How to pay programmers less
To create software you need programmers. Unfortunately, their work is expensive, they are lazy and they are almost impossible to control. No matter how well their programs work, you have to pay them every month, and of course, the less you pay, the better. However, sometimes employees guess that they are underpaid and leave. How to prevent this? It is a pity that today there is no opportunity to force them to work by force. There are several techniques that will help pay programmers less, and I want to talk about them.
Keep your salaries secret. Obviously, programmers should not be allowed to discuss their salaries. They must keep this information confidential. Prevent them (or better sign off the prohibiting NDA) from talking about patches, bonuses, and other "buns". They will consider the topic of money "poisonous" and never discuss salary issues with each other. If a person does not know the salary of his colleagues, then he will no longer raise the issue of revising his own.
Boost by chance. In matters of promotions and layoffs, there should be no visible consistency. Raise the salary of a programmer when it seems necessary to you, and not when he began to work faster and better. Try to make your decisions unpredictable. Unpredictability creates fear, and fear is what we need. Employees will be afraid to raise the issue of salary increases for a long time.
No conferences. Do not allow them to attend meetings and conferences, because there they can meet recruiters or other programmers, from whom they learn that their salaries are not as big as they could be. Try to convince them that conferences are a waste of time, and you can always organize a meeting in the office with your colleagues. So it will be more difficult for your employees to get acquainted with programmers from other companies, and the less they know, the calmer it is.
')
Watch them. Make sure they all use corporate mail, computers, servers, and even mobile phones with software installed to track each message. It is perfectly ideal to have a security department for this purpose that monitors programmers and regularly reports any anomalies and suspicious actions, such as contacts with other companies. Employees should know that you follow them: fear will not be superfluous.
Negotiate with competitors . Agree with your main competitors not to hire employees from each other. If they disagree, try to lure some of their key specialists by offering them twice as much salary. Even if you don’t need these employees, after such actions, competitors are more likely to accept the deal.
Promote corporate values. Constantly tell employees how beautiful your company is, how important its mission is, and how important their contribution to the common cause is. The question of salaries will seem insignificant to them against the background of a multi-billion dollar market, on which your team is trying to dominate.
Build a family. Corporate parties, team-building, beer on Fridays, bowling, birthdays and joint dinners - all this creates the feeling that the company is a second family. Money can not be more expensive than a family, therefore the question of salary increase will be perceived as a betrayal of family values.
Keep them on their toes. Workers should never relax. Make sure they have urgent deadlines, complex problems and a sufficient amount of responsibility behind them. They will not ask for a raise if they constantly feel guilty because of unfulfilled goals. Try to make them accountable for errors as much as possible.
Upholstered chairs and tennis tables. Spend some money on a variety of small nice office things, and they will pay for themselves many times, allowing you to underpay programmers. A fashionable professional coffee machine will cost you $ 1,000 and will save you $ 200- $ 300 a month on every programmer’s salary. Calculate the benefit. Make it a rule: it is better to buy a new game console in the office, than to increase someone's salary. Let employees bring pets to the office: they will stay in the office longer for less money.
Use important job titles. Call them vice presidents, for example: vice president of engineering, vice president of technology, vice president of something else. This means nothing to you, but it is very important to them. Salary will be less important than what lines they write in their LinkedIn profile. If you can't call vice-presidents, try other options, for example: lead developer, technical leader, chief scientist, and so on.
Help them survive. Most programmers do not know how to do home accounting, they don’t know how to buy insurance, they don’t know how to save for retirement and they don’t know how to pay taxes. You can help them with this for your own benefit. They will be happy to experience the feeling of security created by you, and will not want to leave the company: the very thought of a request for a promotion will cause them anxious feelings. They should feel like children, and you - as a parent. This is an old good model, and it works.
Be a friend. This is the last and most effective technique. Programmers must see you as a friend. Negotiating money with a friend is difficult. They will continue to work for less money, because you are good friends. How to become friends? Meet with their families, call them to dinner at your home, give gifts: it will save you a lot of money.
Keep your salaries secret. Obviously, programmers should not be allowed to discuss their salaries. They must keep this information confidential. Prevent them (or better sign off the prohibiting NDA) from talking about patches, bonuses, and other "buns". They will consider the topic of money "poisonous" and never discuss salary issues with each other. If a person does not know the salary of his colleagues, then he will no longer raise the issue of revising his own.
Boost by chance. In matters of promotions and layoffs, there should be no visible consistency. Raise the salary of a programmer when it seems necessary to you, and not when he began to work faster and better. Try to make your decisions unpredictable. Unpredictability creates fear, and fear is what we need. Employees will be afraid to raise the issue of salary increases for a long time.
No conferences. Do not allow them to attend meetings and conferences, because there they can meet recruiters or other programmers, from whom they learn that their salaries are not as big as they could be. Try to convince them that conferences are a waste of time, and you can always organize a meeting in the office with your colleagues. So it will be more difficult for your employees to get acquainted with programmers from other companies, and the less they know, the calmer it is.
')
Watch them. Make sure they all use corporate mail, computers, servers, and even mobile phones with software installed to track each message. It is perfectly ideal to have a security department for this purpose that monitors programmers and regularly reports any anomalies and suspicious actions, such as contacts with other companies. Employees should know that you follow them: fear will not be superfluous.
Negotiate with competitors . Agree with your main competitors not to hire employees from each other. If they disagree, try to lure some of their key specialists by offering them twice as much salary. Even if you don’t need these employees, after such actions, competitors are more likely to accept the deal.
Promote corporate values. Constantly tell employees how beautiful your company is, how important its mission is, and how important their contribution to the common cause is. The question of salaries will seem insignificant to them against the background of a multi-billion dollar market, on which your team is trying to dominate.
Build a family. Corporate parties, team-building, beer on Fridays, bowling, birthdays and joint dinners - all this creates the feeling that the company is a second family. Money can not be more expensive than a family, therefore the question of salary increase will be perceived as a betrayal of family values.
Keep them on their toes. Workers should never relax. Make sure they have urgent deadlines, complex problems and a sufficient amount of responsibility behind them. They will not ask for a raise if they constantly feel guilty because of unfulfilled goals. Try to make them accountable for errors as much as possible.
Upholstered chairs and tennis tables. Spend some money on a variety of small nice office things, and they will pay for themselves many times, allowing you to underpay programmers. A fashionable professional coffee machine will cost you $ 1,000 and will save you $ 200- $ 300 a month on every programmer’s salary. Calculate the benefit. Make it a rule: it is better to buy a new game console in the office, than to increase someone's salary. Let employees bring pets to the office: they will stay in the office longer for less money.
Use important job titles. Call them vice presidents, for example: vice president of engineering, vice president of technology, vice president of something else. This means nothing to you, but it is very important to them. Salary will be less important than what lines they write in their LinkedIn profile. If you can't call vice-presidents, try other options, for example: lead developer, technical leader, chief scientist, and so on.
Help them survive. Most programmers do not know how to do home accounting, they don’t know how to buy insurance, they don’t know how to save for retirement and they don’t know how to pay taxes. You can help them with this for your own benefit. They will be happy to experience the feeling of security created by you, and will not want to leave the company: the very thought of a request for a promotion will cause them anxious feelings. They should feel like children, and you - as a parent. This is an old good model, and it works.
Be a friend. This is the last and most effective technique. Programmers must see you as a friend. Negotiating money with a friend is difficult. They will continue to work for less money, because you are good friends. How to become friends? Meet with their families, call them to dinner at your home, give gifts: it will save you a lot of money.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/317164/
All Articles