Slow innovation can have a knock-on effect on your business, as companies cut down on IT costs, but steps can be taken to optimise tech teams while keeping them motivated, agile and innovative.
As economic conditions become more difficult, South African companies are compelled to reduce their IT budgets. “Despite maintaining the same goals and ambitions, companies are understandably cutting down on costs,” explains Entelect’s chief customer officer (CCO), Daniel Manyemwe.
Several factors driving these budget reductions include interest rate uncertainty, the rand-dollar exchange rate and potential geopolitical changes. “We have seen our clients evaluate their more innovative strategies and cut those that haven't yielded returns or lack a strong business case,” he adds.
As technology services providers with 23 years of experience, Entelect understands the true impact that slow innovation has on reputation and missed opportunities.
“We have been running technology teams for over two decades, and we’ve seen from first-hand experience what steps can be taken to keep teams motivated, agile and innovative.” This can be achieved through strong retention and reorganising the structure of teams – being mindful of the fact that every hour counts.
Elevating team planning
Entelect has found that instead of allocating a full team of technical experts for the full duration of an engagement, you can assign specific skills only as needed.
“Rather than assigning a senior heavy team, you can mix the team. We really believe in the power of cross-functional teams,” Daniel explains.
A cross functional team should include business analysis, user experience champions and data specialists. As the focus of the project changes, these specialised roles may be rotated in and out of the team. This flexibility helps stretch the budget by putting the right people in place as needed.
“You will most likely find that you have team members who are able to ‘double hat’ and be as effective,” he adds. “We continuously reassess the health of the team balance and strive to find the sweet spot of experience and cost.” Creating the right mix of seniority and experience within a team is beneficial to both businesses and staff.”
Team members are able to accelerate their career, and organisations can optimise their operations. Significant change has been achieved by deploying teams who can time manage effectively, and communicate rapidly.
This can be done quite simply – such as reducing the number of people attending meetings. “You don’t need every person in every meeting – developers would rather work on coding during that time,” Daniel adds. “In the past, people didn’t think they could push back and decline meetings. Now, wherever possible, we have only one or two key people attend the meeting and report back to the rest of the team. One team we monitored saw a velocity increase: on a team of 8 – 10 people you could free up as much as 25 percent of their time just by excluding people from lengthy meetings.”
“Often, the customer may say we need a team of 12, but we will suggest starting with a smaller team that ramps up as analysis and requirements become visible. We might start with the tech lead and business analyst as the vanguard to lay the foundation, and add two developers in month two, with UX and design coming in at month four. We are trying to find the sweet spot to utilise the right people at the right time on the right project,” he adds.
The vital role of retention
“Retention plays a critical role in managing the ability to innovate through capacity and skill, not to mention its impact on risk and morale. The IP and unique contextual knowledge vested into people is valuable for the purposes of business continuity,” says Daniel. He explained that great retention within technology teams requires deliberate leadership focus on workplace culture, growth and development, interesting work and competitive remuneration.
It is imperative that leadership fosters personal relationships with their teams. By demonstrating a level of sincere care and personal understanding, organisations will see it reflected in the work their teams do. Leadership can consequently help alleviate blockers to performance, recognise excellence, or deal with issues quickly and directly.
“Beyond the open-door policy, focus on keeping lines of communication open and exercised. Regular, open communication creates trust and affinity. Today's workforce generally wants to be kept in the loop as to the direction of the division or organisation. They want to be heard, and to have a say,” he continues.
According to Daniel, professionals care about their career – where they are headed – and the kind of work they do. “We’ve seen the best results when career development becomes a line management function,” he noted.
At Entelect, Daniel explained, line managers are not only responsible for business results and deadlines, but also for the growth and retention of their people. “This is not an HR function,” he adds.
Daniel went on to say that holistic career development systems can help track and manageall one-on-ones, career feedback, performance reviews, achievements, advice and planning. Create a memorable employee journey, Daniel suggested, that’s how you retain staff and keep innovation on track.
Innovation shouldn’t have to be optional
“An employee's journey with your organisation starts even before they begin the interview process and only concludes long after they leave you,” he says. “You can't make every interaction great, but you can make sure that some are excellent and that the terrible ones become better.”
He used customer experience and employee experience as examples, highlighting that the two will have a direct impact on business continuity, sales, growth, customer acquisition, delivery, and innovation.
Entelect’s CCO believes that innovation shouldn’t be seen as optional in hard times, but rather a prime opportunity for businesses to double down on what could make them competitive. By implementing meaningful change in how your teams work that can reduce costs, Daniel suggested, is how this can be achieved.
“We’ve fine-tuned these principles, and know that they work. Creating teams that are personally invested in outcomes, engage critically in the work they do, and are eager to grow in their career is what sets organisations apart,” Daniel concludes.
