Networks

One line of thinking would be to involve the staff in any improvements. This can be achieved by using something like Q12 to gauge employee satisfaction.
In a nutshell it's 12 questions which provide the building blocks to a good working environment and allow staff to highlight deficient areas and implement improvements. The key being the staff implement their own improvements (provided support is there from management)

Thanks for suggestions folks. I know the guys well as I recruited most of them. We have regular team meetings and often discuss morale. Pressure for delivery from the business is a big factor as well as the tech. What I didn't really say in my original post was that the pressures of work are completely understood and the guys accept this. They know they are not getting great tech so instead want something else to grab onto. Due to the churn, there are new starters who have come in from s/w houses and saying what a great envrionement that was. The professional services environment is completely different as we share our building with 1500 people, most of which are our direct customers.

All I'm looking for is to inject some fun into a tough working environment. Most of the suggestions are around talking to them which obviously any manager would do. I'm just trying to gauge what some of the more modern setups are doing to make the day to day more interesting...

If you want to know why people have left you need to ask them, did you conduct exit interviews when these people left, do you know where they went and why.

Exit interviews dont need to be formal, infact they sometimes work better if they are informal and 'off the record'. Unless you are part of the problem you should get a pretty honest reply.

If you did not have exit intervies it's not too late, if you still have contact details of the people who left why not give them a quick call, ask them how the new job is going (the grass is not always greener) and then ask them why the left. Now that they have settled in to a new job they have nothing to lose by being honest.

It's not the rats who leave a sinking IT ship first it's the ambitious people with the most to offer to other companies, finding out why these people went should help you figure out what you need to do to get decent replacements and hold on to your other staff.

In my opinion, the best way to motivate staff is to sincerely care about them as people. That does NOT mean you have to promise them the world, but you need to spend time with them and determine what they value, what their career objectives are short and long term, and demonstrate that you will help them get there. In return, you explain your explectations, your perceptions and value structure and what you need from them to succeed in your organization. That with a few creative rewards and recognition programs, and you will maximize retention and growth. Beware half-hearted rewards programs, however. My famous quote to the business world, "Don't spend money to alienate your people".

Rich

Most of what everyone else stated is true, better pay, asking what the employee likes (or dislikes), casual dress, new technologies etc is important and will help you create a better work environment. But the true measure must come from the employees themselves. Are they passionate about the work they do. Do they care if its done correctly or just done? Do they fit in the job they have? I have worked directly in the tech world for 9 years and have seen the changes to the tech environment, some good some bad. If the person is just doing a job for a paycheck and derives little or no satisfaction from what they are doing the level of work will suck (sorry to be so blunt). You need to find what motivates the people that work for you, if its just a paycheck that motivates the person then you will have more problems than solutions. Pay, benefits and a casual work environment is not the only motivators; you can't pay me enough to do a job that I don't like!

Sure you could set up a gaming room in the corner with a keg, but it still doesn't resolve whatever the underlying problem is. It's true that your developers should be able to get some beta or trial peroid software to develope with, that way they aren't left behind if that's what the issue is. Sounds like you need to get your team together and find out what the real problem is.