How to Manage Business Growth
Is your business growing? If so, then you need to think about growing your most important asset — your employees. Here are some vital tips for scaling your business up, especially when it comes to increasing your workforce in a sane and sensible manner.
1. Build a Good Management Team.
If you are growing rapidly, then it becomes even more important to have people in place who share your vision, especially in the area of HR. In a tiny business you can make all of your own hiring and firing decisions, but pretty soon you will need an expert. If you are training your people well, pull managers from within your own workforce — this makes transitions less jarring. It is also important to have a system in place to identify management abilities.
2. Plan for Growth.
Decide what skills you are going to need in future employees so that you already have an action plan for what kind of person to hire when. Set benchmarks in terms of sales volume or customer complaints so you have a system in place. Also, plan how to grow your income and sales. Think about how you can leverage what you have to make more money — and then what you are going to do with that money. You should already be looking into outsourcing, especially for specialist skills that you will rarely need.
3. Budget for Training and Employee Growth.
Consider how you are going to build a good workplace culture and make sure you know how much benefits are going to cost you. Employees that feel they are being invested in will work harder and you will find it easier to attract and retain talent.
4. Analyze Everything.
Perform a gap analysis to work out where your employees' current skills are lacking so you know who to hire and/or who to train. Check up on productivity and retention.
5. Use a CRM.
It's easy starting out to simply use spreadsheets, but once you start to have a lot of customers and employees, a CRM system will help you keep track of all the various relationships. Preferably, keep it in the cloud so everyone can access it.
6. Hold Your Team Accountable.
Managers should have a public profile and a presence on social media. This improves transparency, gives your business a human face, and keeps all of the questions from winding up on your desk.
7. Make an Employee Handbook.
Make sure it aligns not just with your ideal best practices but with a realistic view of the likely outcome — a handbook that is unrealistic will be ignored. Review the handbook at least once a year and make sure everyone signs up on changes. Listen to your employees about problems with the handbook and the rules.
8. Look at Your Employees from the Outside.
Think about the experiences your customers are having and make sure they don't fall short as the company grows. For example, it is easy for customer support needs to outpace the available employees to answer them. It is also easy for employees to get left behind if you are rapidly adding new products or services — keep additions within what people can reasonably keep up with and make sure you have enough staff to provide a personal experience.
9. Review Job Descriptions and Employee Positions.
Look not just for gaps, but for places where you might have a process that is no longer needed and may even be holding you back. You may even have to shed a job position, but it is more likely that you will have to shift the expectations and work processes of existing staff.
10. Stay Tuned In.
As your business grows your relationship with your employees will change. As you add managers it will inevitably become less personal. As owner and CEO you still need to pay attention to detail and keep an eye on things, even with trusted people in place. Having an awareness of what is going on will help you spot both problems and opportunities for growth.
11. Don't Take Shortcuts.
Some companies focus so much on their long-term goals that they try to rush to the top and miss important things which need to be dealt with, or make mistakes that can cause problems [including legal issue], down the road.
12. Include Short and Mid-Term Goals.
Along the same lines, it helps to have goals you can meet in the short and mid-term, not just the "destination." Having a road map for growth keeps you on track and reduces mistakes.
13. Ask for Help.
Having a mentor can be tremendously helpful. Consultants who specialize in helping businesses develop and grow are also extremely valuable. Never be afraid to invite a mentor to lunch, or hire a business coach to help you meet your goals.
Scaling your business is a challenge, especially in the HR arena, but if you pay attention and avoid short cuts — and treat your employees properly as you grow — you will find success.
Employee growth can be an exciting time for a company, but also a scary transition if not prepared. If you're concerned with how to predict and manage growth, view this free recording of our webinar, "Ready. Set. Grow - Predict and Manage Employee Growth."
Platinum Group offers a Human Capital Management and Business Enrichment Webinar Series that features local and statewide professional experts who offer valuable insight to successful business practices.
Platinum Group is a full service human capital management (HCM) resource that allows businesses to manage their payroll, benefits, compliance, track time and attendance and other various human resources functions in a way that maximizes efficiency and eliminates redundancies with the platform, isolved. For more information about Platinum Group or to schedule a demo of isolved please visit our website.
Platinum Group is headquartered in Asheville, NC with locations in Charlotte, NC; Greensboro, NC; and Raleigh, NC.
