Business Growth
Growing your team is a good thing. It means your business is doing well – so well that you need to add team members as fast as possible.
But this process can be overwhelming for even the most experienced business owners. It leaves team leaders stretched to the limit and struggling to get everyone up to speed.
There’s a way to grow your team while maintaining high standards and a functioning business. Here are five things you can do differently that will help you manage your growing team without missing a beat:
No. 1 – Simplify Recruiting
Recruiting can be a thorn in the side of business owners. It takes time, energy and money, especially if you’re growing a team from scratch.
To maximize your impact, simplify the recruiting process. Create job description templates for each position in advance, so when you need to hire new employees, you already have them set.
Next, create a list of criteria for every hire, such as, “Amazing work ethic, passion for the job and a track record of responsible choices, timeliness.” Alongside a list of pre-written questions, these qualifications act as a guiding light during interviews.
When you start to interview candidates, ask a manager to sit on the conversations with you. Slowly train and appoint managers to take the reins on a recruiting process.
It’s the ideal professional development opportunity for a manager, and it frees up senior management to focus on getting a growing team up to speed.
No. 2 – Create an Onboarding Plan
A thorough, well-executed onboarding plan sets your team members up to achieve. The opposite inevitably causes failures, high turnover and poor performance. Here are the most important aspects of an onboarding plan to include according to the experts:
- A Friendly Welcome – You can’t make a first impression twice. Extending a warm and friendly welcome ensures that your new employee feels included. Greet your new worker on the first day and make introductions. Ask thoughtful questions, which shows you’re interested in your worker as a person, too.
- A Training Plan – Every onboarding program needs a training plan for the first 10, 30, and 60 days on the job. Sketch out a rough plan based on the new job skills the employee needs to acquire. These should be evident in the initial job description.
- Employee Benchmarks – How do you know if new employees are performing well? Create benchmarks that give you a clear idea about how a worker is ramping up so far. At a coffee shop, you could list the one-month benchmark as: “Understands the protocol for opening up and closing the shop. Brews coffee to our standard. Uses the POS system without assistance. Greets customers with warmth and interest. Upholds healthy and safety standards.”
Implementing a three-pronged onboarding plan helps with employee engagement and retention, smoothing out the issues that commonly occur when you grow a team at a rapid rate.
No. 3 – Develop a Mentoring Program
If your team is growing quickly, one of the best ways to ensure that the company continues to live up to its reputation is to develop a mentoring program.
Pair each new employee with a seasoned worker who understands the values and standards of your business. This approach gives each person a source of support in addition to managers.
These new workers have an experienced mentor to answer questions, offer moral support and help guide them through challenges. Mentors also can act as advocates for their mentees, reaching out to managers to support they need it.
When you share this idea with your team, frame it as a learning opportunity for mentors, too. It’s the ultimate resume-booster, acting as the first step toward a managerial position.
No. 4 – Establish Regular Meetings
Successful business leaders know the importance of continuity. It creates a shared expectation that underpins the success of employees. With that in mind, plan regular one-on-one meetings with all staff members.
If you run a shift-based business, ask team members to arrive 15 minutes early every week to talk to their manager. This hands-on managerial style nurtures the growth employees. It also builds in the time to talk about any changes new employees may need to make as they adjust to their new environment.
As with mentoring, this extra effort shows workers that you’re investing in them for the long term. It shows you care about their performance and their happiness on the job.
No. 5 – Communicate Goals
On top of one-on-one meetings, businesses benefit from all-hands meetings that give managers time to communicate goals.
If you’re a retail business, spell out the goals for the day, week, month and year. In addition to revenue benchmarks, talk about the specific goals you have for individuals and teams.
For example, customer service may want to shoot for higher feedback scores on surveys. Meanwhile, senior employees may want to take on a professional development training.
Think about meaningful objectives that stretch employees, making them better at their jobs and more likely to support the long-term goals of the business. Just as you talk about goals, make sure to celebrate when your team members reach them.
Research shows that the No. 1 reason people leave their jobs is because they don’t feel appreciated. By going the extra mile to recognize employees, you create an awesome work environment.
These expert tips will help you make sure your business is growing in more ways than one. Not only will you continue to hire more people, but by managing your team well you’ll set yourself up for revenue growth and a tangible impact in your community.
Roger Demers is the Director of Channel Strategy for When I Work. He helps build out the partner channel with accountants, CPA’s and Consultants who recommend and implement software to their clients. Roger also focuses on building all franchise relationships – as well as larger enterprise sales opportunities.