IT specialists motivation

In the previous article about my method of evaluating the effectiveness of employees, I responded to a letter from a respected person. I admit, I was a little gossip :). To be precise, the subject of the letter was: “IT motivation”. Further, in the letter questions were posed differently, it was a question of KPI, in my opinion, these are completely different things. That is, I distinguish the concept of Motivation and Performance Criteria.

Further, I express my unconditionally controversial point of view on the motivation of IT staff. If you, dear reader, it is excellent, you can express it in the comments. Let others meet him and appreciate, I will also get acquainted with him with pleasure!

Moreover, in my opinion, the dependence between motivation and a cash bonus is also not direct. That is, I do not award or penalize my employees for good or bad performance.
I just do not see the point. One wise girl told me a parable that most clearly illustrates the reason for my approach.

Parable of the potter and the boys

He lived in the light of an old potter. He made pots, sold them at the market, and lived for it.
But then the neighbors boys got into the habit of beating his pots.
He asked them not to do this, persuaded, cursed, complained to their parents - nothing helped.
Then he called the boys into his yard and said that he would pay them a ruble for each broken pot.
The boys were delighted, killed all the pots, got the money and ran away.
The next day, the potter said that he had little money, he could only pay 50 kopecks.
The boys again broke all the pots, got their money and ran away.
The next day the same thing happened again, only for each broken pot the potter paid only 20 kopecks.
The next morning, the children ran again into the courtyard. The old man came out to them and said: “I have almost no money left, guys, because I had nothing to sell. Now for every broken pot I can pay only one penny. ”
“I found fools to hit your pots for free!” - the boys were outraged.
No more pots were beaten.

I am convinced that with the modern development of IT technologies, only having an internal and non-money desire to understand computers, programming, information can explain the emergence of an IT specialist. That is, money can kill the desire to engage in professional IT. Because motivation is not external, but internal.
I appreciate the talent in the staff and generously pay for their work. In my opinion, talents in IT correspond to excellent KPIs. Not only server reliability indicators in the sphere of responsibility of my specialists are important to me, but also what those who are responsible for those servers want to achieve, and what these people do for this, want to achieve. A talented specialist, if he achieved a reliability of one nine (99.9%), will strive for two (99.99%) and so on.
Yet motivation can be encouraged with money! Below, I will tell you how and why :)
I share two types of motivation rewards:

1. For employees affecting the value of the company
2. For employees who do not directly affect the value of the company

In order to continue, I need to explain who influences the value of the company and who is not in IT.
I will try to show the influence of specialists on the value of the company. Cost is the money for which you can buy a company with "giblets." In my opinion, the contribution to the company's value does not depend on the position, but only on the role and responsibility of a person for achieving company performance, for example, in sales, and the transparency of achievement of indicators for the company's securities market. I will try on examples. Recall any company engaged in retail and (or) wholesale, let's call it "Company I". The responsibility of the CIO in such companies includes ERP-system. And this choice, support and (or) implementation, and then the total cost of ownership of ERP. Of course, this person affects the company's transparency of the company's performance, as well as cost savings supported by the necessary efficiency of the company's business processes. And the money saved is money earned (c) by Scrooge McDuck. So, such a person affects the value of the company.
A programmer or administrator can influence the value of a company. But it's too early to demand a stake in the company, do not rush :). I can name examples in which the programmer influences the cost and not:

1. Startup! This is where the team does everything. Where a CIO is more often just the leader of a team of programmers. And he calls himself a CIO, because he is young and this is showing off. And why in youth show off, everyone knows :). I know myself like that :). Nevertheless, this leader will not become the CIO, because the money is either his own or the investor in any case is finite, which means that they should be counted and saved. And if the leader does not become a CIO, then tryndets startup. The role of such a programmer is clear, he creates one of the core values ​​of the company - a product that will later become part of business processes.
2. The same large “Company I”, programmer-analyst or system programmer for the ERP system. This specialist is replaced; his replacement will be provided by the company's CIO, if necessary. I do not argue, maybe it will not be easy, maybe not just one specialist, but replace it. Such a specialist does not affect the value of the company.

I do not urge everyone to create a startup or go there to work, it is highly risky business. The second case is not so risky and, as a rule, with equal qualifications is paid higher.
One works for a share or for an option. He does not need a bonus, he has a different incentive - increasing the value of the company, it is his capital. The second works for a stable salary and his motivation can be tied to the ERP efficiency KPI, in the case of support. If we are talking about implementation, I would offer a good specialist a bonus when introducing shares or company money, because the result is important, not indicators of one iteration.
But even in the case of support, I would suggest a different motivation, not a monetary one. I emphasize once again that this works with a decent salary.
I was lucky, I was in the two roles described above. When I worked for Company I, they rewarded me and did not reward me. Moreover, the bonus system was absolutely not transparent. I did not understand why I was getting more or less money this month. And often the impression of the effectiveness of my work was different with the amount received in my hands. There were months when I would not give myself a prize, but I was rewarded, and vice versa, when everything was fine, I was not rewarded. I did not sit back, I repeatedly asked to turn me off from this bonus system. In the end, it was canceled, I hope I influenced this decision.
I learned from my experience in managing development and developing at startup that it’s enough to discuss the results of the iteration and the performance indicators in a team at a small meeting so that the team is mobilized for the result. Any expert does not want to be worse than others. This is a matter of professional pride. People who do not have professional pride, I do not spare the dismissal and advise you. Be sure to make the indicators transparent and understandable for everyone. Motivation to achieve results within us guys!
I summarize. I propose to discuss two methods of motivation on the condition of competitive salary:

1. Encouraging employees, as a rule, TOP management, affecting the value of the company by an option or shares;
2. Encouraging junior-level employees to challenge their abilities intelligently.

PS: Why am I all this? First, this topic is important to me as a professional. Secondly, I described to you the way in which I want to earn my first million :). I am a CIO specializing in high-risk software development projects.