Anyone that runs a software company knows how hard it is to get talented developers. Even if you do manage to get them, it will be a challenging holding onto them when their skills are in demand. The team dynamics in a tech setup matters a lot. To top developers, it is not always about the money. They need to be motivated and challenged on a regular basis. Which begs the question, how do you keep your top developers from quitting your company?

Promote Excellence

As much as teamwork is important, not everyone will have the same output, especially in a software development environment. There are programmers that can single-handedly handle complex projects. You don’t have to promote mediocrity in the guise of teamwork. There is a high chance that the best developers might not be good team players. It will be a challenge trying to gauge their performance based on team effort.

It should be noted that we’re not discounting teamwork. There should be a system in place that rewards excellence regardless of whether it was done by a team or an individual. When you recognize talent and excellence on a regular basis, your best developers will feel appreciated, which is an incentive to stay with your company.

Provide Growth Opportunities

There is a difference between providing flexibility and growth opportunities for your developers. Just because a developer has the freedom to be creative with their work doesn’t mean they’re growing. Managers need to understand what it means to provide a clear career progression path for the best developers. Developers shouldn’t be left on their own without some guidance. It is imperative that you discuss with them about career advancement opportunities on a regular basis. When you build a culture of continuous growth and learning, you encourage the best developers to go out of their way to become the best in their field.

Trust Them

According to psychologists, the majority of humans are driven by purpose, mastery, and autonomy. A talented developer needs to feel that they’re trusted even when they make mistakes. You will be promoting a culture of openness and transparency.  The more the developers are trusted, the more likelihood of them shining in their work. There are managers who will keep questioning every decision made by the developers. Such an environment can be toxic to creativity. A high performing developer will not need any kind of oversight because they’re confident in their work and abilities.  They won’t need to be told that using Zenserp API is the best solution for web scraping. There are some decisions that will just come naturally to them. In order to retain your best developer, how you treat them as a manager is going to play a big role. A good manager will provide autonomy and freedom for the developer to do their work.

Don’t Force them into Management Roles

Not everyone can be a good manager. There are people who prefer to work behind the scenes. It is not their personality trait to be at the helm of leadership positions. When you force them to be managers because of experience, their decision might not match well with their aspirations. When you push them to management positions, there are some things that they won’t be required to do. This could mean losing the best talent and finding a replacement, which can be a daunting endeavor.

Management is more than making the job done through the effort of others. You’re also supposed to bring the best out of your team members and not everyone is going to be up for it.

Respect Them

This is something that might appear to be obvious but there are managers that are not good at their job. As they say, respect is earned. A talented developer will have already earned your respect in ways you might not be willing to admit. Managers can be intimidated when they’re working with highly talented developers. You don’t want to undermine their contributions just because you’re in a leadership position. As we’ve already mentioned, getting good programmers is hard and you want to keep the ones you have.

To Sum it up

Talented developers are a great asset to a software company. To them, it will be more than the money because they know they can get anywhere else. They want to be treated with respect and their contributions appreciated by the company. It all starts by getting the basics right.