Employees who need downtime at USinternetworking Inc., an Annapolis software reseller, can take out a company boat or Jet Ski.
Revenue Systems Inc. in Alpharetta, Ga., is even more generous: Each of its 50 full-time employees is issued a leased BMW, courtesy of the company. That's every employee -- from receptionists to upper management.
America Online Inc. has offered all of Netscape Communications Corp.'s 2,300 employees a month's pay as a bonus for sticking around until AOL's $4.3 billion acquisition of Netscape is completed.
What's behind these acts of corporate largess? Simple necessity -- or at least the perception of it.
Such perks and inducements have become increasingly common as companies have tried to tackle what many say is a difficult challenge: Hiring and keeping high-technology workers.
As technology continues to reshape virtually every sector of the American economy, the demand for engineers, programmers and other technical workers has grown.
Economists and government officials in Maryland and elsewhere say the supply of technical workers has not kept pace and is threatening to slow economic growth.
However, some academics and labor groups say such fears are overblown. Technology companies are passing over many qualified workers to keep wages as low as possible, they say.
According to a Department of Commerce study, 95,000 new computer scientists and engineers, systems analysts and programmers are needed annually between 1994 and 2005 to keep up with demand.
However, the report said the number of computer science degrees awarded annually peaked at 50,000 in 1986 and then fell to about 36,000 by the middle of this decade.
While there are signs this decline may be reversing itself, and while many technical positions are staffed by noncomputer science graduates, the business community remains concerned about not having enough technical workers.
"We don't really see the problem diminishing anytime in the near future," said Lauren Brownstein of the Information Technology Association of America, a trade group in Arlington, Va.
'Not keeping pace'
"Basically, as our society becomes more connected [through high technology], it takes more people to keep the connections running.
"Our understanding is that the number of computer science graduates is going up but it's not keeping pace with the demand for technology skills," Brownstein said.
John C. Weiss III, president of Chesapeake Biological Laboratories Inc. in Baltimore, said the situation has reached the point where "in the last year, the quality of people responding to [the company's help-wanted] ads started falling off."
Christopher R. McCleary, USinternetworking's chairman and chief executive officer, says:
"There is definitely a demonstrable, quantitative shortage of people who emerge out of the universities and colleges who have the skill sets to deploy the existing technology. The individuals that do have those skill sets now have a buyer's market."
Not everyone buys this. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has reported that American high-technology companies have cut four times as many jobs this year than they did in 1997.
"There may be a spot shortage in some areas, but we can see that being rectified by the work force that's presently available," said Paul Kostek, the institute's president-elect.
Doubts labor shortage
Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of California at Davis, said hiring rates and salary increases in the software industry remain low, too low to justify talk of a labor shortage.
Many middle-aged and older programming workers are having a hard time finding work because employers prefer to hire less-expensive recent college graduates, he said.
Skeptics of the labor shortage say attempts by corporations to persuade Congress to allow more high-technology workers to emigrate to the United States represent little more than an effort to reduce wages.
Eye-catching perks
Whether or not a high-technology labor shortage actually exists, many companies are concerned enough about their own situations to offer eye-catching perks to current and prospective workers.
This helps explain such unusual benefits as the Jet Ski program at USinternetworking. Founded in January, the company wants to increase its work force of 355 to more than 1,000 next year, McCleary said.
"It serves as a recruitment tool, but even more than that, a retention tool," McCleary said.
Jeffrey McKnight, an executive vice president at USinternetworking, said the boats and personal watercraft have proven quite popular. "They are booked constantly," he said.
BMW vs. headhunter
Then there are the BMWs. Revenue Systems, a privately owned supplier of motor vehicle registration and other data systems used by state governments, was having a hard time getting enough computer programmers and data base analysts.
The company was paying headhunters at least $45,000 each month to find more workers, but was getting only three new employees each month.
So Bill Glover, Revenue Systems' president, chief executive officer and chairman, decided to try something a little unusual: Drop the headhunters and instead lease a BMW for every worker.
The company pays property taxes and insurance on the cars, and even gives employees the choice of the zippy Z3 or the somewhat more staid 323 sedan.
"Some of the people in the company have little kids and stuff, so they have to be a little bit practical," said Glover, who is the owner of a fire engine-red Z3.
When the leases run out in three years, the company plans to get a new car for each worker.
"I'm looking out right now at our parking lot full of Z3 roadsters," Glover said in a telephone interview. "Anybody driving by is going to wonder what the hell is going on."
Glover said that within 60 days of announcing the BMW program in June, Revenue Systems hired 18 workers without paying a headhunter and is receiving a torrent of resumes.
Not surprisingly, the program has helped retain workers as well as attract them.
Nobody leaves company now
Not a single employee has left the company since the BMW leasing program began, Glover says, and one worker has rescinded a resignation. Leasing the pricey cars for his 50 full-time workers costs $420,000 a year, while the headhunters' services would cost at least $540,000 annually, he says.
"The only people who have lost out are the headhunters," Glover said. "I've had about 10 headhunters call and say, 'You're going to put us out of business,' and I say, 'Damn right.' "
Companies such as Electronic Data Systems Corp. of Plano, Texas, are offering a better work environment to attract and keep employees.
The EDS office in Herndon, Va., allows employees to volunteer for favorite causes during the workday. It has instituted flexible starting times, bring-your-child-to-work days, employee art exhibitions and telecommuting, which allows an employee to work at home via computer, phone and fax.
The office also is redoing its floor plan to achieve a cozier feel and has scrapped its once-conservative dress code in favor of casual wear.
"Everybody's paying at sort of a competitive rate, so it comes down to what is the environment like," said Carol Vail-Weiss, an EDS spokeswoman in Herndon.
Vail-Weiss said turnover at the technology management and consulting firm is relatively low, but plenty of jobs still go begging.
"Here in the Washington area, we probably always have several hundred job openings that we're trying to fill," she said.
Pub Date: 12/06/98