The high school exams are behind us. Many graduates are planning their future while waiting for their results. All those who have chosen science can expect a high salary and other numerous benefits. When starting their professional career, an Informatics student can expect to earn a salary of 4-6 thousand PLN before tax, which is nearly the national average (currently 4973 PLN gross). And this is just the beginning. How to motivate employees who earn more than their relatives at the start of their professional career? We will try to answer these questions with Robert Strzelecki, CEO of TenderHut, the technical capital group from Bialystok.
It is worth noticing that a programmer's career begins earlier compared to other professions. Students of informatics can start working in their third year of higher education. Such an approach, presented by technological companies, is an element of a deliberate strategy. – In our newly founded office in Wrocław, we have chosen this model of establishing relations with our employees. We plan to hire students there, who, under the supervision of our experts, will implement international projects. This will allow us to attract the most competent employees, which is part of our Human Resources Management policy – explains Strzelecki. – From the beginning, young programmers have access to a variety of non-salary benefits – he adds.
Employee benefits – a secret weapon of HR departments
Benefits other than salary are one of the key features that may attract new candidates, as well as help, maintain current workers, which the company has already acquired. Foreign companies compete in presenting ideas for non-salary benefits. As an example, the CEO of Boxed.com offers his workers a grant of 20 thousand dollars if the employee gets married. In Asan, all workers are provided with 3 free meals during their day of work. Healthcare or providing fresh fruits and juices are a standard nowadays. One can compete in presenting numerous benefits, but we at TenderHut have a different approach. For us, the need of our employees to self-improve is essential, also when it comes to the so-called soft skills – explains Robert Strzelecki.
TenderHut supports development
Everything that can decrease everyday expenses, or is unique, is well received by employees. However, benefits lose their attractiveness when it comes to a group of professionals who earn several times more than the national average. At our programming company, SoftwareHut, together with the HR department, we try to identify the needs of programmers, and what we, the employer, can provide them with. We wanted to give them something they need, and at the same time, something that will develop them and the entire company as well – says Robert Strzelecki. Following this path, SoftwareHut created the SoftwareHut Speaking initiative. It is a team which was established in order to help programmers in the art of presentation at industry conferences. An idea which develops our workers, allows them to gain new skills. At the same time, we are trying to overcome the stereotype of a programmer as a person who is unable to communicate and who is reticent – says Strzelecki
Thanks to SoftwareHut Speaking, employees have the opportunity to train their public speaking skills, which, in the future, will allow them to present even the most difficult topics concerning the IT industry in an intelligible way at lectures, conferences or meetings. A strong point of the SoftwareHut group is their leader – Maciej Aniserowicz. He is the creator of the most popular blog for developers in Poland – devstyle.pl. He also gives presentations at the most important programming conferences in the country. Every Friday, he trains SoftwareHut’s programmers in the art of public speaking. We have invited Maciek to work with us, because he is a person who is passionate about programming and has great interpersonal skills at the same time. This is just what we were looking for. His role is to train and prepare our programmers for public presentations, as well as to support our speakers during their debuts – says Robert Strzelecki
Anything to improve the comfort of the employee
TenderHut went even further in supporting its workers and offered a variety of conveniences in this area. We invite technological experts to conduct training seminars in our offices, in order to allow several of our specialists to participate in them without the inconveniences related to travel. As a company, we also invest in internal projects, which allow our specialists to learn new technologies between implementing external projects for our customers. This is a deliberate activity in order to keep our workers up to date with the technical novelties, which SoftwareHut may later encounter – says Robert Strzelecki.
Additionally, the company offers programmers the opportunity to contribute to the company’s blog, which is created under the supervision of a copywriter. Experts' articles are widely shared by TenderHut, which allows them to create their own renown. We are aware that, because of such activities, our top specialists are becoming more visible to our competitors. However we believe that our approach will be appreciated by our workers – indicates Strzelecki. The company has no reason to panic, due to the fact that statistics prove their approach is right. – The loyalty of our workers is much higher than in other IT companies, as demonstrated by a relatively low rotation rate, nearly 0, when it comes to TenderHut employees. In the IT industry, such rates are a rare phenomenon. Every month, the company grows by several new specialists or entire teams from local IT companies that have been taken over by TenderHut.
Effectiveness and commitment
SoftwareHut’s approach gives great results. Developing soft skills allows SoftwareHut’s programmers to participate in the most interesting industry events in Poland. As an example, we can point out the mentorship provided by SoftwareHut at the prestigious Imagine Cup by Microsoft. Specialists from SoftwareHut, who had competed in the event as contestants in the past, were among the team of mentors. Currently, 10% of our development team and 80% of our management team are former contestants of the Imagine Cup. This competition is an excellent event for meeting young talents – explains Robert Strzelecki, CEO of SoftwareHut. In recent times, when interpersonal communication has been very important, I think that we have chosen a wise development route for our workers. What needs to be understood is that the things that programmers develop everyday influence everyday life for all of us, because technology is everywhere now – says Robert Strzelecki.
