Managing Growth

Building a Team

Now that the owner can no longer be involved in all day-to-day tasks, team-building becomes one of the fundamental growth skills.

• Changing Expectations: Team-building begins with new attitudes toward employment both for owners and employees. This involves defining jobs, providing orientation, specifying requirements and re-engineering long-time associations.
• Hiring: To find the right people, you must know what you need. Determine qualifications, search widely and structure interviews carefully.
• Expanding the Team: Build an advisory board to broaden the scope of expertise available to you.

Whether you have one employee or more than a thousand, let the experts at ADP help you with payroll, human resource management and other employer services.

Changing Expectations

• Defining Workforce: As part of the growth plan, link the number of people you will need to volume of business at each stage. Decide what level of expertise you need and pay appropriately.
• Provide Orientation: New employees often arrive at a time of crisis in growing businesses. Schedule hands-on orientation by you. Make sure each new hire knows the importance you attach to quality, customer satisfaction and cost control. Watch carefully.
• Specify Requirements: During growth periods, new work is often assigned without planned roles. This works against people taking responsibility. Create formal descriptions. From this, you can determine minimum qualifications.
• Re-Engineering Associations: Roles of family relations and long-time employees tend to go unexamined. Review periodically, keeping in mind that loyalty is an asset and the company has invested considerable time in them.
  
  
  • Talk privately with them and ensure they feel adequately recognized and financially rewarded.
  • Mutually agree on what continuing connection they will have with the company as it grows.
  • Emphasize that the business needs to change if it is to grow, and each person's role will change as this occurs.

Hiring

Approach hiring as you would any other important decision to buy an expensive asset - do your homework and shop wisely. Avoid the temptation to hire quickly to get a difficult decision over with.

Determine What You Need

• Full-time: Work is ongoing
• Part-time: Regular or on-call, depending on need
• Independent contractors: Project work, short-term expertise
• Temporary: Emergencies, easy-to-understand tasks
• Students: Market research, beginner-level work

Determine Qualifications

• Skills, training and previous experience: Set minimum standards. Get expert help if you don't know. Restructure the job or keep looking if you can't find someone.
• Personal qualities: Personality, neatness, initiative. Compose a short wish list.

Search Widely

• Go beyond help-wanted ads: Local employment centres, temp agencies, college and university student employment offices, Internet job placement sources, chamber of commerce contacts.
• State minimum qualifications: Reduce unnecessary interviewing.
• Avoid box numbers: Use full contact information. Applicants want to know who they are applying to work for.

Structure Interviews

• One day: Short list of no more than five candidates and try to do all interviews on one day for easier comparison.
• Put people at ease: Allow for conversation at the beginning and end.
• Explanation: Explain the job, not what you're looking for. Describe wages and hours.
• Resumé: Review the resumé and fill in any gaps.
• Job requirements: Turn each job requirement into a question - i.e., how long have you worked in this industry?
• Personal qualities: Turn each personal quality you are looking for into a short series of situations where you can ask candidates their opinion or preferred course of action.
• Comparability: Ask all candidates the same questions.
• Questions: Let candidates talk about themselves and ask questions.

Expanding The Team

As your business grows, you should seek the insights and opinions of experienced and sophisticated business professionals.

Advisory Boards

This is an informal group of hand-picked experts to advise you on critical decisions. Meetings are held regularly - monthly at first, later quarterly and semi-annually - and in a crisis.

Advantages:

• Investors and financiers treat the company more seriously if respected business people support your expansion plans.
• Expert advice keeps you from making mistakes or getting overwhelmed.
• Contacts expand your network considerably, opening doors.
• Creative synergy - many smart minds are better than one.
• Enthusiasm of respected advisors boosts confidence.

Who to choose:

• People with expertise in your industry
• Experienced finance or accounting practitioners
• Experienced marketers
• Individual with great connections
• People who will attend meetings regularly.

Preparation:

• E-mail or fax background information for each meeting
• Do not expect advisors to do your work - only to offer opinions and advice, and to make introductions where possible.