HR Pulse

Employee management in the IT industry: Part 1

Employee management spans countless areas and will continue until HR becomes about managing 'emotionally dead' robots and not 'fickle' humans. Each industry handles their employee management practices differently because of the different people employed. There is growing emphasis on the IT industry because of our businesses being so dependent on technology – and the need for qualified individuals to provide back-up for these solutions. This means that our HR processes in the IT industry need to ensure we handle employee management processes extremely carefully so these highly skilled individuals don't end up walking out the door.

Find out what your employees want

If you enjoy doing something, you'll look forward to performing that particular activity. This is why we're advised to follow a career path that we're passionate about because if you do this, going to work won't become a chore and you'll look forward to it.

This is a philosophy that Sage VIP has taken to heart. The company has made a conscious decision to create a workplace that is fun so their employees enjoy working for them. It's precisely because of this attitude that the last time the company participated in Deloitte's best-company-to-work for survey, 96% of their employees said that they were the best company to work for.

How did they get this stamp of approval?

"About 10 years ago, we started conducting an employee relationship assessment. This is an anonymous survey that asked our employees questions such as what makes them happy, what they like and don't like," says Anja van Beek, HR director at the company. "Based on the results of this survey, we were able to see how loyal our employees are."

The company then had one-on-one discussions with their employees – sometimes groups of employees – questioning the results of the survey and getting to the bottom of what the employees really want. "After the survey, we sat with the employees to find out more about what the results of the survey actually meant," says Van Beek. "We said: 'OK, you say that you want more flexibility. What exactly do you mean by this?'"

To ensure that the company's workforce remains loyal and engaged, they conduct this survey once every two years. "If you understand what your employees want, you can ensure that you'll see a return on investment on the money you invest in them," concludes Van Beek.

Lia Marus is the editor of HR Pulse. She has a BA in French, Italian and Linguistics from UCT, an MA in translation from Wits and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management from the Wits Business School. She is currently studying towards her LLB through Unisa. Lia started her career off in corporate communications, where she worked as a sub-editor, researcher and marketing coordinator. She then heeded the call of the publishing world and went into the business-to-business publishing field. She worked as a sub-editor as well as a chief sub-editor. Before joining ITWeb, she managed an HR guidebook at a leading international publishing company.