I just got off the phone with one of the most intelligent managers from India who I have ever talked to. He had visited 25 countries in his life and had decades of experience working for very respectable larger U.S. companies. He and I commiserated about how helpless we felt that the good programmers and IT workers almost all seemed to get poached or eaten up by the larger companies out there.
Trying to find good programmers is hard when they get poached.
As a person who relies on software outsourcing companies for tasks such as PHP, .Net, VB, Java, etc., it is always a problem to find experienced programmers. There are experienced workers out there, but their level of availability is always very low which is a huge problem if you need to get something done. The less experienced workers are always available, but seem to get stuck on programming tasks the minute there is any unexpected complication. The most efficient way to deal with this dilemma is to have the more experienced workers watching over a dozen less experienced workers. The more experienced worker should ideally not do any work himself other than to help the others, or fix their errors, test them, and guide them. But, what can you do if every worker you’ve ever had leaves the company after working exactly five years because a bigger company bought them out so to speak?
A job at a large company helps you get married in India
In India, the culture is different than other countries. Marriage is a big deal in India. To get a good match, you need to come from a good family, your dad needs to have a government job (as that was fashionable a generation ago,) you need to have a software or engineering job for a large company (preferably a JOB at a MNC that does BPO and will give you good PAY.) Even if employees have to take a pay cut to work for a larger company, they often will simply because the status of the bigger company will help them get married and impress those in their social network and family. Additionally, the prospect of foreign travel or working overseas is possible in larger companies like Sun, Tata, Infosys, Wipro, etc. Smaller companies typically offer a dead-end with no room for advancement — or at least that is the perception. In countries in Eastern Europe, it is more common for experienced programmers to be willing to work for smaller firms, but not in India.
The solution is a pay-grade change and status change at smaller companies.
Since the five year mark is when most decent employees get inducted by larger companies, small companies need to create a system offering an incentive not to quit to join a larger company. Women also pose a problem as they have the biological habit of getting pregnant. So, incentives for what Americans call, “Planned parenthood” would help if it could get ladies to plan several years in advance when they want to get pregnant and leave work. My idea for incentives would be that employees should get smaller pay and smaller raises their first two years. But, starting at around three and a half years, they should start getting larger raises and their pay should go significantly up if they are any good. They should also know other older people who stayed at the company who are getting substantially higher than average pay. It might be worth it for the company to take a loss on senior employees just to set a precedent that those who stick around will be rewarded without question.
3.5 years — the raises should start adding up
The more sophisticated companies such as Google don’t like bonuses as much as giving regular raises every 90 days. It keeps people on their toes more. The raises could be slower the first 3.5 years, and then speed up from year 3.5 to around 7. Once an employee hits seven years, their raises could slow down a bit, but they would be getting paid a lot more than most other employees at similar levels in India.
International travel as a status benefit in small to medium Indian software firms.
For companies with 20-200 employees, it might make sense for them to send some of their employees overseas to meet with clients or even work overseas just for the status appeal. In India, status can make you or break you. If employees at the 5 year level feel confident they will be able to travel to Australia to have higher level meetings, they will be less likely to leave the company. Even if the meetings are not completely necessary, don’t tell them that. Make them feel like a star, and then your team as a whole will stick around for many more years. If Naran gets to go to Ireland on business, then Pratip, Prakash, and Prashant will stick around in anticipation that one day maybe they will be able to go on a prestigious business trip and feel like they are going somewhere in life!
Summary
My solution is very simple. Give people what they want when they want it and make it hard for them to leave you. You could have nice offices and better working conditions to keep people around as well. There are hundreds of techniques for getting your workers to stay. It is worth investing in this science of psychology, otherwise you’ll end up like the others with only inexperienced workers who can’t function under pressure!
joke:
How would you like your programmers?
Preferably seasoned & well done — and I would like them broiled, but not poached!