CEOs: As the economy recovers, sweeten the deal for techies and don't take them for granted

As the economy recovers, companies need to sweeten the deal for its employees, can’t take employees for granted, not anymore. Due to the most recent recession many companies have been taking advantage of the vast number of unemployed tech professionals to choose from by paying them lower salaries and not offering meaningful raises (or any raise at all) for a number of years now.

For the past few years tech professionals have considered themselves lucky enough just by having a job, and not expecting anything more such as bonuses, training and pay raises. That is changing.

If you have not been under a rock for the past year, you should have noticed the increase in the number of tech jobs available everywhere. In the city of Austin, which was ranked as the number one city for tech jobs by InsideTech in 2009, tech jobs are again increasing and local Austin companies which go from large corporations such as Dell to startups like Gowalla, Capital Thought, OtherInbox, Bazaarvoice and others are having trouble filling all these tech positions.

This is a wake up call for all those CEOs and hiring managers that are not paying attention to this change, not doing anything to improve their employee’s work environment, benefits, salary, etc… As the demand for tech professionals increases, these professionals will start looking for better opportunities once again, especially if their current employer is not doing anything to keep them happy and motivated in their current positions. Companies need to “sweeten” the deal for all their tech employees if they want to keep them around.

The increase of tech jobs is not only happening in Austin, it is happening all over the country and this is a great thing for the economy and our tech peeps. However, this is not good news for those companies looking to keep or hire experienced tech professionals at reduced rates, and by offering just a job and nothing else, it is not enough anymore. These companies will have to offer competitive salaries, bonuses, training, perks, etc. to help them find and retain the best technical talent around.

At the time I was writing this story, there were 985 tech jobs available in Dice.com in the city of Austin. If your current job is not doing anything to keep you challenged, happy and motivated, no worries, better times are here.

If you are a company that has been lazy about motivating your tech employees because you felt it wasn’t necessary or for any other reason, that has to change, unless you are not interested in keeping good talent which is exactly what other companies are desperately trying to do.

Companies have to really do more to be able to compete with all these companies looking to fill different tech positions and willing to give more than just a job. Finding and retaining great people is very hard, and yet, many companies still don’t want or don’t understand the benefits of doing whatever it takes to keep great people around. It is easier to attract great people when companies already have great and smart people working for them.

CEOs: treating tech employees (and any employee for that matter) the same way you treat your customers will make them feel appreciated and they will want to work for you, this will help to attract other smart techies that will also want to work for you.

Austin peeps, what do you think? do you see the local economy changing for the better? are there really more and better opportunities out there? please join the conversation and leave your comments below. Peace out.