VOL. 23, NO. 6	OCTOBER 10, 1997

By Rob Pfeifer

  To combat such an employment crisis, Columbia's Human Resources department, with active support from Administrative Information Systems and several other departments, has launched an Employee Incentive Program.

  According to Roz Carnage, director of the employment office, this first-of-its-kind program at the University is "one more way of bringing skilled technical professionals into the Columbia community."

  Under the Employee Incentive Program, Columbia employees are encouraged to refer qualified technical professionals to the University. If a referred professional is hired by the University and stays for at least six months, the employee who made the referral will receive $2,000 pre-tax. At present, the types of technical professionals that the program covers include systems analysts/programmers, user services consultants and telecommunications specialists.

  Carnage says her office currently receives one resume for a computer-related job for every four resumes for other administrative jobs. This paucity has little to do with the University and everything to do with the universal laws of supply and demand.

  "It's no secret that information technology specialists are in great demand," says Robert Juckiewicz, deputy vice-president of Administrative Information Systems. Yet, in the last decade, the number of people graduating with computer-science degrees in the United States has decreased by 50 percent. This shortage of trained professionals, combined with the lure of private sector salaries and stock options, create a bind for higher-education administrators who rely on computer specialists to implement and maintain their process-oriented initiatives.

  "We recently had two candidates renege on offers they had agreed to because at the last minute they got better deals in the private sector," says Sabine van der Meulen, director of human resources at Columbia Business School, which has its own computer department as well as database specialists in its development, career services and executive training areas. Despite the difficulty in attracting computer professionals from a salary perspective, Aguiar, van der Meulen and Juckiewicz all believe that Columbia has advantages over the private sector. It is these advantages that the Employee Incentive Program is designed to highlight.

  "Columbia has a lot going for it in terms of being a stimulating environment with ample vacation and excellent health-care and tuition benefits. These are the types of attractions that travel best by word of mouth," Aguiar says.

  "Our own staff knows best what it's like to work here and what the advantages are," Juckiewicz concurs. "So why not reward them for doing a little advertising and recommending qualified people to the University?"

  Jobs that are currently eligible for the Employee Incentive Program are indicated on the Job Opportunities page of the Human Resources web site (www.columbia.edu/cu/hr/). Employees are encouraged to look at the web page often since new opportunities present themselves all the time.

  Brochures describing the Employee Incentive Program were widely distributed earlier this month via campus mail. Employees who haven't received a brochure, have questions about the program or want to refer a qualified technical professional are encouraged to call the Human Resources employment office at 870-2425.