Qualcomm's Fjeldheim echoes that sentiment: "When we use consultants, their job is part knowledge transfer." To that end, he says, "my goal is always to get the consultants out of here before a new system goes into production. It doesn't always happen that way, but it's always the goal."

Because 95 percent of its IT workers begin at the entry level, Securian is also committed to extensive training. In addition to using a corporate educator to learn soft skills such as leadership and communication, the IT organization actually has seven full-time people "who do nothing but train and develop IT associates," Delaney Nelson says. New hires spend their first three months in an entry-level application-development training program, and the minimal goal is two weeks of ongoing education per staffer per year.

IT groups with great retention records also feature a host of team-building programs and outings, from trips to Major League Baseball games at Qualcomm to visits by the famous Second City improvisational comedy troupe at Grainger. But what these companies truly provide is nectar to technologists: a challenge. "We're constantly putting in new technologies where there's a business reason to do so," Fjeldheim says. "IT people love that challenge -- they don't want to be stuck maintaining 30-year-old technologies."

Ulfelder is a freelance writer in Southboro, Mass.