Developer Team Missing Deadlines: How Can We Motivate Timely Completion?

In my company, we have a developer team that is not meeting their deadlines. I am seeking to establish rules or provide motivation to encourage them to complete their work on time. I would appreciate your assistance with this matter. Thank you.

1) Why are they unable to complete/achieve their targets?

2) If not trained - training is required. If overloaded with work - reduce workload. If not capable - remove them. If not motivated - please check their salary versus market salary rates. If your rate is less, you need to revise your salary rates to get the desired output.

Managing Underperforming Employees

Managing underperforming employees is a difficult job for most managers. Managers need to analyze the reasons behind non-performance.

Is the Task Excessive?

What is the ability and skill level of the employees? Simply setting rules and chasing employees is not enough.

Goal Setting and Management Style

As a manager, ask yourself if you have set clear goals for employees and involved them in goal setting. Are you micromanaging them, or are you only checking progress from time to time and making yourself available for sorting problems, etc.?

Structured Performance Management

Have you put in place a structured performance management process that incorporates annual organizational goals and raises that are tied to performance? Have you linked pay with performance?

Interdepartmental Support

Do you help out employees when work is dependent on other departments and delays arise from there? Basically, analyze problems and then involve employees in getting solutions.

Motivating Employees: Recognition Over Rules

There is a lot of content on this issue in Citehr. You can search for the topics in the search box on the right-hand corner. Rules won't motivate, but recognition does. You should first find out from the employees what motivates them and what demotivates them. That gives you a direction for your actions to motivate them—whether you need to frame a policy of rewards and recognition or you need to bring about behavioral changes in the team leaders/managers who lead these employees. This could involve discussing team goals with them, seeking their feedback, and acknowledging their work, etc.

Regards, B. Saikumar
HR & Labour Relations Adviser
Navi Mumbai

Dear Deepagc,

Welcome to Cite HR. On the very first day when you joined this forum and posted your query, many of our learned members have recorded their views. What is the basis of your complaint? Is it Agreed/ Standard/ Comparable with competitors? Once you get answers to these, you will be in a position to resolve the matter. Motivation is always good. Even when performances are good, motivation helps.

V. Raghunathan

There is no quick-fix solution to get over the situation. You have to identify the reasons for the current unpleasant situation by yourself or through an agency having expertise in employee engagement surveys. Whatever you decide to do, please do it fast!

Dear colleague, the issue raised by you is that your developer team is not finishing work on time. One can say this only if there are standards of work fixed and communicated for the day's work. Has it been done? Assuming that you have standards in place, still, they are not performing as expected. Analyze the speed of workflow from each table and find out bottlenecks to fix them.

Analyze the causes of dissatisfaction

Analyze if there are undercurrents of dissatisfaction caused probably by low salary compared to competitors, bad supervision, monotonous work, lack of challenge in the work, and lack of reward and recognition systems blended with a fear of punishment if work is not done on time. Develop a strategy to address them one by one or jointly.

In my view, merely framing rules may not yield desired results, but proper engagement and lively action and interaction will.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR Consultant

I feel physically spending time with the team as a member of the team (even at odd hours of problems at work) would help in knowing their difficulties (salary-related/knowledge-related/work tension-related) to take steps towards solving. We follow the same approach in production-related problems. My experience is, if you put your hand in the problem, it will be solved by the team.

Be a leader, not a manager

Involve and understand the ground reality of your employees. Make them part of your goal; don't give them targets they cannot complete.

Steps to effective leadership

First - As a leader, tell your employees: "I do, and you see me." (Train)

Second - You do, and I am with you. (Be the mentor)

Third - You do it alone and tell others also to do it - I am always with you. (Team building)

Fourth - You guide and tell others to do like you. I am with you all. (People development)

Fifth - Empower and delegate to employees and lead.