The technical professionals you employ are always looking for ways to enhance their skills and improve their productivity. But, some of it is out of their control. That’s where you come in! If you want to amp up your tech team’s productivity, look to the following key distractions identified in the most recent Stack Overflow Developer Survey. They had nearly 90,000 Developers weigh in on the most prevalent distractions keeping them from being their most productive selves at work.

1. Meetings (41.3%): Make this the year you really evaluate the necessity of each and every meeting and pare them down to the absolute minimum. Could this be an email or a memo instead? Could communication tools like Slack be just as effective in keeping everyone up to date on project progress as that hour long bi-weekly meeting? Be ruthless when it comes to cutting down meetings and only keep the ones that are essential for your tech team’s workflow if you want to help them be more productive.

2. Distracting Work Environment (40.4%): Chances are your company has an open office environment. These can be great for collaboration but they also come with a lot of unwelcome distractions that are, unsurprisingly, slowing Developers down and keeping them from being their most productive selves. There are ways around this without eliminating the open office entirely (although, if that’s a possibility, it may be worth considering). Allowing headphones, providing private spaces for more concentrated work, or allowing a few remote work days a week can go a long way. Do your best to eliminate distractions in the work environment without encroaching on personal freedoms and you’ll notice a big difference in your tech team’s productivity.

3. Tasked With Non-development Work (37.5%): Is this non-development work essential for your tech employees or could someone else do it? Or, better yet, could this task be eliminated from the workflow entirely? These are the questions you need to ask yourself if you want your tech team’s productivity to increase. So many developers report that being tasked with non-development work slows down their progress and distracts them from the highly skilled work they were hired to do in the first place. Don’t let that happen at your company!

4. Not Enough People for the Workload (35.7%): If your tech team is always overworked and overwhelmed with no end in sight, their key distraction might be that there’s not enough people for the workload. Hire proactively, fill vacant positions quickly, and stay on top of expanding workloads. If you want your tech team to be as productive as possible, you need to make sure they have enough people around to effectively handle their workload.

5. Lack of Support from Management (23.5%): Do you listen to your tech team’s ideas? Do you champion their projects up the food chain? Do you provide adequate time to complete projects? These are the kinds of questions you need to ask yourself to see if you’re providing enough support to your technical team. If not, the lack of support from management can really slow technical projects to a crawl and send your most talented technical professionals packing.

6. Inadequate Access to Necessary Tools (18.7%): Investing in the tools and technology that your developers need is essential if you want them to be their most productive selves! Ask your technical employees what tools are essential to getting the job done and which would be nice to have to get the job done faster or more efficiently. Then, provide what they’re asking for. This kind of trust and investment goes a long way and often pays off immediately as deadlines aren’t missed and project progress stays on track more easily when your tech team has what they need to get the job done right.

7. Toxic Work Environment (14.9%): The fastest way to lose the technical talent you desperately need is to allow a toxic work environment to fester. If you want to kick your toxic work environment to the curb, make sure there are open lines of communication, no micromanagers, and everyone is pulling their weight without bringing excess negativity to work every day.

Thanks to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey, we have some great insights on the life of technical professionals working today. Use the input of nearly 90,000 Developers to make changes to your tech team ASAP so they can be their most productive self. It will pay off immensely in longer technical employee tenures, faster progress on important projects, and a happier work environment overall.