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Software Development Companies · Website development companies
HR for Website development companies: Many Small Projects, Handovers and Quick Turnaround
A website development company runs many short projects at once for small and mid-sized clients. Designers, front-end and back-end developers pass work between each other, and delays at one handover show up in every project behind it.
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Share your requirementsA website development company builds and relaunches sites for businesses, shops and institutions. Work comes as many short projects: a design is approved, front-end developers build pages, back-end developers connect forms, shops and content systems, a tester checks and the client reviews. Most clients are small, ask for changes often and pay in stages. A developer may work on four sites in a week, and a delay at design approval stops everyone behind it. Maintenance contracts add steady work after launch. The wider IT and software page covers what the sector shares.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in website development companies, you may see
- Four sites a week, none finished
- Handovers lose detail
- Clients change their minds mid-build
- Juniors do production work from day one
- Maintenance requests interrupt builds
- Pay is flat while skills differ
- Working hours stretch near launch
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in website development companies
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Front-end developers
- Back-end developers
- Web designers
- Content and SEO coordinators
- Testers and quality checkers
- Project coordinators
- Support and maintenance staff
- Client account managers
Where HR strains in website development companies
Four sites a week, none finished
Developers hop between projects, and context switching slows everything while each client believes theirs is the priority.
Handovers lose detail
Design to front-end to back-end passes work through three people, and small misunderstandings return as rework late in the project.
Clients change their minds mid-build
Extra pages and changes arrive by message, and the hours disappear into projects that were quoted fixed.
Juniors do production work from day one
New developers are placed on client sites with little checking, and mistakes are found after launch.
Maintenance requests interrupt builds
Small fixes for old clients arrive daily and break the focus of people working on new sites.
Pay is flat while skills differ
A developer who can build a custom shop earns close to one who edits templates, and the better ones look elsewhere.
Working hours stretch near launch
The weekend before a go-live is common, with no clear rule on time back.
HR topics for website development companies
Start with the topics that matter most here: Organisation Design; Employee Administration; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for information technology and software, not in general.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a website development companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Define the role of each person on a project
Who owns design, build, testing and client contact, so handovers have a name.
What this coversHide
Define the role of each person on a project
Who owns design, build, testing and client contact, so handovers have a name.
What this coversHideWho owns design, build, testing and client contact, so handovers have a name. Role design sets it out.
Cap parallel projects per developer
A limit and a weekly plan show who is on what, and protect time for focused work.
What this coversHide
Cap parallel projects per developer
A limit and a weekly plan show who is on what, and protect time for focused work.
What this coversHideA limit and a weekly plan show who is on what, and protect time for focused work.
Write a handover checklist
One page between design and build, and between build and testing, covering files, notes and open questions.
What this coversHide
Write a handover checklist
One page between design and build, and between build and testing, covering files, notes and open questions.
What this coversHideOne page between design and build, and between build and testing, covering files, notes and open questions.
Log change requests
A simple record of each extra request with hours and an agreed answer, so clients see the cost and developers see the credit.
What this coversHide
Log change requests
A simple record of each extra request with hours and an agreed answer, so clients see the cost and developers see the credit.
What this coversHideA simple record of each extra request with hours and an agreed answer, so clients see the cost and developers see the credit.
Add a checking step for juniors
A senior reviews work before launch for the first months, then less.
What this coversHide
Add a checking step for juniors
A senior reviews work before launch for the first months, then less.
What this coversHideA senior reviews work before launch for the first months, then less. The manager development programme helps leads do this well.
Set a launch week rule
Time back after weekend launches and a rotation so the same few do not carry them.
What this coversHide
Set a launch week rule
Time back after weekend launches and a rotation so the same few do not carry them.
What this coversHideTime back after weekend launches and a rotation so the same few do not carry them.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- Count how many projects each developer worked on last week.
- Pick one recent project and trace where rework came from.
- List changes clients asked for after approval and how many were charged.
- Ask a junior developer who checked their last launch.
- Check how many maintenance requests land per day and who handles them.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the employment terms, ownership of work and client contract duties relevant to a company that builds sites for others.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Role design and job descriptions
Clear remits for designers, developers, testers and coordinators.
- Attendance, shift and leave process
Launch week cover, time back and leave planning across many projects.
- Manager development programme
Skills for team leads who manage projects, juniors and client pressure.
- Employee retention and attrition management
A view of why developers leave and how to keep the best builders.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in information technology and software, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Management
Everyone reports to the founder: when and how to redesign the structure
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead article
HR Process
One employee, three versions of the record: fixing employee information management
Payroll says one joining date, the personal file says another and the manager remembers a third. How to establish a single trustworthy employee record and keep it that way.
7 min readRead article
HR Management
How to recognise and address employee workload problems
How to spot an unmanageable workload before it becomes an exit or an error, what to look at, how to talk about it and what to change, without guessing.
5 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
It depends on size, but fewer is better. Agree a limit, show it in a weekly plan and track what moves. Constant switching hides how much time work actually takes.
Use a short handover checklist, hold a brief walkthrough and keep one person accountable for each stage. Most rework begins in small things that nobody wrote down.
Log each change with its hours, agree whether it is included and tell the team. A simple record protects the company and shows developers that their time counts.
Introduce grades tied to what people can build, review pay against nearby companies and show a route to lead roles. Many leave because skill is not seen.
Give a small support rota to rotating staff, set response times with clients and batch low priority fixes. That keeps interruptions away from people deep in a launch.
First we would count projects per developer, trace rework in one recent site and see how launch weekends were handled. Role pages with a handover checklist are a natural first job, with scope agreed in writing before work starts.
More on HR for information technology and software
All 6 business types in software development companies · Find another business type
Custom software companiesMobile application companiesSoftware testing companiesEnterprise software companiesProduct engineering companiesOrganisation Design in information technology and softwareEmployee Administration in information technology and softwareRetention and Attrition Management in information technology and software
See all HR topics for information technology and software, or another industry.