When your business is transitioning from a small company to a big company, your team members and company as a whole might experience some growing pains. These “growing pains” can manifest in a multitude of ways. Maybe employees are starting to resist the new rules implemented by a more corporate-like structure. Perhaps you’ve sensed a loss of the beloved company culture as more and more people are being added to departments. Or, maybe with more voices, you’re finding the need to create different perks to keep top talent at your business.
Whatever the reason, growing pains are inevitable as your company gets bigger. With that said, there are ways to ensure that your team remains bonded and positive, even as your numbers increase. Below, we’ve outlined some steps you can take to ensure your business growth is healthy for your employees and your bottom line.
Best Tips To Maintain A Strong Team As Your Small Business Grows
Attract The Right Talent
Just because your company is getting larger doesn’t make hiring the right people any less important. In fact, it might be even more important to ensure that new hires are both a professional and cultural fit. Great employees ensure that morale and productivity stay high.
To attract talent to your organization, consider offering paid referral programs to your current employees. Your current workers likely know other people within their sphere of influence who could be a good fit for the company. Just make sure you outline the rules for the referral programs and stipulations, such as a new hire successfully completing a 90-day probationary period before a referral bonus is dispersed.
Another consideration you’ll need to make is how you’re going to verify a candidate’s background. An online background check is a great way to verify details like an applicant’s education, employment history, credit records, criminal records, and licensing. After all, it’s important to hire someone who’s honest and won’t be a liability to the company.
With a background check, you can get peace-of-mind that you’re hiring an awesome employee.
Facilitate Team Bonding
Even though your company might be big, it doesn’t mean that employees don’t want to hang out with one another or bond. Consider setting aside one day a month for a company volunteer day. Start by researching a local community charity, then schedule the volunteer day during the work week when most people can attend.
You should also consider getting everybody together for less formal gatherings, like picnics during nice weather and happy hours at the local watering hole. It’s important for your team members to get to know each other and socialize. These types of socializations help facilitate inter-department communication and collaboration. They’re a great way for people to relax and unwind.
Cultivate A Diverse Workplace
As a company, it’s important to do more than just pay lip service to “diversity”. Consider creating a hiring board dedicated to ensuring diverse voices within your company are heard. In addition, it’s important to consider diversity within your hiring decisions.
Here are some easy steps you can take to cultivate diversity:
- Change all your job descriptions to gender neutral language
- Place your commitment to diversity on your company page in a visible space
- Make the job description focused on what a candidate should expect to achieve in a month, six months, or a year into the job
- Actively source candidates
- Use a blind screening process to help fight against unconscious bias during the resume review stage of looking for candidates
- Use a structured interview process to reduce potentially biased hiring practices
- Make sure your company policy handbook details the importance of inclusion and diversity
Make Sure Your HR Department is Up To Snuff
When your company grows, it’s important that your HR department is equipped to handle more new hires, more onboarding, and complaints. With a large HR department, your recruiting efforts will go much more smoothly, and you’ll be able to deal with other HR-related issues as they come up – instead of scrambling.
Conclusion: Building a strong team, one step at a time
When your company is growing, it’s an exciting time – but it’s also potentially problematic, as well. It’s important to take the time to ensure that your company is ready to handle more people, more customers, and most importantly – more success!