Ways to Keep Your In-House Designers Happy & Productive

Keeping your in-house designers happy is crucial to productivity and your company’s success. Here are a few ways you can keep us happy!

1-Office Space

Designers are creative people naturally and sometimes a cubical or white walled office doesn’t promote creative thinking. Many corporate settings have standards that everyone must live with, but to encourage creativity, this isn’t the best approach for your creative team’s environment.

Consider allowing them to customize their space or at least add a splash of color to the walls.

2-Farm from within

Many companies who do have an in-house design team, generally still farm out some of their best projects. We all know there isn’t enough time in the day for all the projects that get sent our way. But, just because we aren’t at a design agency, doesn’t mean we aren’t capable or deserving of a engaging design project. Take a chance with your design team and show them you respect their work and capabilities. You might be presently surprised at the talent that lies just down the hall.

3-Be Inquisitive

Show your designers that you care and are generally interested in their design processes. The only way you’re going to connect with a creative team is if you know what’s required for them to complete a request from you. Too often management has no idea what goes into a promotion, booklet, website, ect. It isn’t as simple as an instant, microwavable dinner is to cook up! Great work takes planning from both sides, sketching, designer collaboration as well as research. One of my pet peeves as an in-house designer is when I hear, “Just make it pretty”. The purpose of design isn’t just a pretty face. Sure, we want to engage our audiences, but it needs to be appropriate for them, say exactly what it needs to say and be readable, as well as bring out some emotion to connect with the reader. If they can’t relate to what we put out, it is a wasted effort.

4-Time & Time Again

Going along with being inquisitive, many folks don’t have a clue how much time it takes to perform design related tasks. Stop by your creative team’s office and take a peek over their shoulder for a little while. Ask them questions about what they are doing and see how long it takes them to make a few changes. This will in turn make you and your designers happy when you realize quality work doesn’t happen in a flash. Planning and organization of projects before they land in our laps is very crucial to the timeliness of design completion as well. We understand changes are going to happen throughout the process. That is why its a “process”. But, don’t expect us to meet design studio quality when you throw an entire page worth of text out of door last minute or change an entire promotion hours before it goes live online. Simply because you only have to walk through the building to let us know, doesn’t mean our process is any faster to alter than an outside design firms.

5-Constructive Criticism

When approving designs from your in-house team, tell them exactly what you think about it. Be careful though! Even though our nature is to be thick-skinned, we want feedback we can use. Don’t say, “I don’t like it or this isn’t what I was looking for.”  Those phrases are only frustrating and not helpful one bit. Tell your designers why you don’t like something and why it won’t work in the current state. Constructive criticism turns great designs into award winning designs.

6-Let us Out!

Personally, I don’t find it very inspiring to sit in my office all day and crank out creative. But, most often in-house design teams don’t have the time to take a field trip out to a coffee house to work or other location. Being in a new environment can be extremely inspiring. You never know who you might overhear or what you might see that will spark a new idea or your company’s next successful promotional concept. When possible, encourage your team to have a brainstorming session someplace other than a conference room or their office.

7-You Better Recognize!

Not everyone needs to be told “great job” or “love your work” every single day. But, it is important to let your designers know how much you appreciate their hard work every now and then. Especially if they can’t catch a break from the workload generally toppling over them. This can also be shown by giving them a project you would normally farm out. Designers don’t thrive on daily tasks, we need variation!

8-Education & Technology

In today’s world, technology is changing so quickly that designers, developers and the like are constantly learning new skills. Allow your creative team some time during the year to attend a workshop, webinar, or design conference. Magazine subscriptions, blogs, and online tutorials are also great resources for less cost to give your designers access to. Keep your team’s skills up-to-date with the rest of the world and you’ll keep seeing great results and most likely smiling faces around the office.

Want more ways to keep your design team happy? I’d be more than happy to share my experiences with you!

Do you design on an in-house team? Share your success or horror stories!