How're You Gonna Keep 'Em Down On the Firm?

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IHS had some atypical perks and programs--including a three-year-old employee stock ownership plan, in which workers could become fully vested after seven years--but some employees didn't even know about those benefits. Rabinowitz recalls an exit interview during which he asked a departing employee whether the ESOP had made any difference. He got back a quizzical stare, followed by a question: what ESOP? After Rabinowitz explained, the employee responded, "You know, if I'd known about that, I probably wouldn't be leaving." And the things that people did know about didn't seem to matter to them much. "Benefits, vacations, recognition programs--it didn't mean a lick to them," says Rabinowitz. "All these things needed to be packaged and presented to them as something that was part of a special company."

In February 1997, Rabinowitz began doing just that, applying the company's marketing expertise to its "internal clients," so to speak. "We needed to systematize what we were doing about retention," says Mark Dingley, an analyst whom Rabinowitz promoted to director of retention. "All the pieces were there, but the puzzle wasn't together yet." Rabinowitz also culled members of the management staff--including those from the recruiting, training, and human-resources teams--and asked them to join him in retention meetings every Friday at 9:30 a.m. to implement and track Joyce Gioia's recommendations, the most pressing of which was to improve communication within the company. "We really do care about these people," Rabinowitz says. "We just have to keep reminding them of that."

Gioia suggested instituting some form of regular reminder. So Rabinowitz created IHS Daily Helpings, a newsletter that has been faxed to all employees every morning for the past 10 months, offering technical tips and information about the company's various programs and incentives, along with trivia, quotes, and contests. In addition, Dowling began placing weekly calls to each of IHS's field employees to keep people abreast of new policies, ask them whether they were going to the company picnic, or even just say a quick hello. Gioia hoped that would help staffers put a face--or at the very least, a voice--on their formerly invisible employer. It mirrored the "drip" marketing program that worked so well with customers: what counted wasn't so much any individual action as the cumulative effect of constant contact. "The home base really maintains a line of communication with me out in the field," says Derrick Begin, who has been a help-desk analyst for one year. "I never really felt a tie before. There was no sense of camaraderie."

STEP #3: Identify What You--and Your Customers--Can Change
When Rabinowitz and Durham studied why 30% of recruits left within 90 days, they found another encouraging answer: frustration. As the newcomers left, they complained of feeling unprepared. "It was like we were throwing them onto the trading floor at Goldman Sachs, because that's the type of companies they were dealing with," says Durham. "They could have a massive coronary at the age of 24." New customers were often expecting new help-desk personnel to be experts in every aspect of their technology, including their proprietary computer systems. The resulting impatience drove the new staffers out the door with incredible efficiency.

Employees needed to know that the first four to six weeks would probably be difficult but that they should be patient. Gioia suggested expanding the company's employee-orientation program--which had consisted of informal one-on-one meetings with the human-resources staff, the time spent mostly filling out forms--to include a mandatory, all-day-Saturday group orientation. Groups of new employees would meet the staff, learn about the company, and even take a tour of nearby Madison Square Garden. "We wanted to make it a memorable experience," says Rabinowitz. The recruits noticed. "I've worked for numerous Fortune 500 companies," says Lloyd Tabb, a help-desk analyst since early 1997, "but this company had the longest orientation I've ever had."

Once employees were aboard, it was important that they not feel like temps. For the first three months of the new retention program, Rabinowitz and Durham met with each customer, adjusting expectations by explaining what learning curve was reasonable for new help-desk arrivals. (Customer-service reps have since assumed that function.) They even warned customers that if they referred to IHS staffers as temps, the troubleshooters would view themselves that way. "But if clients would just coddle them a bit," adds Durham, "it would keep our costs down, and they could spend less money for this kind of consultant."

STEP #4: Improve Employees' Prospects, Not Just Their Jobs
But if employees were going to regard their jobs as permanent, full-time gigs, Durham and Rabinowitz needed to turn their jobs into permanent, full-time gigs. When they were between assignments--"on the beach," in the industry lingo--employees needed to know that their jobs were secure. Previously, IHS let analysts go if they lingered in limbo for a couple of weeks. "It was a big mistake," says Rabinowitz. "We lost a lot of good people that way."

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