Dive Brief:

• Former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer believes tech companies need to be more transparent in order to ensure accountability, according to an interview with Back Channel.

• Ballmer compared business to sports, stating that sports teams' performance is black and white and fully transparent, which improves their accountability.

• "There’s no hiding in sports. How well you’re doing is all entirely transparent, and there’s no way to talk yourself out of a jam, or confuse yourself. It’s hardcore  —  you either win or you lose," Ballmer told Back Channel.

Dive Insight:

Ballmer says if businesses made compensation and employee ranking transparent, it would lead to better accountability for employees and the business itself. This is becoming more important as tech talent wars rage.

Tech talent comes at a premium today, but if companies were more open about how much each employee makes and how they rank within the organization, they may find fewer employees looking to jump ship.

With such high demand for tech talent today, more organizations are exploring alternatives to the traditional tech worker. For example, Amazon Web Services is bucking industry metrics, using tech workers who are more experienced and more stable professionally. The median age of an Amazon Web Services engineer is between 40 and 45 years old.