Factors influencing business data processors turnover - a comparative case history

ABSTRACT

Historically computer personnel have had the reputation of working for the profession and not the company. In this relatively new field the data processor has enjoyed a mobility of job opportunities between industries that just does not exist in most other professions. This tool “the computer” is being used more and more extensively in diverse applications as manpower and related costs increase and the computer power costs decrease. The practitioners within the computer field then find themselves in the enviable position of the demand usually exceeding the supply in a very wide variety of scientific, academic, industrial, governmental and professional arenas. This is well and good for the computer professional but it has a profound adverse effect upon the various employers that must contend with this turnover.

Very little has been published on this very real problem. There has been very little sharing of information between employers about this problem, its extent, the underlying reasons, or techniques that have been used in an attempt to reduce the rate of turnover of the computer professional. The reaction when asking employers for this type of information makes it easy to see why little has been published on this subject. Many employers seem to think this inevitable social disease is bad enough to endure much less discuss. Perhaps for some, it is a relief to not have a yardstick by which they can be measured. For whatever the reason, specific detailed information is difficult to collect.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Enterprise computing

    • Business process management

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • History of computing