I refer, of course, to the metaphorical carrot held aloft by a stick - the carrot being an incentive for whatever beast of burden happens to be saddled by someone wielding said stick. More specifically, what are the best incentives for those working within IT?
Salary and benefits
Perhaps the most obvious incentive for employees is the most measurable - salary, bonuses and other benefits. It is quite true that paying under market rates is a good way to de-motivate staff and increase staff turnover as a result - but there is a point at which salary benefits do little.
Indeed, once the baseline market rate for a position is reached, there will be little productivity benefit received beyond this - it is at this point that working conditions become more important than monetary concerns.
Some benefits can help improve the environment, though - the option to have flexible working hours, for instance, can help boost morale - as can the option to telecommute. Perhaps the most important aspects of keeping a team productive is the way that team is managed - from the goals set, through communication and general understanding of processes and procedures.
Realistic goals and deadlines
Managers, take note: asking the impossible is not only futile, it's also a great drain on the morale of your team. Tackling the insurmountable may be some people's idea of a challenge, but to be asked to continually push harder and harder to meet targets - and then ultimately fail anyway - is a sure-fire way to diminish morale.
A little deadline pressure can work to spur on a developer - but if it's continuous the effect will quickly fade. It's best to keep a mix of attainable, moderate goals with the occasional push for a deadline - too little or too much workload will otherwise have a detrimental effect.
Open communication channels
Good communication is also the key to keeping your team in check - without regular updates and the occasional meeting, it's easy to lose synchronisation - this is especially true in environments where telecommuting is commonplace.
Ensuring that the whole team is aware of the current state of affairs and primary goals will eliminate any potentially morale-breaking instances in which effort expended by a member of the team could be wasted, misguided or otherwise for naught.
Having each team member understand what the principal goals are for any given collaboration or project will also help in terms of improving overall productivity, as any potential issues can be distributed and solved collectively before it becomes a critical point of action.
Stress-busting working practices
As I mentioned in my last post, there are an array of tools and methodologies that can help a development team. You can eliminate a lot of stress from a development-deployment cycle by undertaking more rigorous practices which might otherwise not be used.
A reliable deployment cycle will rely heavily on testing - particularly in scenarios where there is a lot of stake (such as a major reversioning of a critical application or launch of a primary web application). Allowing time before launch to test the capabilities of a new system (and to eke out the bugs) will shield the development team from the necessity to fix such bugs discovered after the launch.
Taking the time to document the development and testing procedures can also help in hedging against future catastrophe - while developers may not relish having to document their work, most will be aware of the headaches it may save should it ever be needed.
Technical understanding from management roles
One key irk many technically-minded people face is that of the technically inept manager - parodied in Dilbert on a regular basis, but sadly with a strong grounding in regular situation.
Managers of a technical team do tend to have a degree of technical ability themselves - indeed, those promoted to the position from a development role will likely have a very good understanding. There are exceptions, however, and the inept management style is seldom good for the team as a whole.
Without some semblance of understanding of the challenges developers face, the managerial aspect of such a team becomes more difficult - and estimates on deadlines, system requirements et cetera can become more lax. This, of course - can exacerbate the issues I've covered above.
Understanding your technical employees is critical in terms of getting them to work effectively - if you understand the work, the process and procedures that should be followed, you can better manage expectations outside the team and preserve an environment conducive to the best possible output.
