On The Job

By Cindy O'Hara

High-tech workers looking for a change of scenery may be able to increase their pay substantially and gather other benefits if they relish globetrotting. Pat Newburn, president of Brelon-Page, a recruiting company in Woodland Hills, Calif., has found that programmers and information technology managers who travel often get more in salary, bonuses or comp time than their non-traveling counterparts.

"When a company says that 25 percent to 30 percent of a job is traveling, it adds an element of burden," Newburn said. And this can lead employees to ask what the company will do to compensate them.

Higher initial salaries certainly are one mode of compensation, said Don Addison, marketplace director for Romac International, a recruiting firm in Tampa, Fla. But companies also have been known to fly employees working on long-term projects home on weekends, fly friends to visit an employee who is working at another site, and, yes, offer lucrative stock options.
At the request of its 2,300 employees, Booz-Allen & Hamilton plans to open a child development center in July at its McLean, Va., corporate headquarters.

"Our employees have asked for an on-site child-care center to keep their families closer and make child care arrangements more convenient," said Ralph Shrader, chairman and CEO. The center will accommodate 83 children and feature an all-day kindergarten and extended-hour care. The cost of using the facility will vary depending on the age of the child and hours of usage.
IT companies hope to fill some of the estimated 30,000 IT job openings in the greater Washington area by recruiting from outside the region. After a pilot program called "Capital Move" that took place in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia elicited 2,000 resumes, a national work-force recruitment campaign will be kicked off this month, according to the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

The campaign is a joint effort of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, Northern Virginia Technology Council, High Technology Council of Maryland and the Washington D.C. Technology Council. The aim is to collect 5,000 resumes from across the nation and increase the visibility of the greater Washington region as a place to launch or advance a tech career.