How to avoid firing designers for 6 years. And then — to fire everyone.
In 2019, I created a joky GIF, when I came to the office and found no mates. I sent it to the team chat for fun. In 2020, this joke has become a reality.
There was a period when I parted with employees after working together for 5–6 years. There were no reasons for dissatisfaction with each other, we just eventually realized that everyone needs to move on. Although there was no turning point in the framework of their responsibility in the company.
What points should you pay attention to:
— a designer should strive for a multidisciplinary approach. If during a year employee continues to work in the same direction and does not improve his skills in application-oriented things: typography, 3D, animation, or even development — it is worth, shaking him up and helping to set goals.
— as long as a team is getting bigger, the trend of mentoring is logical. A team or a department needs a leader whose experience they will strive for, respect, and reach out to. Usually, such a leader is one of the studio founders or people with the longest work experience. For them, this is a logical point of growth. If such a person cannot be found in a team after a long time - you have problems in your team.
— design is definitely a creative industry. But the trends force specialists who influence other people’s companies and products (as they create their identity and interfaces) to go deeper and deeper into their business and its clients, to work with feedback, to like criticism, to see a picture wider than the market is. If a designer avoids responsibility and wants to stay alone with his canvas in a Figma and perceives it as the master’s handwriting - it’s a bad trend.
The whole time the people in your teamwork should become a clear route with non-stop development. In this case, your specialists will be satisfied with themselves and the tasks that they have learned to solve. And you will receive a greater return from the skill set of your colleagues, which means more efficiency.
Having analyzed this experience of the formation and development of the team, going through crises and mutual success, I made the following conclusions:
— a team needs constant growth. Regardless of the current position, an employee should understand what the next stage of his development looks like within the team and the business as a whole.
— there should be both material and non-material motivation through new tasks and interesting projects and support for a single mission of the entire company — a simple and understandable mission.
— methods of development within a team. Vertical management is inefficient since it rests on units under which entire departments are formed. I would like to tell you about it in more detail.
Over time, we have developed a more efficient structure of production teams. The Junior Specialist is the learner of the Middle Specialist, and the Middle Specialist is the learner of the Senior Specialist. This “subjection” determines the obligation of more experienced people to share their knowledge with those who are walking nearby. Thus, the development of entire chains is underway, regardless of whether it is design or IT development.
The lists of job descriptions and complication of a team’s work process is not needed. A less experienced employee receives the attention of a mentor for no more than an hour a day. In this way, he works independently, forms problems that he has encountered during a day, structures them, and turns to a mentor for analysis.
The purpose of this interaction is the constant growth and development of a team, the formation of independent team units, and the strengthening of relations, which became noticeable within a month after the introduction.
Simply put
— attention to each employee; it’s important not to leave him alone with the idea of separation from his team, especially in conditions of remote work.
— more fun and parties; it’s important to raise not just employees, but also a team of friends.
I wish stronger relationships and greater efficiency for your teams!
Thanks for reading!
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