Is just plain excellent.
I've recently signed on as Director of Development for a rapidly growing web-based online service. We are in that trasition from mom&pop outfit to established company and we are just now addressing this stuff in a formal way. Mind you, I only manage developers.
I'm taking as many cues from DeMarco & Lister's PeopleWare as are practical given budget constraints.
Things we're looking at include:
Comptime policy. If you borrow time from them, you have to give it back. They'll take it anyway - either in office supplies or body-less-brain time. I'd rather they take a day off and recharge than shamble around the office for a week feeling burned out.
Fun/Elite-ism factor. They need to feel like they are part of a cool organization (I think they are but they need to as well). To that end we are going to spend money on fun stuff - outings to the ballgame in the middle of the day - surprise snacks - a day at Water World - ski outings (the home office is in Breckenridge Colorado).
Real market-based raises. We are spending a lot on training. This makes all our employees more valuable - so now we have to pay them more. The plan is to evaluate salaries in light of the market prices for similar people. Companies that have failed to do this hemorage talent in a big way. I left Andersen Consulting because they lagged the market so far (they always lag some) that I and many top developers were able to leave and double our salaries.
I'm still working on this one - seems to me that sales people get paid some on commission. A big sale gets them more money. It also makes the developers really busy trying to fulfill the contract. Whats in it for them? From the developer's point of view - more sales are bad news - we work harder. I want to try to institute some kind of bonus program that makes them happy about sales. I haven't figured out how yet - if anyone has seen a good model for this I'd like it if they would share it.
Todd Blanchard
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