As a business owner you probably already know how hard it is to find a good developer that will come at a cheap fee. Even if you did find an average one his fee would either be too high or would already be hired because they are wanted by everyone.
In other words, you have no other choice but to expand your budget a bit more to find someone who will be able to handle all of your needs and to provide enough to keep your services always up-to-date. So, instead of going for a cheap and inexperienced developer, you should probably try to aim to improve their productivity in your company.
However, constantly maintaining a certain level of productivity in your business can be definitely a difficult task, especially when the industry you are in is constantly changing.
Now, you might be asking yourself: what are the steps you can take to boost the efficiency of your employees? Here are some tips to help you do exactly that.
Avoid disturbing them
If you have already hired a programmer then you probably understand how much time, effort and focus it takes for this kind of job. Unfortunately, even though most business owners or managers understand this, they still manage to somehow distract their employees for their specified tasks.
If you believe in them, then you should leave your team to work on their project instead of disturbing them with various messages, e-mails or asking for reports. We won’t cover every single distraction that can happen in the office space, but you probably understand what we mean.
Start communicating for the most important things only. And if you want to communicate try to do that in-person instead of spamming your workers with dozens of emails in just a few minutes. And if you can’t meet them in person, at least try to give them a call on the phone. You could also consider providing your programmers with a separate office.
Use software to track your team’s work
We already mentioned that you should reduce the disturbances to your team as much as possible. But, if you constantly need to follow their progress, how can you know when they are done, stuck or slacking off?
Fortunately for you and every business owner out there, there are several different software that can deliver you a view of everything your programmers are doing.
A good example of this type of software is PluralSight (known as GitPrime) and Waydev. It gives you an insight into what your team is working on, what they have worked on and how much time they took. Naturally, it’s never just about how much code they have written, but how much they have fixed, how many bottlenecks they’ve had and whether they have dealt with it and many other problems that a programmer may face.
Less working time is better
Depending on the type of business you are running, eight hours a day is more than enough to keep your efficiency at one hundred percent. The problem with many people who run business is the fact that they believe that forcing their employees to work for more than those eight hours will increase the productivity of the company.
And that is simply not true. Sure, they get their overtime pay, but at that time they will slowly lose their focus and motivation for working. After they finish their overtime they will get home tired and will show up in the same tired mood the next day. This will effectively reduce the entire efficiency of the company.
So, instead of adding more and more hours worked in the books, you should probably consider making different changes to boost the output of your company.
Do you hold long meetings? Well, why not make a few changes to your meetings and reduce them from sixty to minutes to thirty minutes? Instead of inviting everyone into the meeting room while you prepare, invite them after you are already.
Also, you probably do not have to call in every single developer to hold the meeting, right? There is no point to talk to your marketers about programming and to your programmers about marketing, that’s just loss of time.
Health should always be the number one priority
Just like you value your health and the health of your family over everything else, you should also do the same for your workers. You cannot expect them to perform at their best all the time if they are constantly under stress. Chronic stress can also lead to poor mental and physical health which can ruin a developer’s motive and ability to work in the office space.
Of course, you can’t force them to “start being more healthy”, but you can offer them the help and the motivation to live a healthier lifestyle. Instead of stocking up your kitchen full of greasy snacks and fast food, why not fill the fridge with vegetables and fruits. While this is not enough to completely change their physical or mental situation, it could help them transition to a different lifestyle.
You could even consider adding days of the week for optional gym time. So, if anyone feels like sweating out some stress, they could freely spend an hour or two in the gym.
Don’t deviate them from their true tasks
Your programmer got a job in your company to do programming and not for something else. There’s no point in spending your developer’s time to help you with a problem that you could handle by yourself or with anyone else. While doing so might help you deal with the problem much faster, but a programmer away from his/her project a few hours can cost you a lot.
We recommend that you avoid tasking your developer team with work that is out of their job description.
Boost your office’s comfort
Having a comfortable place to work is also very important. Sitting at a desk typing code for eight hours a day and 5 days a week can be very bad for people’s backs and minds. It’s stressful and annoying which can lower their concentration.
So, make sure you get them comfortable office chairs, keep the temperature in the office right and do everything in your power to make them feel safe.
