Re: question about "atmospheric" benefits

["Laura A Mac Lemale" <lmaclemale -at- paychex -dot- com>]

Hello,

I'm on digest, and many of you have already responded to Anon's question about atmospheric benefits. Many of the benefits Anon (and others) described can affect the quality of the day-to-day life, but as others have already mentioned, personal financial security is the goal of most employees.

FWIW, here are a few considerations I came up with:

You mention that you spend a lot of time training the employees. Is this in-house training (styles, software, etc.)? Or does your company offer occasional formal training on tools and techniques outside of your office? When employees are offered this kind of formal (even costly) training, it can positively affect their feeling of value and worth within the company. Companies that invest training
time and money in their employees may be viewed as appealing by job seekers. For real newbies, the possibility of occasionally attending these training sessions may be an attractive opportunity.

In your company, is there a variety of projects to work on regularly? Is creativity encouraged? These factors can also affect job satisfaction and ultimately job performance. The software field can be very exciting, and new and continuing developments can provide exciting work opportunities for tech communicators. If your company has the potential to offer continuous variety and project work, this
would be a good point to emphasize to incoming writers.

I think someone already touched on periodic raises, but how about title or pay grade shifts as well? Maybe when a writer, who is performing well, reaches the six-month mark with the company, he or she could be given a review and a raise, maybe even move from Writer I to Writer II (or something similar--this is purely hypothetical as I know there are rules about these items). The writer is rewarded
for sticking around, and of course the raise is encouraging. Titles are probably not as important, but they might lend some perceived value to a fairly new writer. Can you foresee any possibilities when it would be reasonable to have a writer who reaches this level train other employees?

Anyway, I'm sure you will get a lot of feedback from this list. (I haven't read the entire digest yet, so apologies if anything here is repetitive.) It's a really good sign that your company is ready to address the issue of employee turnover--good luck!

Regards,

aura MacLemale
Technical Writer
Paychex, Inc.
Rochester, NY USA
lmaclemale -at- paychex -dot- com

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this message represent those of the sender and not of Paychex, Inc.




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