Ways to Inspire Your Development Staff

Encouraging development teams is simple, but displaying gratitude goes further than a mere handshake. To ensure optimal performance, maintaining a positive team atmosphere is critical. Take Google, for example, treating its engineers to exclusive benefits such as free meals, professional development opportunities, laundry facilities, sleeping pods, gym access, and rock climbing. It is evident that such incentives could fuel motivation in almost anyone.

Numerous businesses are not as large or profitable as Google, making it challenging to offer the same perks to their workforce. Nevertheless, acknowledgment of employees’ hard work is not the sole means to invigorate engineers. Essentially, Google provides these incentives because it treasures its employees and comprehends the significance of establishing a culture that cultivates collaboration, gratitude, and creativity. Despite this, you can still motivate your programmers without going over budget. Many practical alternatives exist to encourage your team to perform at their peak.

Strategies to Keep Your Development Team Motivated

Is it genuinely essential to keep employees inspired? Isn’t the salary sufficient?

Refer to the figures below to evaluate your employees’ level of engagement and motivation:

  • Highly motivated employees lead to a 21% increase in business productivity.
  • Productivity jumps up by 20% with engaged employees.
  • Employees who have a sense of commitment to their work are 87% less likely to resign from their roles.

A programmer who displays enthusiasm towards their job and their company tends to be more productive.

Being a prominent recruitment company in the IT sector, we comprehend the drivers and ambitions of programmers and utilise our proficiency to entice and captivate them to become part of our team.

Here are eight ways to motivate software engineers:

Building Rapport with Your Software Developers and Engineers

As we commemorate our business milestone, we would like to express our gratitude towards our personnel by sending them a box of chocolates. We recognise that chocolate may not be to everyone’s liking or some may have a legitimate allergy to it.

While it is a kind gesture to demonstrate appreciation to your team, the most impactful method of motivating them is to get to know each member personally. Lack of knowledge about their preferences can make it challenging to inspire them, even disregarding the idea of gifts.

Setting up a constructive and enjoyable routine for the entire team is paramount to motivate a group of software developers and engineers to work together efficiently. For instance, if the team perceives that daily conference calls limit their productivity, tweaking these calls could be necessary. Reducing the frequency of these calls to once a week could be advantageous.

Eliminate Hostile Behaviour

It is unfortunate that many in management lack integrity, putting on a facade of ethics while behaving in a completely contradictory manner. Encouraging the importance of learning from mistakes is often just a show, as they rapidly return to their usual conduct once the situation has passed.

In her book “Surviving Remote Work”, Sharon Koifman, President of Works, emphasises the significance of terminating the “asshole culture” because of its adverse impact on a company’s image and values. The book features a study conducted in Britain which found that when managers treated their staff inappropriately, it led to increased turnover rates due to the high levels of stress caused.

While the IT industry appreciates unique viewpoints and creativity, nurturing a constructive and encouraging work environment is vital. A negative workplace ambiance can result in high staff turnover; those who continue to work may be unwilling to express their ideas.

Acknowledge their Efforts

Chances are you have employed a reward system with your children, for instance, offering an incentive for accomplishing a task, fostering favourable habits instead of punishing them. For instance, if they were reluctant to tidy their bed, you could have made an arrangement to give them a candy bar in exchange for completing the chore.

Motivating adults is similar to motivating children. A simple approach to retaining developers until project completion is by remunerating them promptly.

When assigned to create an app for a client, adhering to specific procedures is crucial. As an effective way of motivating the team, token rewards such as early finish on Fridays for significant projects, or group activities like game nights, can be introduced.

A statement such as “you’re doing a fantastic job” can have a significant impact on your team.

Establish Defined Goals and a Schedule

Whether your software development team is big or small, having a strategy is imperative.

Several methodologies could benefit your team in reaching their desired goal. The Agile approach, for instance, helps product development teams through the use of iterative cycles. On the other hand, Kanban focuses on the significance of being able to monitor the project’s advancement.

The Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) provides different models that can be employed to establish accountability and promote transparency within the team. Implementing a plan allows team members to concentrate on one job at a time, providing great value in challenging projects with intricate assignments.

Allocate Space for Growth

It is generally agreed that traditional cars cannot function without fuel (except for electric vehicles like Tesla). Likewise, software developers derive their fuel from career advancement opportunities. To sustain their motivation and involvement, they require the assurance that they won’t be restricted to the same position for their entire career. While some may find fulfilment in programming, others may aspire to leadership roles.

Software developers find motivation not only in monetary rewards and acknowledgement of their significance but also in the potential for professional growth within the company. Though this may not be an immediate occurrence, instilling in your team the understanding that their dedication and excellent performance will pave the way for promotions and other progression openings can heighten their involvement.

With their dedication to the future workforce, workers must endeavour to produce outcomes that will enable them to become efficient leaders as opposed to working solely for the purpose of receiving payment.

Provide Challenges to Overcome Rather Than Making It Easy for Them

The best way to encourage creativity and innovation is to present challenges to be conquered.

For a software engineer, the greatest satisfaction comes from pushing one’s abilities to the limit. Therefore, to inspire your team, you should consistently encourage them to achieve their maximum potential. By avoiding repetitiveness or rigidity, you could stimulate them to come up with innovative solutions to problems.

Having a solid plan in place is crucial, but it’s equally vital to allow your team the freedom to tweak and enhance processes if they desire to contribute. Challenging people’s abilities inspires creativity and the adoption of novel approaches. This also creates a chance for members of the team to showcase any hidden talents or skills they might possess.

The Seventh Principle of Change: Concentrate on the Why Instead of What

Simon Sinek has proposed a theory to elucidate why some leaders are influential and successful while others are not. The author of “Start with Why” presents the idea of the ‘Golden Circle’, proposing that businesses usually present their products by highlighting the attributes of the product (what, how, and why), in that order, as part of the sales process.

To achieve success, it is crucial to adopt a reverse approach. When businesses start with their ‘why’ instead of their ‘what’, consumers are drawn to the company’s principles rather than the product. This fosters a connection between customers and the company, increasing the likelihood of sales.

It is crucial to apply this concept to your team, even if the ultimate objective is to advertise and vend the company’s products or services. It’s important to reiterate your objectives before presenting your methods and plans.

When your team is dedicated to the products or services they are promoting, they are more likely to exceed expectations for their customers.

Practice Flexibility

Humans demonstrate significant diversity in terms of shape, size, colour and disposition. Some folks are most productive during early mornings, while others prefer the quiet of the early evening. The standard 9-to-5 workday has been traditionally accepted, but it may not be the ultimate solution for productivity.

Inadequate management practices can often result in excessive working hours, necessitating developers to work late into the night. To prevent this, it is advisable to introduce flexible working arrangements rather than compelling workers to stay up late.

It might be advantageous to permit developers who are more productive at night to work on their assignments during those hours when they are more refreshed and attentive. This method can foster a culture of trust and promote greater faith in individual abilities, resulting in an overall enhancement of performance.

Engaging remote engineers offers greater flexibility in terms of scheduling, which is a significant benefit. This motivates individuals to finish their assignments when they are most productive, while taking deadlines into account.

A Final Tip to Motivate Programmers

It is vital to show your team that you value their contributions. Managers can get caught up in delegating tasks, giving feedback, and making alterations, but they may overlook showing their affection and gratitude for their employees’ efforts. Taking the time to express appreciation for their hard work is a straightforward yet highly effective way to establish a positive work environment.

Working as a team is easier when there is a foundation of trust and respect among colleagues. When you have confidence in their abilities, you can offer constructive feedback and venture beyond boundaries without apprehension of negative consequences.

Choosing the appropriate individuals for your team can make it easier to take care of them. If you are struggling to expand your IT department, please feel free to get in touch with us. We can efficiently help you discover and recruit competent remote software engineers.

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