In these times when companies are planning exponential growth and launch plethora of products or iteration to outgrow their competition, scaling a team is one of the hardest tasks an organizational leader has to undertake. Managers always find themselves finding the right fit to help them grow the business. Some leaders focus on the right skill set, while others focus on the right culture fit and the remaining focus on finding a right candidate with the skill set which is also a culture fit. Growing the team is a skill and is the most desired in some companies. It takes hard work and patience to find the right candidate.
The challenging part is keeping the team together, retaining the best employees while replacing the ones that don’t fit the model. There is no secret recipe for growing the team; one has to crash and burn multiple times to find what works for them and their company. The same goes for employees as well; one must switch numerous jobs until they find the one that challenges them and help them grow both financially and professionally.
Align your company goals and employee goals, and you would see a considerable uplift in individual performance and that of the company as well.
I see a lot of companies with their 100-150 job list and no growth. They had to keep on hiring new employees because they can’t retain the ones they have. Instead of focusing on the retention of the existing employees and finding out their issues, they focus on spending thousands of dollars on recruiters to hire the replacement that might leave in a year as well.
Building a company culture is the most crucial step in any company’s growth cycle. Talent attracts talent, and if you keep hiring great talent, you will end up with a team that not only is talented but works together collaboratively and promote the same outside. The leaders and managers should spend at least two hours every week discussing employees growth, which includes personal growth, skill set development, and professional growth. Managers should work with their direct reports to build a plan that focuses on measurable goals and milestones and what they can do to help them achieve those. You should revisit the plan every month and make amendments according to business priorities. Every employee must know what they are working towards and how is it impacting the business.
I recommend all the managers to have a weekly meeting with their direct reports to go over their personal and professional goals. They should also have a bi-weekly team meeting to address the overall goal of the team and see if the team has all the tools to do their job efficiently. Constant communication and transparency is the key to building a highly functional organization.
In conclusion, an employee is the greatest asset of a company, and they should invest in growing that asset. A ping-pong table or a fridge full of beers won’t keep the employees happy, a detailed and elegant growth plan will.