With total global IT spending expected to surpass $4.4 trillion by 2022, the demand for software developers also continues to rise. But great developers are getting more hard to find and even harder to hold. In fact, the US tech industry has a 13.2% failure rate – now the highest of each segment.
Developers understand its importance and they can dictate their terms. If you don’t give this team the remote workspace they need, prepare to have them close your company laptop and open someone else’s. (In the age of remote working, they don’t even have to leave the house!)
A great workspace for developers should replace the sense of purpose and connection that can come from a personal office, while embracing the many potential productivity benefits of remote working.
Consider how establishing the right culture provides opportunities for impact, growth and connection, and how providing innovative and flexible toolsets can drive communication and productivity. Both help attract and retain developers by providing them with a great workplace, free from friction and unnecessary distractions.
Are you struggling with hiring developers or losing the ones you have? Let’s take a look at what matters and how you can build a workplace that retains and attracts top talent.
Developing a digital workplace to support developers
What do software developers want from their careers in 2022? According to an recent research by Stack Overflow, 39% want to work with the latest technologies. This is where open source can help.
The open source community offers many of the new technologies that developers enjoy. The community is responsible for introducing popular programming languages such as: To go† javascript and Rust, which make it easier for developers to create code and produce high-quality work at high speed. Without open source we wouldn’t have cloud services like AWSGCP or Digital Ocean.
SEE: Hiring Kit: Python Developer (Tech Republic Premium)
Open source acts as a force multiplier for projects. Community contributions help build and deliver applications faster. Developers can also customize their technology stacks, optimize productivity, and experiment with and learn new techniques from other open source projects. With all these capabilities, it’s no wonder that one of the top reasons companies adopt and embrace open source is to increase developer satisfaction.
The Risks of Ignoring Developer Needs
What can you do to attract and retain the best software developers in today’s ultra-competitive environment? Remove friction and fragmentation.
For many developers, the shift to remote working has brought new distractions, be it technology (“Oh great, another chat”) or otherwise (“Honey, the dog needs a walk. Again.”). Distraction prevents developers from producing and shipping code and applications in a jiffy resilient and productive way.
Therefore, one of your primary objectives should be to provide both new and current developers with tools that remove these distractions and allow them to focus while enjoying smooth collaboration. This is possible by integrating toolsets and giving developers complete visibility and control over the entire stack.
SEE: Hiring Kit: Back-end Developer (Tech Republic Premium)
This approach also minimizes frustrations arising from: tool fragmentation† For many developers, fragmented tools are a major productivity challenge. That’s not surprising; it’s hard to get into a good development flow when everyone uses different tools that don’t work well together. Fragmentation leads to frustration and dissatisfaction in the workplace, which can lead to an exodus of developers.
Without tools to integrate into workflows, incidents pile up and distract engineers from what they do best: developing software. When developers are constantly interrupted and have to respond to every incident, they lose job satisfaction.
And if engineers are frustrated, they will leave, taking their talents and organizational knowledge with them. With the ongoing talent shortage, replacing skilled developers will only become more challenging. Avoid employee turnover by prioritizing purpose-built collaboration platforms that help developers stay in flow, reduce toil and increase efficiency.
Why collaboration is essential for developers
In a remote world, office benefits such as free lunch and luxurious workplaces are a thing of the past. Without these benefits, it’s all about the digital experience you provide. It’s up to CIOs and technology leaders to make the most important decision impacting workplace satisfaction: selecting communication and productivity tools†
With developers facing unprecedented demand for their services, existing common collaboration solutions won’t cut it. These tools are poorly suited to engineering team workflows and modern digital operations. In addition, they do not offer the necessary levels of customization achievable with open source software or the option to deploy on-premise or in a private cloud.
Integrating tools reduces fragmentation and productivity-killing context changes, while making it easier for teams to collaborate – much-coveted benefits for today’s developers.
If your company can perform on all of these fronts, it has a greater chance of attracting and retaining valuable software development talent. You can start building what Gartner is a . calls Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and avoid becoming one of the 90% of companies without EVP who struggle to retain and hire talent.
Developers don’t settle for archaic processes and tools. They want to work somewhere where they can make an impact, innovate, make connections and experience growth. And they demand tools that help them achieve these goals.
Corey Hulen is CTO and co-founder of Mattermost, Inc† Founded in 2016, Mattermost’s open source platform powers more than 800,000 workspaces worldwide with the support of more than 4,000 contributors from across the developer community. The company serves more than 800 clients including European Parliament, Nasdaq, Samsung, SAP, United States Air Force, Wealthfront and is backed by world-class investors including Battery Ventures, Redpoint, S28 Capital, YC Continuity. For more information, visit www.mattermost.com.
