Abstract

Why Is 2000 A Problem: Source of the problem

General Staff Retention: Usual methods of staff retention still apply

Balancing Work and Life: What separates the usual employer from the extradinary one few people want to leave

Telecommuting: One benefit that may make a difference

What is Currently Being Done About Year 2000 Staffing: Bonus plans

Government Efforts to Retain Y2K Staff: Texas, Virginia and Rhode Island

Year 2000 Need: Global problems

Annotated Bibliography: Sources with hyperlinks to source documents

Problem Statement

Why is the Year 2000 a Problem?

The Year 2000 problem comes from the practice begun in the 1960's of saving expensive computer storage space by storing all years with two digit years. If a man says he "was born in '29", everyone understands that he was born in 1929, not 1829 and not 2029. For he would have to be over 150 years old to have been born in 1829 and few, if any today, live that long and 2029 has not yet come.

My oldest daughter was born in '93. In 1999, she will be 6 years old. For a computer to calculate that, the computer takes the current year, '99, and subtract the birth year, '93. The result is 6 years old.

Notice what happens if the computer uses the same algorithm to calculate her age in the year 2000, still doing the calculation with 2 digit years. In 2000, she may suddenly be 93 years old and ready to receive social security benefits. Here is how: the computer takes the current year, '00, and subtracts the birth year, '93. The result is -93. Few, if any, computer programs know how to interpret negative dates, ages, etc. so they will probably discard the sign and she is suddenly 93 years old.

For this calculation to happen in computer systems of the Social Security system, banks with loans and deposits (what happens if all the deposits and loans are suddenly credited with an extra 100 years of interest), even kindergarten invitation systems may fill nursing homes with new that patients around 100 years old should be coming in to register for kindergarten. The results of this discontinuity in computer stored dates is severe (and sometimes humorous in retrospect) impact on computer systems which store or use dates or date derived information.

When computer programs were written in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, everyone assumed that their programs would be replace by more modern programs long before the year 2000. The "two digit year standard" was carried into programs written in the 1990's. It wasn't until 1996 that even common applications, such as Microsoft Excel, would recognize anything outside of the range 1900-1999 when a year was typed with a two digits.

Virtually every major computer system stores or utilizes dates and/or date derived information. Even devises using embedded computers, such as automobiles, VCRs, elevators, etc. could be effected.

The cost to fix these problems is going to be staggering, in the billions of dollars worldwide. Over the decades that a two digit year has been used, it has been estimated that a similar amount has been saved by businesses and governments not having to purchase more memory and disk storage space to store those extra two digits. In hindsight, it was a cost delay, not a cost savings.

Estimates are that there will not be enough programmers to fix all the problems in time. The shortage of programmers has already started a bidding war between major companies for employees to solve their (or their clients) Year 2000 problems. The goal of this paper is to look at what companies (and governments) are doing and must do to provide enough staff to solve the Year 2000 problem.

The fixes for Year 2000 have been described by many as "not rocket science". Changes are routine and there are some automated tools. Invariably, these tools are only about 80% accurate and require a programmer to check the changes done by the tool for accuracy. This means the Year 2000 problem is highly manually intensive.6

In an article appropriately titled "Bosses Despair Over Staff Poaching", it was stated that it is not uncommon to see offers which are more than double the current salary. The Gartner Group forecasts a surge in salaries during the first quarter of 1998.8

General Staff Retention

One would expect that some of the same techniques for staff retention will work as the techniques employed by corporations for usual staff retention. Therefore, it make sense to observe how staff retention is achieved in the normal work environment.

Furthermore, even if it were easy to replace employees lost dues to Year 2000 concerns, it will cost valuable time for the new employees to ramp up to speed. One unusual characteristic of the Year 2000 problem is that it allows for no slippage in schedule. The Year 2000 is coming ever so much closer and there is no stopping it.

Finally, employee retention may be a major cause of customer retention. It has been suggested that the road to profitability is not through costs, or even customers, but through fulfilling employees' needs.16

Balancing work and life

Being able to balance work and family responsibilities is a key factor to employee retention. A July, 1996 survey in London, England showed that "helping employees to achieve a better balance between their work and personal lives is the factor most likely to encourage them, and in the highest performers, to stay with an organization."36

Hoechst Celanese is one of the world's largest producers of pharmaceuticals, chemicals. A March, 1997 survey of 3000 Hoechst professional, administrative and manufacturing employees found that this balance was the most critical factor for women. For men, this was the second most important. The only factor higher rated for men was job security.21 The company views their "work/life programs as a powerful tool in helping in helping to attract and retain employees and in strengthening employee commitment.

The Hoechst survey found that employees who were aware of the work/life programs of the company were 20% more likely to strongly agree with the statement "I am willing to go the extra mile to meet business needs". Furthermore, the aware employees were 39% more likely to strongly agree with statements like "I expect to remain with the company for the next three years". This, the report claimed, shows that employees who were aware of work/family balancing programs were more committed to the company and more likely to stay.

DuPont released a study from October, 1995 which concurs with the Hoechst study. This was the third study in ten years of life/work programs in the company. The following is a quote from John A. Krol, DuPont's president and CEO, "The results of the study clearly indicate that work/life programs are a powerful tool to motivate people and encourage commitment to achieving business objectives. We've always said that people are our most important asset. This study demonstrates that when a company acts on this belief by responding to employee concerns, it is not only good for our people, but it is good for the business as well."30

The DuPont study found the work/life tradeoffs caused 34% to refuse relocation, 24% refused jobs that required increased travel, 21% refused overtime or a job with more pressure, 12% refused promotions. DuPont's work/life programs include:

• Just in Time Care: links employees to backup and emergency dependent care and subsidizes the cost by 80%.
• Dependent Care/Business Travel: allows reimbursement of extra dependent care expenses while an employee travels away from the normal workplace overnight.
• Other dependent care categories: overtime, sick children, summer care and affordable child/elder care, snowy day child care programs.
• Life/Work Family Resource Program: free consultation and referrals.
• Flexible Work Practices: Part time, job sharing, flextime, flexplace, job sharing, telecommuting, etc.30

Motorola's LifeSteps benefits package is believed an effective employee retention tool. The four part plan includes these components17

• Essentials (medical, dental, disability and life insurance)17
• Horizons (pension, profit sharing, and investment plans)17
• Balance (adoption assistance, child and dependent care referrals, short-term care on call for sick children, child care discounts, family leave, and other lifestyle programs)17
• Milestones (a grant of up to $5,000, based on years of service, to help cover hoe buying, continuing education, and other major expenses).17

Employers must determine what are the drivers of employee satisfaction26 , what are the root causes that they choose to remain with the company, and maximize those elements of the employees life as much as possible. Things an employer can do to improve commitment include:

• Pay plans must conform to industry standards. In normal industries, this has to be balanced with the profit or one may pay out too much profit22 . In the Year 2000 problem, prices keep going up, so there is room for ever increasing salaries.
• Two thought producing question were raised by GreenSea Consulting: What if you had a job where you could do whatever you wanted, as long as it produced results in the company's interest? What if you could ask employees to do whatever you wanted them to, as long as they felt fulfilled?16
• Provide bonuses for completing deliverables on time.35 Give managers the ability to give bonuses to people at any point in time without getting permission or filling out forms in the form of time off, cash bonuses, lunches, etc.14 This might be accomplished by the manager having a small budget to be used for such purposes. The reward for the manager using that budget well is renewal of the same line item in their budget the next year.
• Make the employee feel that the organization cares about their lives outside of work. The exact depends on the employees personal and family situation. These help the employee make it through life's normal and predictable transitions.37 Furthermore, if an employee has a problem at home, that may impede the overall success of the project that the employee is assigned to.35 A few ideas are listed below:
  • Paid time off banks22
  • Help getting a teenager back on track in school37
  • Support through a period of depression or other illness37
  • A weeks time off with pay upon the birth of a child14
  • Help finding daycare facilities for children or older relatives37
  • At least one company found that hiring employees relatives may provide the loved one employment, experience and valuable benefits.35
  • One company gained a valuable employee from a competitor by offering four weeks vacation after six months rather than the usual two weeks after one year. The employee just had a baby and was less interested in more money or responsibility than time with her new family.13

• Provide flexibility in when, where and how the employee works. This may include job sharing, part- time, flextime and flexlocation.31
• Casual dress codes14
• Find ways to build commitment to the team, work and customer. This is a matter of the design of the job. With allowing flexlocation, extraordinary efforts have to be created to a sense of community between team members. I personally experienced this type of problem when I was a hospital chaplain, assigned to a small satellite hospital, away from the rest of the team of chaplains in the primary hospital. The result was not feeling a part of the team.
• Build relationships between employees through group activities such as celebrating birthdays, Friday night pizza parties, several employee dinners each year, spring barbecues, etc.35
• Recognize and reward employees for good work. Even small rewards such as lunch or paid time off may be appropriate in some situations.35 It is also possible for a manager to write a personal note of thanks to an employee, offer to do the employees least favorite job for a week, give the employee a days off or invite the employee to take a friend to lunch on the company.13
• Use employee longevity to market the company to prospective employees and customers. A good track record on employee retention demonstrates that the company treats its employees right.35
• Create a sense that the company will keep the employee employable. Companies can no longer guarantee continuous employment. They should be encouraging employees to avail themselves of training offered by the company, provide varied experience, upgrade to the most recent software versions as often as practical, etc.
• Share both the company's financial information and profits through a profit-sharing program. This benefit will give the employee both the desire and motivation to help the business successful.35 In KSR's Career Satisfaction Survey, it was found that less than a third of all technical employees have stock options and/or profit sharing. Since it is unavailable at two-thirds of the companies, it could be an important retention factor, if the stock is increasing in value.17
• Give employees a chance to be heard on ideas and ways the corporation can better serve them better. This may be at a quarterly open meeting or at small group lunches where the employees are encouraged to share.13

In a 1997 career satisfaction survey of research and development professionals by Kelly Scientific Resources, it was found that there was poor correlation between the 75 percent who ranked their salary as "good" or "fair" and intent to stay at the position for the next two years. This showed that, as long as salaries were competitive, salary was not a primary factor in employee retention.17

The KRS survey also found that the opportunity to do exciting and significant work, especially with talented colleagues, is a key to retention. The three top aspects of the job were "solving challenging problems", "the people I work with", and "interesting work/variety of work".17

The KRS survey found the top workplace concern was "keeping current on technology". Hewlett-Packard has a program which allows certain promising R& D personnel to return to school full time to get a masters degree while still drawing a salary and having books and tuition covered.17

The KRS survey found management styles should correlate to employee preferences. The singles least favorable aspect of the job was "too much bureaucracy", followed by "no opportunity for advancement". "Lack of management feedback" was also on the top five.17

Examples of management styles tailored to employees include:

• Baxter International Inc., Deerfield, Ill where research and development professionals have three career tracks to choose from. People may become world-class experts in their field; they can manage complex projects (such as designing artificial hearts); or they can manage complex technical portfolios (such as a range of drugs related to kidney diseases).17
• Some degree of freedom was found to be a common thread in job satisfaction. Saphikon Inc., Milford, NH gives professionals complete freedom to work on any project the individual feels need attention. They also have a very short chain of command.17
• Providing excellent equipment and facilities is National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, CO. They also provide employees of the Materials Reliability Division, the freedom to choose the research area.17
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (run by Battelle) has a program called entrepreneurial leave. Employees take some piece of technology that is not being pursued, and creates their own company. They still work up to half time to supplement their income. Battelle also offers the entrepreneurs business plans and management training. Battelle gains an interest in the product and retains creative employees who would have otherwise probably left.17

Another one of the top five list of least satisfying aspects of the job in Kelly Scientific Resources survey was "not enough appreciation". So many employers offer lots of award programs for researchers.17

Telecommuting

One way to maximize employee satisfaction is the option of telecommuting. There are three types of telecommuting: working from home, working from a satellite office (allowing employees to reduce commute time and expense by commuting to a location away from the main office facility), and commuting to a community work center shared by employees of different companies.2 A major California study revealed that telecommuters believe benefits of telecommuting far exceed their initial expectations and are eager to expand the number of days they telecommute.3

General benefits of telecommuting include:

• Increasing productivity by 10-30%, according to the State of California Telecomuting Pilot Program.2 This is caused by more work hours, more work per hour and improved quality of work.3
• Decreased distractions.2

The recruiting and retention benefits of telecommuting are:

• Extending geographic boundaries.2
• Makes company more attractive by offering new and flexible work structures.2
• Accommodating dependent care responsibilites.2
• Saves recruiting and training costs.2
• Provides flexible alternatives to relocation.2
• Reduces travel and geographic barriers.2
• Benefits employees mentally and emotionally.2
• Potentially reduces long-term disability costs.2
• A major study found that before experiencing telecommuting, most employees felt that would not effect their opinion of time spent telecommuting. After they began telecommuting, that was among the most satisfying aspects of telecommuting.3
• Increased employee morale, retention and easier employee recruitment.3

Consider telecommuting a few days per week. Several steps must be completed for an employee to begin telecommuting. A more detailed, step by step plan can be found on pages 9-21 of Smart Valley Telecommuting Guide.

• Determine if work can be done from home. Consider the task set which has to be accomplished. Is the office a place of networking, where employees are empowered to act and think for themselves, and where management is done by results and not by physical presence. The least effective home environments for telecommuting are small apartments with active young children, thin walls and noisy neighbors.11 Work which open-ended may cause people to become workaholics, resulting in personal and health problems.11
• Consider the individuals personality, experience and preferences. For example, a young single may prefer to commute to a busy office where there is opportunities for socializing. Another negative would be a loneliness factor cause by the lack of interaction. Some people use the daily routine of travel from home mode to work mode and back again. An older person in a happy family relationship may prefer to work at home, avoid commuting time and be available for local community activities in the early evening. To be a successful telecommuter, one must have good self discipline to ensure an adequate amount and quality of work is achieved.11 If the telecommuter is to work at home more than 50% of the time, he should also be confident about making independent decisions.2 Telecommuters should be full time employees with tenure.2
• Good management is by results, not by taking attendance nor by activity. Style of management must be to schedule timetables, measure progress against those schedules and give performance feedback.2
• Establish the minimum environment at home: computer, modem and 2 phone lines.
• Have good motivations for wanting to telecommute (those should benefit the company). These benefits include increased productivity, reduces space and equipment costs, provides an advantage in staff recruitment and cut sick time.4 Personal benefits include flexibility and better quality of life.12
• Try telecommuting for an experimental period and prepare a cost and benefit report.5

Year 2000 Staff Retention

What is currently being done about Year 2000 staffing

There are two basic questions, recruiting and retaining. Retention is the far more important to IS shops who already have personnel.

As long as companies offer mainframe staff compensation that is commensurate with current market range, nonmonetary benefits should prevent turnover--even as the market for skills intensifies.6

In the State of Washington, it is illegal to provide special retention incentives to Year 2000 workers. As of April, 1997, the Department of Information Resources (DIR) had lost none of its Year 2000 workers to private industry despite higher salaries being offered there. According to DIR's director, "This is a small community. People's roots are here. Employees are loyal to the state and their commitment may be different."7 But even DIR's director admits that the lifestyle and sense of community may not be enough to keep employees as the salary bidding was increases.

Bonuses are a popular incentive for retention in private industry. A top 10 financial institution is paying out Year 2000 bonuses of at least $30,000 between now and the Year 2000.7 A major financial services firm is offering a bonus of 25% of salary for an employee staying through 1997, 50% of salary for an employee staying through 1998 and 75% of salary for an employee staying through 1999.7 A major retailer is offering Year 2000 workers a second full year of salary for those who stay until 2000.7 Vesting stock options which mature at the date of completion are another incentive.7

A Year 2000 program manager for a major corporation stated "Companies which have been through downsizing need to have stronger retention program. No amount of money works where employees loyalty is gone. Loyalty is better that a retention program. A retention program is just icing on the cake."7

Bonuses are also used for recruitment. Signing bonuses are offered when hired or at an agreed date in the future.7

One large insurance company in Illinois prefers new COBOL programmer to more experienced staff because they are more likely to stay with getting the monotonous date-conversion work done. The new programmers are more likely to follow directions because they don't know enough to follow other creative instincts of more seasoned staff.6

Training can be an incentive for workers to stay with a Year 2000 project. Some firms offer to retrain Year 2000 workers in newer technology at the end of Year 2000 projects.7 Computer based training (CBT) is another benefit that will build company loyalty (ant therefore retention).7

Training can also be used to obtain more workers for Year 2000 projects. Complete Business Solutions, Inc (CBSI) from Farmington, Michigan offers a four week intensive training course to individuals who have not yet graduated. Their course covers COBOL, JCL, CICS and Year 2000 methods. This offers a career change to those with a year or two of programming courses, some logic and math and the chance to get a "foot in the door".7

AMS Training Services offers a four week Immersion Program to train people who have a college degree, but not in computer science. The Immersion Program consists of training, mentoring and actual project work. The new employee sees the commitment of the company to build their skills in the computer field. This builds employee loyalty and reduces staff turnover. The company sees technical competence built three to four times faster than by traditional methods.1

Government efforts to retain Y2K staff

The State of Texas has established a bonus system for Year 2000 critical staff. To qualify for the bonus (up to $10,000 payable on May 31, 2000 or on termination32 ), the employee must have been with their agency for at least three years and registered with the state as a critical employee by September of 1997. Justification had to be made why the employee was critical to the Year 2000 effort.27

Commonwealth of Virginia has established a bonus program for Year 2000 professionals. The bonuses are up to $10,000 for agreeing to stay with their agency through June 30, 2000. The bonuses are repayable if the employee leaves either for unsatisfactory performance or voluntarily separation. The bonuses can either be held until June 30, 2000 or distributed in two or three installments.18

Rhode Island expects key employees to leave if they reach their 28 year retirement threshold. They also expect to lose employees not heavily vested in the retirement program. They realize that commercial contract programmers can not replace lost in-house programmers on a one-for-one ratio because the in- house programmers are familiar with the applications. For each lost employee, they expect to use two contract programmers for the first three months, 1.5 contract employees for the next three months and 1 contract employee thereafter. Options they have considered include28

• Create a key employee incentive retention program, such as vesting in the pension plan in 2001, regardless of the number of years of service.28
• Consider matching wage rates in the private sector based on quarterly reviews. This is the option Rhode Island chose to follow.28
• Contract for overseas labor (which will be less expensive than domestic commercial rates)28
• Live with application failures, substituting clerical workers for failed systems28
• Backdate or forward the computer files by 4, 8, 20 or 28 years28
• Run two copies of the system, one with dates in the 1900's, the other with dates in the 2000's28
• Manually keep record normally inputted after a system reaches it time horizon to failure until it is made compliant28

Year 2000 Need

Globally, the need for Year 2000 workers has not yet been felt. In Sidney, Australia, Year 2000 awareness is low and some companies are laying off IT staff. One company set up a Year 2000 factory and has not renovated enough code to pay for the employees lunches. There are variations from city to city, but so far "no shortages and no panic yet".7

Annotated Bibliography

References checked

1. AMS Training Services, New Hire Immersion Program
   • Claims to be able to train skilled technologists 3 to 4 times faster than traditional training approaches by using their "Immersion" approach.
2. Benhamou, Eric, et al, Smart Valley Telecommuting Guide , pg. 2-7, 19
   • Extensive reference book available on-line concerning setting up and running telecommuting jobs.
3. Benhamou, Eric, et al, Smart Valley Telecommuting Pilot Project , pg. 7, 28, A7, A8, A13, A17-19, A28
   • Extensive survey results from a group of telecommuters, their co-workers and their managers.
4. Boswell, Laura, Faxing over French toast - The life of a telecommuter (part 1)
   • Telecommuting increases productivity, reduces space and equipment costs, allows for more advantage in staff recruiting and retention and cuts sick time.
5. Boswell, Laura, Meeting over muffins - How to sell the boss on telecommuting (part 2)
   • Advise to evaluate job's ability to telecommute, equipment available at home and motivation before considering asking the boss. Then talk to others and demonstrate how it will help the company. Finally, offer it for an experimental period and cost and benefit report.
6. Callaway, Erin, COBOL Comeback
   • Several ideas for obtaining Year 2000 staff include offer compensation commensurate with current market range, increase team bonding and internal training of COBOL programmers.
7. Cohen, Bob, ITAA's Year 2000 Outlook
   • Factors which encourage employees to stay with their current employers rather than switching for more lucrative Year 2000 positions include need to relocate, flexible hours, telecommuting, large bonuses, an extra year of salary in the year 2000, bonuses based upon performance milestones, stock options which vest in year 2000, retraining employees in other areas who had some previous training, computer based training, end of program incentive packages (job training in new technologies, added vacation time, leave of absences and travel dollars).
8. Computerweekly, Bosses Despair Over Staff Poaching
   • Short article reporting that the Year 2000 problem employee problem also extend to London, England.
9. Delancy, Benjamin, The Year 2000 Problem: Paying the Programmers
   • A trust lawyer reviews traditional approaches to employee retention, then advocates a "top-hat" or "rabbi trust" usually used to defer compensation to senior executives.
10. European Teleworking Organization, Is It Possible to Combine Home-Based Telework, On Site Work with Caring for a Family?
    • One individuals experience of balancing telecommuting and family.
11. European Teleworking Organization, Is There a "Right" Psychological Profile for Teleworkers?
    • The four main deciding characteristics for telecommuting are the task set (the job that must be formed); organizational readiness (used to communicating on line, independently thinking employees, management by results); domestic (home and family) setting (small apartments with small children would be bad); and individuals personality, experience and preferences.
12. European Teleworking Organization, BT Survey of Commuters (November 1995)
    • The majority of those surveyed by British Telecom would like to the option of teleworking, at least some of the time.
13. Franklin, Howard, Keeping the Best: Employee Retention in the '90s
    • Earning employee loyalty requires investment in career-based training, flexibility, good compensation, and planning for their future. Hire wisely, train well, and, most importantly, value employees and let them know it.
14. Goyette, Marc, Employee retention as a competitive edge
15. Graham, Baxter, The Business Argument for Flexibility
    • Chubb Group of Insurance Companies benefits package includes paid time off, snowy day child care, telecommuting and flexibility for managers and employees.
16. GreenSea Consulting, Strategies--Oct. '95--Employee Retention, Profitability, and Nice People--or How to Get the HR Department and the CEO to Talk to Each Other
    • Keeping customers is more profitable than having low costs. Treating employees right will encourage them to treat customers right. Give employees a new contract that provides as much freedom as they can conceive of, as long as it is clearly in the company's interest.
17. Higginbotham, Julie S., The Satisfaction Equation
    • Extensive survey results in strategies to retain technical people. Identified keys are: benefits (rather than salary), exciting projects, flexible management styles, training and recognition
18. James, Charles E., Memorandum
    • The state of Virginia's Year 2000 employee retention plan is $6,000 in bonuses spread over three years.
19. Kelly, Bernie and McGraw, Bruce, Successful Management in the Virtual Office
    • Analysis of the traits of successful telecommunicators and their managers.
20. Lipput, Henry, Employee Retention: A Little Flexibility Goes a Long Way Toward Keeping the Staff Intact
    • Advantages of working for a small firm include addressing personal goals and treatment as an individual.
21. Martin, Alice, Hoechst Celanese Study Ties Work/Family Programs to Employee Retention
    • A study of 3000 professional, administrative and manufacturing employees in 1990 and 1997. After the 1990 survey, a work/life program was begun and the results of that new program are analyzed thought the report. Employees not only managed their lives better, but also were more willing to go the extra mile to achieve business results.
22. Nelson, Craig D., Improved Profits Through Employee Retention
    • Suggestions to improve family flexibility include paid time-off banks, snowy day child care programs, emergency elder care, telecommuting, job sharing and flex time or part time.
23. Netplex, Press Release: Netplex Launches Teamwork 2000
    • Netplex feels that retention rather than recruitment will be the most important issue for managers of Year 2000 projects.
24. NZInfoTech Weekly, Europe Lags Behind with Action Plans
    • New Zealand has a shrinking pool of workers available for Year 2000 work.
25. Object Services and Consulting, Virtual Office
    • In depth report on the pros and cons of allowing employees to working-at-home.
26. Positive Directions, Inc., Example Diagrams
    • Determine the drivers of employee satisfaction and delight and also their willingness to leave or stay. Make focused improvements that drives increased retention and loyalty and also provide a significant return on the investment. The result will be delighted employees, happy management, happy customers, and happy stakeholders.
27. Riverman, Kim, TAMU Computing and Information Services Year 2000 Team: DIR Y2K Workgroup Meeting report June 13, 1997
    • Reference to the implementation of Texas's Year 2000 bonus program.
28. Road Island, Sate of, Year 2000 Preliminary Analysis, Final Report - June 30, 1997
    • Seeing expectations that contracting rates will raise from about $75 per hour in first quarter, 1997 to $325 per hour in last quarter of 1999, it is recommended that other contract vehicles are adopted. They expect current contractoring firms who have fixed price contracts with the state will be unable to perform because they will not have staffing.
29. Roche, Eileen, Staffing for the Millennium
    • Short article point out CapGemini's Year 2000 staffing study and Netplex Group's Teamwork 2000 deferred compensation fund.
30. Rowan, Heidelore, Dupont
    • 18,000 Dupont employees participated in three studies to provide the only known life/work data with data from a decade. This report provides insight into how well employees feel supported by their management, their commitment and their burn-out levels.
31. Shaker Advertising Agency, Research: HR News
    • Collection of mini-articles with an employee reform agenda from October - November, 1997. Topic include advantages of working at home ("work/life programs"), general strategies to handle worker shortage, and workplace environment affects performance.
32. Texas, State of, Summary of Year 2000 Critical Employee Bonus Program
    • Summary of the state of Texas legislative efforts to retain Year 2000 staff which includes $10,000 bonuses.
33. Texas, State of, Year 2000 Legislation
    • Introduction to state of Texas legislative efforts to retain Year 2000 staff.
34. Texas, State of, From the General Appropriation Act For Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999
    • $110,916,771 has been allocated to solve the Year 2000 problem.
35. Walker, Angela, The Recipe for Employee Retention: It Takes More Than Money, Say Family Business Owners
    • The recommendations include involving employees in the company's decision making process, being sympathetic to family concerns, recognize and rewarded employees for good work, use employee longevity to market the company, let employees take time off for family commitments, build a family structure into the business even to the extent of hiring relatives, help pay for employees family college expenses, etc.
36. Work/Family Directions, Inc, New Research by WFD Reveals That Work-Life Balance is the Key to Employee Commitment
    • The ability to balance work and personal life is more important than the opportunity for promotion, the challenge of the job and even the quality of their immediate manager.
37. Work/Family Directions, Inc, The New Employer-Employee Compact
    • Employees need the freedom and responsibility to do their work well, and the recognition that they have lives outside of work. Employers can build commitment through addressing personal and family needs, flexibility, and providing training and experience.

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Copyright (C) 1997, 1998 by Victor Fanberg. Last update 4/4/98.