Hugh Sazegar co-founded Techcess Group, a Houston-based managed services provider that targets small and medium-sized businesses, about a decade ago.

The company thrived, but after three years in business, Sazegar faced a challenge: how was he to retain his best and brightest employees when large firms looking to fill their in-house IT departments were luring them away with salaries 30 percent higher than he could pay?

“We lost a lot of our good employees in the first three years. And then we learned and changed our method of acting with them,” Sazegar said.

What Techcess’ CEO discovered was that he could offer employees incentives those large companies could not.

“Where we can compete easily is that we provide a lot of diversity [when it comes to] technology, know-how and the learning environment in terms of certification and training,” he said.

In other words, Sazegar could offer his engineers a more professionally stimulating workplace, one where employees could master a number of different platforms – always learning, always challenging themselves. That diversity of experience and training, he found, was enough to keep talented IT professionals with the company, despite the possibility of a higher salary elsewhere.

David DeCamillis, vice president of sales and marketing at solution provider Platte River Networks in Denver, said focusing on professional growth has been a successful strategy for his firm.

When Platte River posts a new position, more than a hundred applications are usually distilled to a batch of a few qualified engineers. But hiring one is not so easy.

“To get them to accept is a challenge,” DeCamillis said. “You really have to sell them on the culture.”

The trick is too offer “a lot of room for upward mobility in the company,” he said.

While many Americans are still struggling with the anemic job market, the IT industry is booming and competition is intense for technical and sales professionals.

That unique dynamic is a lagging effect of the Great Recession, explained Matthew Kazmierczak, vice president of research at the TechAmerica Foundation, the IT trade association that earlier this month was acquired by CompTIA.

During the economic downturn, companies were withholding upgrades and projects were put on hold. But there is only so long a company can wait to expand a network and deploy newer, more-efficient technologies, Kazmierczak said. Now, as the economy slowly recovers, businesses have pent-up demand for new IT systems and are ready to green-light those capital intensive projects, he said.