You (or your predecessor) hired your team based on the skills they already have. Focus on improving performance, not skills.
If you try to force your employees to develop their skills in a certain direction, even if you think it's a win-win, they are going to resist or even quit. Entire teams have quit their company based on a programming language change. People don't like giving up any autonomy when their level of autonomy is already low. But chances are, they will respond positively to pressure on things like improving performance benchmarks, turnaround time on requirements, test coverage, resource consumption, etc. if you approach it in a uniform and consistent way. Programmers see themselves as professionals and experts, and if you raise your expectations, they will meet them if they can.
Comments
You (or your predecessor) hired your team based on the skills they already have. Focus on improving performance, not skills.
If you try to force your employees to develop their skills in a certain direction, even if you think it's a win-win, they are going to resist or even quit. Entire teams have quit their company based on a programming language change. People don't like giving up any autonomy when their level of autonomy is already low. But chances are, they will respond positively to pressure on things like improving performance benchmarks, turnaround time on requirements, test coverage, resource consumption, etc. if you approach it in a uniform and consistent way. Programmers see themselves as professionals and experts, and if you raise your expectations, they will meet them if they can.