Today, the development component often takes precedence over many other sectors of the company. More and more:
- Client prospecting is done via internet (if only through advertising)
- Purchases, both at the choice and logistics level, are managed via internet
- Support is done via internet
- Returns, maintenance requests are done via internet.
It turns out that a large part of the economy runs thanks to internet and the ability of clients to contact merchants/suppliers relies largely on the network. All this is all the more true when products are digital products.
Today, even banks, insurance companies, mutuals tend to migrate towards “full-web” solutions that allow doing without agencies, managing client needs more efficiently thanks to algorithms that are always more powerful and omnipresent. If we take the example of the bank, the user/client is therefore now in direct line with the real decision center, especially for credits, which is the algorithm put in place by their bank. When an agency advisor submits their client’s elements, they’re faced with the same process and becomes, for this precise process, an expensive intermediary for the bank.
the inertia of these “heavy” service sectors because each draining hundreds of millions of euros per year makes them among the last to drop the taboo of direct confrontation of their clients to algorithms, as do, or have done, mass distribution via “drive”, health (doctolib is a good example), education (training or tutoring sites), and so many other domains.
Since the trend is therefore to replace human interlocutors with machines, the workforce is therefore no longer made of people with business skills, but well of those who will be able to set up tools capable of replacing dozens, even hundreds of people with equal or superior efficiency.
And that’s where the shoe pinches. The pressure of demand on technical profiles competent to set up these services is strong and has an inflationary effect on salaries. In the middle of “rockstar developer” profiles we find many little-experienced profiles who only profit from a windfall effect to increase their salary by adding trendy keywords they often don’t know much about. A first pre-sorting is done by serious recruitment consulting firms on which companies can rely. However, there are also drifts in this sector, and I’m myself regularly contacted by recruitment “platforms”, where profile hunters don’t have more skills than the common mortal to spot a solid profile from one that isn’t.
When setting up a structure in this difficult recruitment period, you must know how to play on levers that will motivate these profiles to, on one hand join you, but on the other hand invest in the project and consider it as theirs. I already talk about this in this article or this one. As I explain in previous articles, we’ve mocked new positions of “chief happiness officer” or any other profession intended to improve quality of life at work. This is a mistake. Any initiative that aims to improve working conditions is praiseworthy, but in the case of previously cited profiles necessary.
I’ve seen nearly half of a company’s technical staff resign within 6 months following a questionable strategic choice by its leaders. Unfortunately for the company, in this kind of case, it’s also the most sought-after and therefore experienced profiles who leave, because their ease in finding employment is impressive. As a developer I know says “we don’t even need to cross the street to find work, it’s work that crosses the street to find us.”
And it’s true. Good profiles are literally harassed by recruiters, and this several times per week, even several times per day in busy periods! I personally can’t answer all solicitations. Thanks LinkedIn for the automatic response function to messages….
The old method consisting of having “business” people to dictate to developers what to do, without taking their opinion and considering them as simple workers can no longer last. The developer who (forgive me the expression) came to “piss code” without putting the slightest soul into it and just waiting for the minimum acceptable hour to pack their things and go home to do things that really interested them is over. If you’re a developer and you work in such a structure, flee. The grass will be greener elsewhere.
When I talk about developer, I naturally include all associated professions, like infrastructure or UX/UI for example. The fact of coding is nothing if we don’t create efficient interfaces for humans or if we’re incapable of knowing how to deliver and maintain in operational conditions the code written by devs….
Devs have therefore now taken power, but not against the company.
If you’re a manager, motivate your teams, take their feedback into account, trust them on their ability to propose things to you, create real team cohesion. Friends will always work better together. Offer them leave when possible, take care to offer them a pleasant work environment where they’ll be more comfortable than at home, where they’ll be happy to come. Offer them to choose their telework pace. In short, make them happy collaborators rather than frustrated executors.
Most developers became so by passion. If you know how to maintain it, it’s your projects that will come out grown and your businesses that will only be more flourishing.