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HIGH TECH HEAVEN


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Does your employer offer free Cokes and doughnuts? How about an interior decorator or an employee-support vehicle?

If this sounds like something from a workplace fairy tale, blink again. This is real life for the employees of Xperts, a Richmond-area company that provides software development, technical staffing and creative services.

Information technology wizards are in high demand these days, and enticing them to stay in one job is a challenge. But Xperts’ 37-year-old CEO William Tyler thinks he has found a way to keep his 90 employees from straying.

At Xperts’ headquarters, each employee’s office reflects his or her personal style: There’s the guy who likes golf, the lady who loves the beach, and the military buff who has a suit of armor guarding his door. "Hey, we’ve already spent $3,000 on a computer for each employee," Tyler reasons, "so why not spend $1,500 more and let them have a consultation with an interior decorator to make their work space comfortable?"

But the jewel in the company’s crown is the employee-support vehicle. Many Xperts employees work off-site for weeks or months at a time, setting up networks and implementing new software. To keep these consultants feeling like part of the company, Xperts dispatches its employee-support vehicle to act as an office-away-from-the-office. The huge Lincoln Navigator is equipped with a television and a voice-activated car stereo that plays CDs, takes memos and sends e-mail.

What motivates Tyler’s seemingly unbridled generosity? "Basically this: I think that employees who are happy and love their job do quality work. So I provide the positive environment. ... The employees? They bring their positive attitudes."

— AW



© AUGUST 1999, Media General Business Publications Inc.,
publisher of Virginia Business Magazine