As a developer, you’ve learned your craft. From your fingers comes the magic that builds the applications that run the world. You can literally create something from nothing! And not just software programs. You can create value that means revenue for your company. You’re a revenue machine — no, you’re a god, creating anything that’s needed! That is, you could be if you could spend all of your time writing that magical code. But this dream is not so simple. If you’re like most developers, you’re spending way too much time on other things, such as:
● Meetings
● Dealing with interruptions
● Security hassles
● Operations
● Debugging
● Fighting with infrastructure
● Burnout
Every minute you’re dealing with any of those, you’re not making magic. Because you’re human, that is going to make you unhappy.
If you really are a developer and not just imagining you are, you already know all of this. Now let’s turn our attention to those of you who are responsible for developers. Because it’s your job to make them happy.
Yes, it is, if you want them to keep working productively for you and add value. Luckily, it’s within your reach to do so. It will benefit you, add value to the organization and, most importantly of all, the employees themselves.
Simply put: If you want to get value from your developers, you have to be nice to them. If you expect them to pour themselves into you and into the company, you must first prioritize them and invest in them. Success can only be realized and achieved by a happy balance of developers who are motivated to create.
Do you know who feels more motivated than anyone else? Who will always go above and beyond?
Those who are appreciated.
So let’s get started.
Increased Productivity and Value
The most obvious issue is productivity. The reality is that software development can be an arduous mental task, and when developers are unhappy, it will inevitably affect their productivity—especially when they spend mental cycles on things that are not directly related to the task at hand.
Even if they’re not spending work time searching for another job (or quiet quitting), they’re probably thinking about what could be different and mentally grumbling about it every time something comes up that irritates them.
By treating developers well and eliminating those annoyances as much as possible, you prevent that problem and get 100% of their attention.
And there are other productivity benefits, as well. When developers trust their company and their co-workers, it fosters greater collaboration between those developers and business stakeholders. It also engenders greater creativity, which can lead to innovation and value above and beyond what you are expecting them to deliver.
Retention
The most obvious issue when it comes to developer happiness is, of course, retention. After all, if you’re not nice to your developers, you should expect them to leave for other jobs. If the Great Resignation taught us anything, it’s that it is human nature to move along if dissatisfied.
That may not seem like a big deal to you, but think about the implications if your developers are leaving in droves. Never mind the turnover costs, what about the inevitable delays as you bring new developers up to speed? Hiring and training are arduous, time-consuming endeavors. And if turnover is bad enough, you may never be able to actually complete anything because nobody ever gets a chance to build up a good head of steam.
Compare this to a company with a dedicated team of happy developers who are motivated to grow and innovate for themselves, their team and your organization.
Which organization do you think is going to come out on top? Yes—the organization with the happier team of developers is probably going to have a competitive advantage—and a big one!
When developers are happy, they are likely to be loyal to your company. That loyalty means they stay long enough to become experts in what you do, making them more likely to create the kinds of innovations that move the company forward for added value.
But most of all, can you really afford to have your best employees leave and take all of the knowledge they’ve gained with them, potentially to a competitor? Probably not.
Maintaining a Good Reputation
All of this adds up to reputation; get a bad reputation in the developer world and it is going to be hard for you to attract top talent. In a world where technology changes so fast, it’s already difficult to find developers who have stayed with one technology long enough to become experts. You need to take advantage of every tool you can to make it easier. Your reputation can be one of them—if you treat your developers right.
But there’s another reason to protect your reputation among developers: It could easily bleed over to your reputation among your customers. If you’re a big company, word of your treatment of developers may spread. If you’re not so big, and you have enough developer turnover, some of your former employees may work for prospective customers or know someone who does.
Today, customers are trying to be socially responsible by buying from companies that ‘do the right thing.’
Without much effort, you can be one of those companies by trying to foster developer happiness. Ultimately, it’s not that difficult.
How to be Nice to Your Developers
Fostering developer happiness doesn’t have to be a hugely expensive proposition. It’s not always about huge paychecks (though they do help smooth out some rough edges). Some things you can do to be nice to your developers include the following.
1. Provide what they need: Developers should be able to spend as much of their time as possible actually coding; make sure they have the tools that they need so that they’re not having to improvise or struggle with creating infrastructure. For example, engaging a ZeroOps partner can take some of this off their plates.
2. Eliminate distractions: Even in ideal situations, it can take as long as 20 minutes for a developer to get back into their train of thought every time they’re interrupted. Try to provide an environment with as few distractions as possible.
3. Foster a training-centric culture: Developers need to feel as though you have their best interests at heart, and one way to do that is to help them learn new skills. And there are multiple benefits for you: For one, it’s much easier to train your existing people in an in-demand technology (such as Kubernetes) than it is to hire someone who already has those skills. For another, training your entire team in these new technologies can unlock creative ways of solving problems.
4. Help developers understand how their work relates to the customer: While it can be tempting to expect developers to simply do what you ask them to, when they understand why they’re doing it, they’re much more likely to feel invested in the work.
5. Listen to ideas: Your developers are at the heart of what you’re trying to do. It’s very possible that they have a new way of doing something or an idea for something that could help your company. Even if you don’t end up going forward with the idea, your developers need to know that you respect them enough to listen.
6. Respect work-life balance: Developers have a reputation for working long hours and many even take pride in it. But it’s not always the most efficient way to get things done. A tired developer works more slowly and makes more mistakes. Be flexible and make sure that you’re not overloading your people with more than they can reasonably accomplish. If your developers have to work 70, 80 or 100 hours a week to meet deadlines, you either need to hire more people (if you can find them) or find a way to partner with other organizations to take things off their plate. (See number one).
All of these things make for a positive work environment that enables your developers to work their magic for you, day in and day out, making something from nothing and moving you forward the way nobody else can.
