The Roundup: Raises Rule the Retention Game

Datamation content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Report
My Kingdom for a Raise

According to the third annual BridgeGate Report, conducted in February by Market Facts TeleNation, Inc. of Chicago, employee retention is more likely to be influenced by salary increases than by improved benefits, flexible work schedules or stock options. The majority of respondents–slightly more than 50%–indicated that “a raise” would most influence them to remain with their present company, up from the 46% who cited a salary hike in last year’s report.

By contrast, just 40% of those surveyed placed non-monetary concerns ahead of increased pay. This year’s survey marks the first time in the three-year history of the BridgeGate Report that significantly more respondents said they would remain at a job for higher compensation, over the combined total of respondents most interested in non-monetary offerings–benefits, flexibility, stock options and training.

Stock options have taken a dive as a retention tool, thanks to a tumbling NASDAQ and diminished valuations of pre-IPO startups; just 7% of respondents placed stock options first, compared with 12% last year. The survey also recorded a small decrease in the number of workers who placed improved benefits at the top of their list. The report did note a slight increase in the value of more flexible work schedules–14% in 2001, up from 12% in the year 2000 report.

Internet
More Taxpayers Will File Online in 2001

As the April 16 deadline for filing income taxes approaches, more U.S. taxpayers will be using the Internet to make it an easier process this year, according to Gartner, Inc. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates that more than 35.3 million taxpayers will file online this year, which represents approximately one third of all individual income tax filers. The number of e-filers this year is forecast to grow 20 percent from taxpayers who filed taxes online last year.

E-filing appears to be receiving favorable reviews, because 83 percent of previous e-filers say they are very likely to file online in the future. Gartner analysts said the average e-filer is a knowledgeable Internet user (online three or more days per week), is between the ages of 25 and 34, and is male.

Forecast
DTV Will Replace PC-based Internet

Digital TV (DTV) will surpass PC-based Internet penetration in Western Europe by 2005, making DTV-based interactive services, or ITV, the more popular means of accessing the Internet by the middle of this decade, according to two new reports from the Yankee Group’s Internet Strategies Europe group. By 2005, the reports state, 81.2 million households will have DTV-based ITV services, compared with 80.6 million PC-based Internet households. This compares with a forecast of 24.5 million DTV households against 45.4 million households for PC-based Internet for 2001.

Other key points in the reports include: 1) The rise of t-commerce revenues will be swift, from a forecasted $267.5 million today across Europe, to just over $17 billion by 2006; 2) Broadcast media companies and entertainment conglomerates will begin to exert significant power as ITV’s growth accelerates. Cable and satellite operators will begin to be viewed as key partners for reaching the mainstream consumer through interactive channels; 3) ITV will become a powerful broadband medium, as it provides a better platform for rich, interactive media delivery than the PC, and can integrate interactivity with content more directly.

Compiled by Zach Rodgers.