Microsoft give employees pay rise to stop head hunting

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO sent out an internal email to 90,000 employees to let them know that they will be receiving a pay increase. This is to help make sure that employees feel valued, especially as other technology companies are head hunting for talent.

The pay increase was announced yesterday and it is primarily aimed at software engineers at the early stage of their careers and mid level employees with expertise that is in short supply.

This move by Microsoft mirrors a recent 10 percent salary increases given by Google late last year. Microsoft have also copied the concept of making it more money oriented, rather than stock options. Microsoft are also giving out bigger bonuses to employees each year, based on performance. Only half of the employee base receive their full bonus every year, but they say that this proportion will rise to 80 percent as the company changes how they calculate the payments.

Silicon Valley has become a hot bed for head hunting in the technology sector as companies are searching for skilled employees to help drive business and growth.

Ballmer said We will make important increases in compensation for specific populations where the market has moved the most – early and mid-level R&D, mid-level company-wide and certain geographies.” Microsoft have stopped issuing stock options, a traditional form of compensation in the technology sector, and changed to restricted stock options which gave more certainty as to when employees would receive payment.

KitGuru says: Pay increases are the quickest way to keep people happy.

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