Lifestyle key to keeping staff

IT managers stand a greater chance of retaining staff if they give more consideration to the lifestyle of their employees outside the workplace, according to consultancy the NCC Group.

Salaries and bonuses are not enough to retain staff on their own, warned John Eary, head consultant at NCC, which has recently seen an increase in the demand for advice on work/life balance issues from IT employers.

"Companies who can't afford the top salaries that are now commonplace must look at other ways of keeping and attracting their top IT people," he said. "Offering flexible hours of working or the option of working from home will be an attractive benefit that may set them apart from their competitors in the recruitment market.

"With the demand for certain IT staff at a premium, it is the case that some staff are interviewing their potential employers as well as the other way round. The roles have been reversed."

Figures from Computer Economics show that the resignation rate of IT staff in 2000 was the highest for three years.