Silicon Valley companies have always been adept at finding ways to lure employees, no matter how tight the labor market.
There are the usual methods: the stock options and sign-on bonus. The six-figure salary has also worked for a few.
And there's always the sports car.
Interwoven, a business software developer in Sunnyvale, California, is offering a two-year lease on a BMW Z3 convertible to the engineers who fill any one of 20 available openings.
It may sound extravagant, but company officials say there isn't much difference between the lease price and the amount they'd pay a recruiter to find an employee. Interwoven hopes the sports car will make the company stand out.
Most top job candidates in Silicon Valley are fielding multiple job offers, said Mindy Albers, Interwoven's director of human resources.
"You have to get creative. Your regular routes don't work."
Interwoven is one of a few firms experimenting with new methods to lure new employees.
It's common for companies to offer cash rewards to employees who refer new hires. In August, Internet consulting firm Mainspring started offering stock options to people who refer new hires to them. Recruiters say many firms are shortening the waiting period for employees to exercise their stock options as a way to get them to accept jobs.
It's particularly tough to fill senior-level positions, said Fadi Bishara, principal recruiter for techVenture, a Silicon Valley firm that specializes in staffing software startups.
Hiring for startups can be especially difficult, since new companies don't have time to invest in training and expect employees to handle a wide range of responsibilities, Bishara said. On the plus side, however, upstart ventures can offer a pile of stock options plus the possibility of IPO wealth. It's become common practice in the San Francisco Bay Area for job postings to include the term "pre-IPO company."
More established companies have their own recruiting problems, since the type of folks who take jobs in mature firms tend to be more risk-averse than the startup crowd.
Persuading good employees to come on board is just the beginning. Companies also have to get them to stay.
Often the stay-with-us perks outweigh the come-join-our-company incentives. Employers are constantly adding on-the-job extras like free dry cleaning, on-site chefs, massage therapists, free oil changes for employees' cars ... the list goes on.
Offering such extras makes economic sense, companies say.
To find a replacement for someone who quits, companies typically pay 20 to 30 percent of the job's first-year salary to a recruiter.
