CA fights skills crisis with high-tech office

Computer Associates is improving conditions in its UK offices in a bid to dramatically reduce its staff turnover and combat the skills crisis.

The company opened state-of-the-art European headquarters in Berkshire this week, hoping a better working environment will be just as effective in retaining and attracting highly-skilled staff as offering stock options and high salaries.

Charles Wang, CEO of CA, announced at the opening ceremony that there is fierce competition for high-tech employees in the UK's Thames Valley, adding that he wants his R&D and technical support staff to stay in Ditton Park for life.

The glass-fronted complex offers views of 12th-century woodland to almost all employees. A first-class restaurant has glass walls on three sides, and the entire building is temperature-controlled, with automatic blinds, to ensure maximum comfort.

The site offers a fitness centre, lunchtime football matches, shops and a Montessori nursery school for the children of employees. Mothers of young babies are encouraged to leave them in the care of trained staff, and visit them during the day for breast-feeding.

The building uses Unicenter TNG Fleet Management software, to manage all IT and heating controls from a single platform.

Other US companies, such as SAS Institute, have invested in staff perks to save money on recruiting new employees. But Wang said that in Europe, his strategy is to make staff want "to stay forever".

Staff inside the new building agree it is less cramped than previous premises, but that the steel and glass structure could be intimidating, and that it sometimes prevents mobile phones from working indoors.