The competence crisis, part 2

(You find part 1 here.)

OK, so it's hard to find developers to hire. What should be done about it? As far as I'm concerned the obvious answer would be to think about how to boost the ones we already have. I see great advantages in that: you get more for less; the developers will be happier; you avoid the "adding head count trauma"; and if your problem really is to get more things done as opposed to increasing your numbers, this problem is solved.

Of course other companies will come and try to grab your developers seeing how they don't have the people either, so you will also have to become the best possible employer. That will increase your costs a bit, but it is nothing compared to the cost of bringing in loads of new developers and losing lots of old ones. When it comes to customers we usually say something along the lines of how it's much easier and cheaper to keep the old ones than get new ones. The same goes for employees.

Oh, and all of a sudden more people will understand that it's nice to be a developer, so that the competence crisis will lessen over time...

I guess I'm kicking in open doors again...
:-)