It’s a well-known saying, “happy employees lead to happy customers”. This is what this article is about. Testers put a lot of effort into the testing process. It consumes their mental energy and monetary compensation is not enough to reward their dedication. And if you don’t show appreciation, your testers won’t be happy and this is something you shouldn’t want. It directly affects their performance and customer satisfaction consequently. Don’t understand the connection? Well, suppose that your demotivated testers let a major bug slip through before rolling out the product in the market. Your customers find the problem annoying and stop using the software. Who’s fault is it? So, do take this seriously. Some work environments are not tester-friendly. Testers usually complain:
- “Developers have a big ego; they think they are superior to us”
- “We are blamed for every fault”
- “We are blamed for schedule slips”
- “We are not getting respect”
- “Management doesn’t consider us equally with developers”
These complaints make testers feel insecure about their jobs, affecting their daily work and turnover rate consequently. These complaints must be addressed early before testers leave the company. This solution – organize teams effectively, improve communication between testers, developers and management. This will lead to a better understanding and address of testers’ needs. Following are some baby steps that can help you retain talented testers in their positions.
1) Provide them training
Do it for free. If not, train them at a cheap cost. Like all other employees, testers are no less of an asset. Training them will improve their skill set which will not only help them in their careers but also it will enhance their tasks within your company. Make accessible some distant courses, workshops, and books to study. Sponsor and facilitate them to get the Software Testing Certifications.
2) Appreciate the good work
Appreciation makes a lot of difference, even if it’s a few good words. Mostly, it costs nothing. Appreciation boosts the morale of the employees which will not only reflect in their work but in the work environment as a whole. Don’t go after the number of bugs. See the quality of bugs and appreciate those testers working hard to find them. Consistently remark emphatically in great work from the group. Reward testers for finding good quality bugs. Keep some month-to-month or week after week rivalries, for example, “Bug of the week” to remunerate the testers.
3) Set finite boundaries to everything
Being unclear about your goals is bad both for your organization and your teams. Your goals define the objectives, and goals that don’t have an end can become a boring task. Therefore, set a boundary to everything, especially your goals.
4) Take every bug as a learning opportunity
Be easy on your testers. Don’t overemphasize on “what”, instead tell them “how” and “why”. Don’t worry if a bug slipped through. Let them know they overlooked the bug so that they don’t repeat the same mistake.
5) Don’t make testing a repetitive task
Testing consists of repetitive tasks so don’t bore your testers by making them execute the same test cases repetitively on any project. Distribute the work accordingly and randomize the testing work in the team with the help of software testing tools. This way, the team will get knowledge of the whole product, helping to find more bugs. Avoiding repetitive work to rotate the experienced employees internally in different projects is a good solution.
Conclusion
Don’t make their life more complicated than it already is. Help them, let them know you understand, and see for yourself how this reflects positively in their performance. Additionally, use standard software testing tools to facilitate effective communication among teams because miscommunication can also lead to problems. And finally, ending with what we started, do remember, “happy employees lead to happy customers”.
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