You want to improve your software development team but aren’t sure how. It’s a common enough problem. After all, happy developers are productive developers, and everyone wants an effective team that’s firing on all cylinders.
But how do you make your team happy? And just as importantly, how do you maintain that happiness?
Here at The Mad Dev, we’ve made it easy for you. We’ve rounded up 21 of the best ways to keep your developers happy.
Here’s how to do it.
1. Offer a Flexible Work Arrangement
Every developer works differently. Some prefer working from home or making their own hours. Others prefer collaboration and having an office to go into – at least sometimes.
2. Work on Meaningful Projects
Whether it’s a big or small project, all developers want to work on meaningful projects. Make sure your developer team works on projects that matter to the organization.
3. Use New Tech
Using new tech can be exciting for developers. It provides them with an opportunity to learn new languages and tools, which increases their skills.
4. Give Them a Voice
Giving them a voice is one way to keep your software developers happy. Obviously, developers shouldn’t make all of the decisions, but they should have a say in some of them. Allow them to voice their concerns and give them a stake in the organization.
5. Minimize Meetings
Meetings are often a necessary evil. But many people don’t like them. Do what you can to minimize the number and length of meetings.
6. Help Them Grow Their Skills
Developers need to stay sharp and keep their skills up to date. If a developer doesn’t feel challenged, it’s not uncommon for them to jump ship to another organization.
7. Recognize Their Work
Recognizing good work promotes good company culture. Employees want to feel valued.
8. Show Gratitude
Along with recognizing their work, a little gratitude goes a long way. Recognize their hard work. Everyone needs to be validated for their work.
Being grateful, smiling, and complimenting others are also good habits for you.
9. Provide a Career Path
Many employees want to know there is a career path ahead of them. While not everyone can be promoted in every organization, devs should see a career path ahead of them. Do your best to encourage and talk to them about their career goals when possible.
Make sure they have a career development plan. It encourages them to take ownership of their career.
10. Determine Why Their Peers Leave
Every organization has turnover. It’s unavoidable. But if your turnover is high, you need to examine why your developers are leaving.
Conducting exit interviews allow you to dig into why they are unhappy.
11. Let Them Connect With Other Developers
This is especially important when developers are working remotely. Let them connect with other developers in the organization. That way, they can learn from others.
It can also help stave off some of the loneliness associated with remote work.
12. Employ Industry Experts
Make sure there are a few strong industry experts in your organization. Not only will they come with extraordinary skills, but they can provide leadership and help to junior developers.
13. Encourage Conference Attendance
More and more conferences have headed online. It’s easier than ever to attend. Encourage your developers to attend meetings where they can learn new skills.
This is especially important for the leaders in your organization.
14. Create a Developer Safe Culture
Create an environment where the risk of making development mistakes can be mitigated. That could mean taking steps to protect your central code repository. And a backup and disaster recovery plan is essential for any organization.
15. Give Them Tools to Perform Their Tasks
Outdated hardware and tech don’t help anyone. Good developers need good tools. Give your developers the proper hardware to get their work done.
Not only will your team be happy, but they will be able to be more efficient at work.
16. Promote Collaboration
Everyone is different. While your developers may desire to work entirely solo, Collaboration is often necessary. Not only does collaboration help get things done, but it promotes camaraderie and goodwill amongst your team.
17. Have Realistic Expectations
Good software is going to take time. There’s no way around it. If your developers are always under a time crunch, they will be forced to work under a constant state of stress.
If your team says a project will take x amount of time, believe them. And remember, it’s inevitable that things will go wrong. No project is perfect, and neither are your staff.
18. Enable Deep Focus
Enabling deep focus allows your developers to enter the flow state, an intense state of stress. You can help promote the flow state by eliminating workplace distractions, giving your developers tasks that they will love, and letting them work during their peak creative and productive hours.
19. Compensate Well
Compensating your developers means more than just paying them well (although hopefully, you are doing that!). It could mean stock options or travel and meal allowance.
Other compensation options include a good healthcare plan (including dental and vision) and a good retirement plan.
Few things will retain employees as well as reasonable compensation.
20. Ask Your Team
What is developer happiness? Ask your team!
Seriously, ask your team what changes and suggestions they have. An anonymous survey will allow developers to freely speak their minds and offer solutions for problems in the workplace. It’s invaluable feedback.
21. Keep Them Engaged
Finally, if you want to keep developers happy at work, you need to keep them engaged. If developers have stopped coming to you with their ideas, they may be no longer engaged.
Regular one-on-one interviews can help identify issues in advance. They can build trust with your team. Ask them some hard questions: “What makes you stay here? What would make you leave?”
Your Team Deserves the Best
Here at The Mad Dev, we’re all about supporting developers. If you’re looking for personal development, want to live a happier life, or be more productive and manage your time better, we’ve got you covered.
Looking to make your team better? We can help with that too.
Check out the rest of our site for more articles geared towards developers.
