervisors. A couple of years ago, many of the workers asked for more opportunities for career advancement so Sage developed a training program, Navarro said. There are fun perks, too, like baseball tickets, holiday parties and field trips to places like Knott’s Berry Farm. Sage’s “employee appreciation committee” plans and funds monthly ice cream parties and cappuccino parties. To go along with all that partying, the dress policy is casual. The president wears Hawaiian shirts and khakis while the chief executive’s attire is generally shorts and a T-shirt, Navarro said. On the recruiting side employee referrals are worth up to $1,500. But one of the benefits Sage doesn’t have yet is the “pet-friendly policy.” Navarro said they’re working on that.
There’s a doggie in the house at BSMG Worldwide, Santa Ana, a public relations company specializing in high-tech. More important, workers will be able to bring their children to work at its onsite childcare center opening in August, said Lisa Zwick, general manager.
Other benefits include a “keep smart” and a “keep fit” program. With these two programs, employees are given an allowance to use for educational classes and to work out, whether by surfing, golfing or working out in a gym. Workers there also have a stocked kitchen and a “no dirt, no holes and not too much skin” dress policy.
Craig Simon, managing partner of Berger Kahn, a high-tech law office, changed to a five-day casual dress policy to match those of its clients. Other high-tech service firms have followed the tech trend. “High-tech killed the suit,” he said.
A recent Society for Human Resource Management study revealed that 69% of high-tech businesses offered a five-day casual dress policy, a fairly common perk in Orange County.
Other perks ranking high in the technology industry include professional memberships (81%), professional development (88%), organization-sponsored sports teams (46%) and food services (50%).
Benefits that will become increasingly common include elder care and domestic partner benefits, according to Society for Human Resource Management.
Then there are those high-tech companies that get down to the nitty gritty of recruiting: Investing in education. Compaq Computer Corp., Printronix Inc., Canon Information Systems and Rainbow Technologies Inc. all granted $60,000 or more to UC Irvine’s Department of Information and Computer Science. The department used the money to hire eight new faculty. n
