How can I help a software developer gain skills *outside* of software development?

manpreet Best Answer 2 years ago

Our company is a small SaaS shop with a small team of in-house software developers.

We take professional growth very seriously. I talk to each of the developers that I manage about personal learning objectives and push each one of them to continue to study and improve themselves. We even have a (modest) budget to purchase books and video courses to help employees stay sharp.

However, whenever I bring up professional development with one of our software developers, she insists that she would like to develop skills in areas outside of programming. She has asked that we allow her to work on graphic design and marketing projects during work hours in addition to her duties as a developer. I have tried to explain that we hired her to do one kind job and not other random tasks to no avail.

Since she is a fairly productive employee this isn't really a reason to let her go. I can't see how we would be able to have her work as a programmer and a designer simultaneously.

What, if anything, can I do to help this employee find what she's looking for?

manpreet 2 years ago

whenever I bring up professional development with one of our software developers

So, don't bring it up, she's not interested in doing things that directly benefit her existing role and therefore potentially the company, so rather than talk to a brick wall, focus on those who are.

I train people in things I don't need them to do, but in the full knowledge that they will leave and apply those skills elsewhere. It's not a potential danger, it will happen. So in terms of retaining staff it's not good for the company. I do it for other reasons and don't want to retain those staff.