Motivation for remote programmers. What to do?

Question

Project management

Hello! Now I work as a project manager, I am developing a mobile application.
The entire team consists of full-time employees distributed in different parts of the country.
I encountered a situation where one of the developers closes too few tasks during a TWO-WEEK sprint - when working full-time on a project, the developer beats 30-40 hours for solving problems + 5-8 hours for rallies / phone calls.
As for me, an adequate output should be at least 55 hours in two weeks.
Now at the end of the next sprint, in the case of another bad performance, I want to talk with the developer and try to find out the reasons for such low performance.
What do you think is the best way to motivate developers in such cases?

Answer 1

4 hours for tasks and 1 hour for management. Total 25 hours per week.
Anything more is either a hoax, or this worker will soon go on a binge. due to high load.
ps. I would limit full time to 5-6 hours. Sense still will not be from 8 hours or more.
Try to shorten the working day and regulate breaks. Surely the same will be checked.
Now they are chasing the bulldozer out of fatigue and waiting for the end of the working day.

Answer 2

As for me, an adequate output should be at least 55 hours in two weeks.

With good work of managers, BA and QA - yes. With a bad one, it will drop to 25-30.

What do you think is the best way to motivate developers in such cases?

Eliminate distracting factors: rallies, phone calls, analytics.
It's a pleasure for the developer to work effectively - it's not stupidly annoying. If a developer has a lot of dependencies, then he starts to be less efficient.
If the developer has no distractions and does not work well, kick him out. Most likely, he is relaxed and occasionally approaches the working computer, doing his own thing.
If there is a significant proportion of such developers, then the problem is usually not in them, but in a mess on the part of management: they are not allowed to work normally. Some people know how to overcome it, but this is initially an uncomfortable environment.
Your question did not arise from scratch and is it widespread?
PS Remote or not remote - do not care. An office worker will also sit out his pants if he is self-motivated. Habr, YouTube, smoke breaks, kicker, etc.

Answer 3

I did not understand the problem is that there are few hours or few tasks to close.
Not enough hours - maybe he just doesn't know how to count them? He considers purely coding for example, and there it will be at best 4-5 hours a day, depending on the number of negotiations / the complexity of testing and other work besides writing code.
If there are few tasks, then maybe you can’t do it as quickly as you want? In this case, it is necessary to analyze why it closes a little (or can it even more?).
4-5 hours of coding is the maximum for a typical working day for me.
6-8 hours of coding is already when the working day is 10-12+ hours.
Sometimes there are distortions towards coding time, but this is when there is a large amount of work and you clearly know what to do, and as a rule it is some kind of routine in the form of a large refactoring or adding plus or minus the same logic to a large number of places. In all other cases, you spend half the time in the browser / testing software / picking the database / correspondence and various clarifications.

Answer 4

Yes, all these watches are an abstraction. Some tasks may take 10-20 times longer than expected.

Answer 5

too few tasks

Are your tasks measured in hours? Maybe programmers just don't understand what it means to write code for 55 hours straight. Perhaps they need to target specific functions/classes/interfaces etc.
There is also an opinion that you should measure productivity not in hours, but in results. By changing the formula, you will see that the productivity of programmers is quite large compared to, for example, you.
What answer can he give you? Does he have a time limit in his contract?

Answer 6

Well, working through the tracker, I came to the conclusion that it is rarely productive to get more than 25-30 hours a month. At the same time, I do much more than 40+ in the office. As I later realized, half the time everyone has an imitation of activities and the opportunity to go for a smoke / play / chat. There were no more than 15-20 hours of real work.
You just got an honest one, he doesn’t bid for 40 hours.

Answer 7

As for me, adequate production

Adequate output - this is how much you agreed. If it's 10 hours, then 10 would be adequate. If 100, one hundred is adequate. If "as for you" does not coincide with what was agreed or did not agree in any way, discuss it with him.
If the developer promised to work 55 hours and works 35-40, first of all ask him why. Maybe his child is sick, burnt out, he thinks that this is enough, it’s a shame to spend your budget beyond measure and a lot of other reasons that you won’t know about until you ask.
Further - already according to the results of the conversation - the reason is clear - we eliminate or change the work taking into account it, if it is not clear - then think further.
There is no right answer - you may be prompted with options, but you will only find out which one works for a specific person by checking.
There are a lot of options themselves - but in the end everything will rest on your ability to understand a person, bring him to a frank conversation, and determine what oppresses him and what personally motivates him.

Answer 8

It is very difficult to motivate an employee without a boss behind him.
I heard a lot of stories from remote workers who manage to install programs that pull them with a mouse and poke keys so that time is tracked. Or they watch a series in parallel with work, which also affects productivity.
Motivate either with a whip (the threat of dismissal, lowering the rate) or a carrot (a bonus for early surrender, an increase in the rate for productive work). Somehow you are tough, anyway, you will not be able to control it.

Answer 9

How-how, here's a plan for you - do it in a week, didn't do it - bonus, did it in three days + bonus.
They usually criticize the presence of normal positions like engineer / senior engineer / lead engineer / expert, etc. but in vain. If the staffing structure and the appointment system are transparent, then everything is fine. We showed examples of growth to inactive engineers.

Answer 10

they all lie, if the task is interesting, I can write all one in realtime for 2+-3 hours. super middle

Answer 11

Appoint the strongest and most adequate middle as an expert of the group, reduce the burden of business tasks, and instead throw on managerial administration.
Let him expertly evaluate the task, then it will go to the contractor, he either agrees with the assessment and takes it to work, or disagrees and starts discussing it with this lead, and not with a manager who does not fumble.
In any case, the assessment will be and he will agree with it. Then you plan according to these estimates. There will be shifts and risks, but not twice as much as now, and if they do, then the question arises about the quality of work of this employee and further cooperation with him.