hi and welcome to Tech Talk I'm Ken Mingis executive editor at computer
world I'm here today with managing editor for features Val Potter today's
big topic best places to work in IT it's our 26th year we're gonna get all the
lowdown stick around okay Val thanks for being here this managing editor for
features right that's correct most importantly you and a few others really
oversee this project which is you know it takes months to prepare this data and
come down come up with our big list of 100 best places to work in IT so maybe
the first thing I should do is ask you to just sort of explain how we have we
come up with the list the kinds of things we're looking for sure so all
kinds of companies participate and it's not even just companies but universities
nonprofits hospitals research facilities etc any any big organization as welcome
to join and we have companies of all sizes in all industries participating so
they fill out an extensive survey asking about salaries benefits training
programs career development opportunities and other factors that
make them stand out places to work for IT pros and then once the the company
survey is completed employees from IT employees from those companies fill out
a separate survey asking about their satisfaction with those benefits and
programs as well as with their ID IT department as a whole and the responses
from both surveys are combined to come up with a final list of 100 best places
to work in IT is it the point of doing this sort of to serve a way of doing
this is of course a company could say we're great here's what we do here are
the benefits we offer and really tout themselves but when it comes down to it
you need to hear from the employees themselves are they getting these
benefits and are these the benefits that they really want and that's what
attracted them to the companies right that's exactly right and it goes beyond
benefits too you could offer the best benefits in the world but if it's if
it's not a positive work environment if it's not someplace people want to come
work then you don't deserve to be on our list so that's why we we we wait the
employee responses about the same way as the company responses when we tell you
those results okay and obviously when it comes to
benefits you know we're talking about I mean obviously compensation plays into
this but we're looking beyond that to sort of almost a holistic view of how a
company treats its employees its IT employees in particular and so what
kinds of things rise to the top in terms of what the employees say matter than
most so well all kinds of things but there's basically five basic buckets one
is to offer competitive pay on top benefits create a positive workplace
invest in employees development give them a voice and let them know they're
appreciated so you know let's break these down compensation it's obvious but
important talented IT pros expect to be paid fairly for the work they do they're
not expecting astronomical pay and it's far from the only factor but
nevertheless if you're not going to compensate them fairly you're not going
to get the best IT talent understood and what else and what are the kinds of
benefits beyond compensation and I would assume compensation is obviously gonna
vary depending on where a company is located I mean an IT worker at a company
in San Francisco is gonna be paid a lot differently than someone in North
Carolina or the mid you know middle part of the country that's correct and also
the type of organization it is makes a difference to you know private sector
tends to pay better than government jobs for instance but yeah and so in terms of
baseline benefits any company competing for for talent needs to offer just the
basics paid time off health insurance a 401k or 403b plan flexible hours the
opportunity to telecommute those are all just sort of the baseline benefits but
above and beyond that best places companies offer everything from employee
wellness programs college tuition reimbursement for instance Vanguard
provides up to $9,000 per year in tuition reimbursement as well as a
program to help pay off employees student loans and that's very important
for younger employees who are just out of college who are struggling to pay off
their student debt in the average tuition reimbursement offered to IT
employees across the 100 best places organization
is nearly $7,000 per year I don't think that's the norm across most companies
these are these are really the standout companies and so you can tell they're
really looking to to get those young new workers in and help them in their
outside life so that they can come to work focused
well sure especially if something like you know being a being able to help an
employee pay off student loans given the student loan crisis in the country right
now I can see how that would be a huge selling point for our company it's
interesting to how some of these things change over the years I you know some of
the information that we've dug up is that 98 percent of the best places
companies on our list or organizations on our list offer a non-discrimination
policy regarding sexual orientation eighty six percent offer benefits to
domestic partners and same-sex partners and it seems like parental leave is
becoming more more of a selling point for these companies that's correct
anything that has to do with work/life balance is really on the rise as
employees value those types of benefits more and more and it it's just part of
the zeitgeist today everyone sort of Americans are looking around and saying
well gee you know in Europe they get so much time off when they when they have
children and why don't we get that and so US law it's not very good on this um
there's a certain amount of maternal leave that's granted but it's unpaid
there is no federal law that requires paid family leave for for new mothers or
fathers and according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics only about 15% of US
workers are offered paid family leave by their employers that includes fully paid
or partially paid so the best places organizations are way out in front here
eighty four percent offer at least one week a fully paid maternity leave 79
percent offer a week or more of paternity leave at full pay and some of
them go way beyond that among the standouts VMware for instance
offers both new mothers and new fathers 18 weeks of fully paid family leave yeah
I can see I mean compared to you what's going on across the country that
that's way out there they're I mean they're way out in front so kudos to
VMware you know it's interesting one of the sort of I guess soft benefits it
comes up repeatedly is this idea of a positive workplace and how do you get
employees to be not only you know engaged in their work but engage with
each other engage with the company culture and you know there are things
that we have you know uncovered workplace perks like walking and biking
paths on-site health clinics free parking standing desks game rooms you
know the kinds of things you kind of think of and it's interesting again
that's the sort of thing where I'm not sure mainstream companies get but
companies that are looking to attract IT top-level IT workers they have to pay
attention to things like that that's correct but it really goes beyond that I
mean of course you know nobody's going to say no to a catered lunch they love
it but really when we talked to these these IT pros they place a far higher
value on the culture of the IT department and the organization as a
whole in fact this year we dedicated the cover story of our special report to the
idea of teamwork because that was what the IT employees we spoke to praised the
most about their organizations for instance ultimate software he made a
decision back in the early 2000s to get all its work done via teams according to
this is what its CTO Adam Rogers told us and when hiring the company specifically
looks for people who can work collaboratively so you know that's and
that's the one thing that the employees there kept saying over and over this you
know we do everything as a team we love working on teams and as you keep hiring
people who value that it just continues that's just a snowball effect it gets
better and better at aligned technologies it's just another another
organization on our list every employee is part of a cross-functional team of
eight to ten people represent in each of the various technologies involved in
whichever product or service they're working on everyone sees the same data
it drives towards the same goals and shares what they've learned with other
teams across the globe and employees to say it's supporting their team that
keeps them engaged and and performing their best you and it's also interesting
another little tidbit that we dug up is it three quarters of the companies on
our list this year have employee affinity
groups things like a luminous reading group volleyball team and a women in IT
group I mean again it's a sort of thing that may not be specifically directly
related to the job at hand but it's the kind of thing especially if you're
looking for you know esprit de corps and looking for teamwork that's going to
keep people working together and getting to know each other in ways that ideally
I think the companies would assume will help their performance you know on the
job that's correct and they a lot of
organizations either formally or informally will do other things outside
of work to develop that sort of esprit de corps so take everybody out for lunch
go to watch the latest Star Wars movie or Avengers movie have a day where
everybody gets to go volunteer at a local charity together and that really
helps build that that teamwork in a way that's a little bit different than on
the job teamwork right but it all feeds back into that because everyone's more
comfortable with each other and and more they like each other and they just want
to want to help each other out it's interesting how much the soft
skills are coming into play now you know that's one of the things about IT
workers that I've seen in the past that companies look for our soft skills and
that's that ability to collaborate and be flexible in terms of the the kinds of
jobs that you're doing and who you're working with and the teams that you're
working with we should move on you know employee development is obviously a big
deal skills training and career development and it seems like a lot of
these companies again are sort of out in front in some of these areas so what did
we find there that's absolutely correct the best places offer an average of nine
training days per year for their IT employees and several organizations on
our list have no set maximum for the number of training days that they're
their employees can do a lot of them offer in-house training accelerate for
instance that's actually part of their core business train strategy
it's an automation startup and there aren't a whole lot of people out there
today you know even seasoned IT veterans who know a lot about automation because
it's a developing area of IT so all new IT hires whether they're
there was fresh out of college or you know they've been around the block a few
times they participate in a three-month in-house training program when they come
on board and that gets them up to speed in these emerging technologies such as
machine learning and robotic process automation and that way the whole team
is on the same page and they also best places organizations also support
education outside not just in-house training they typically offer an average
of five thousand per year five thousand dollars per year for technology
certification programs and more than seven thousand per year for executive
education program so again that's a soft skill so hard skills technology skills
absolutely they support that but if people want to pursue business education
executive education these companies are absolutely willing to support that as
well and in terms of you know to sort of stand out companies that that are
supporting certifications national information solutions cooperatives it
offers a lifetime cap of twenty five thousand dollars to pursue technology
certifications so go out and educate yourself yeah I was gonna say I don't I
don't know what technology certifications cost but twenty five
thousand dollars is no small chunk of change and I can see how that would be
very appealing to do workers who are obviously looking to get ahead you know
it's interesting too that the whole career development that the way these
companies deal with career development you know there are things like mentoring
programs you've got the JPL the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that invites world
class thinkers into from a variety of fields to talk to workers you've got
Owens Corning which prides itself on having that sort of flat organizational
structure providing a what they call the big jobs approach to give IT employees
of more responsibility and a chance to grow in the new jobs
it is fascinating how much of this is not focused on the specific task at hand
that somebody's you know working on but you know their whole life again that
goes back to the whole holistic idea speaking of the idea of giving employees
more of a voice in what's going on what what kinds of things have we turned up
there well that's really important to
employees it's one of their their top I don't want to say concerns it's one of
the one of their nice-to-haves about a job something that makes them want to
come to work is the ability to have a voice in the business so you know as we
know IT over many years now has been moving from this old outdated notion of
the IT keeps the lights on that's all they do they're a cost center blah blah
blah that's that's very outdated way of looking at IT and an IT workers know
that they want to be part of the business solutions they want to drive
the business in many ways and our best places organizations absolutely
encourage that and support that in many ways so for example at CarGurus which is
first timer on our list this year engineers work with product teams to
figure out how to solve problems in a start-up atmosphere that gives them a
sense of shared purpose and the ability to influence the direction of the
company so and this is you know that's just one example a lot a lot of these
companies really really support every effort to to be engaged and this a lot
of these categories kind of cross over so we talked about teamwork well when
you're on a small team that's that's driving forward a product or a service
or even just supporting internally that you also have a voice that gives you a
voice you're not just saying yes I'll do this one little task here you're looking
at the bigger picture and really driving the business forward understood and of
course obviously with employees it's important that companies recognize
achievement and recognize employees when they've you know gone above and beyond
and that's one of the things that you know as we sort of wrap this up that we
have found is that companies that do a good job of acknowledging what the what
their employees are doing rewarding them calling them out publicly that's
something that those workers really appreciate that's absolutely right and
there there are so many examples of different rewards and recognition
programs some companies just do these little spot bonuses for smaller tasks
that are not tests that are completed but you know when a project is completed
or somebody just goes above and beyond or a lot of peer a lot of them have you
know peer rewards where you can you know give somebody a high five and it's good
for a free movie pass or something like that
and illumina the CEO presents a quarterly value award to a top performer
in front of the whole company they even make a little video clip in a
presentation about why this person is is stellar and why they are so highly
valued at the company and they do that four times a year and people really
really appreciate the the recognition that they receive not just in their own
department but in front of the entire company God again it's interesting to
note that you know for companies that are looking to do awards programs this
doesn't have to be you know some big expensive thing it can be something like
tickets to the movie or you know some small just an appreciation to let the
employee know that that they're valued and then what they're doing is you know
appreciated by the company okay as as we sort of you know I don't want to give
everything away because of course this this full report will be in computer
world and there's many more details and you know information about all the
companies that that are on the list any any final thoughts you know as we've
watched this this whole Best Places trend change over the years you know any
final thoughts on what may be coming down the road or you know how things
have changed over the last few years based on what we're finding from the
companies mostly what we've already talked about just the the continuing
trend of you know supporting greater work/life balance more and more
companies are doing that giving giving IT more of a voice in the company as a
whole supporting their workers in every way I mean every year I've worked on
this project which has been many years now I've just been impressed by the the
quality of these companies the care they show their employees the support they
give them the responsibilities they give them and that every year it seems like
it gets better so I am just congratulations to the 100 companies who
made the list this year and I encourage if you have a great
place to work in IT please please participate in our survey and next year
we'd love to have you yeah that's a good point we'll be doing
this again next year so if you're not on the list this year if there's always
there's always a chance for next year Val let me thank you for all the work
that you've done on this project I should also give a shout out to
contributing editor Jamie echo and Jen Garofalo here from IDG it.this is a
month long project that involves a great deal of research and data analysis to to
come up with our list so be aware that it's very involved I think for now we'll
just let the work speak for itself when it's online Val thanks for the time
thank you thanks a lot and for best places in I T
2019 that's a wrap