How do you know it's time to scale your team again?
Has your business achieved reasonable growth but faces stagnation without further growth? Perhaps you are a startup operation looking to take the next steps. Whatever your situation, scaling up your teams can be a daunting prospect. Hiring too soon can be a financial burden but hiring too late can mean failing to achieve your potential and having to turn away business.
There are many reasons why it might be appropriate to think about scaling up your organisation, but growth can be tricky to manage. How do you know it’s time to hire more staff? How many employees do you need to hire? Can you justify taking on one or maybe multiple new employees at a time?
5 reasons it might be time to scale your team
- You are turning down work
Demand is there but you are frequently turning down work due to a lack of capacity. Taking on more employees mean you will be able to increase your workload, but it is key to ensure that the situation is sustainable or you will be left paying staff with not enough to do. Make sure that the increased demand is not intermittent
- Customer satisfaction is suffering
Receiving frequent customer complaints is a sign that the quality of work is suffering, possibly because you and your current team are overburdened. Taking on additional employees is vital to ensure your business reputation doesn’t suffer but make sure your new hires are properly trained or complaints could continue!
- Your teams are struggling to complete routine admin
Lack of capacity often means the day-to-day tasks are left behind in favour of more pressing responsibilities. If you are failing to complete routine admin, such as answering phones and emails, taking orders, sending invoices etc. then it may be useful to hire support staff to increase your productivity and revenue.
- You lack critical skills or knowledge
Sustaining business growth often requires specialist skillsets such as marketing, web design, SAP support, IT technologies, etc. If you require this expertise regularly you might consider hiring employees with these skills, however, it may be more cost-effective to engage contractors on an as-needed basis.
- Your goal is to expand your business
Not every business has the same aims. Your vision for your business may not be to expand or perhaps you prefer working in a smaller team. However, if your long-term plan includes growing your business successfully or even selling your business, then scaling up your teams should be part of that strategy.
How to scale your organisation: The Energize scaling up checklist
Once you’ve made the decision that it’s time to scale your organisation, how should you go about deciding how many employees you need to hire and what skills and experience they should have? Here are three steps you should take to map out your recruitment strategy:
What are your future business objectives?
What are your goals for your business in the short-term, over the next year and the long-term, the next five years? Base your decisions on the business you want to become when scaling your teams.
Measure current client demand
Take a good look at the demand you currently face and your current capacity for meeting that demand. If you are turning down work now will that work still be there once you have scaled up?
Conduct a skills audit
What skills do your teams currently bring to the table? Are there skills that will be crucial to the future of your business that your teams are lacking in? Once you have audited your workforce’s current capabilities you can check them against the skills you need and hire to fill the gaps.
Examine your current workflows and processes
Once you have decided to grow you need to ensure you are prepared for that growth. Systems, workflows, and processes that worked well for small teams can often feel the strain when you begin to scale up. Look at how you work and identify any potential weaknesses to be fixed before you start recruiting.
Strengthen your onboarding procedures
Hiring new employees is only half the story. Taking on new staff is costly and time-consuming and only useful if you can get them up to speed and working effectively as fast as possible. Before taking on new employees work to strengthen your onboarding procedures so you can maximise your ROI and productivity.
How Energize can help you scale your team to achieve success?
Made the decision to scale up your business and take on new employees?
At Energize Group, we can support you in building a recruitment strategy that drives your business forward, helping you grow and meet your goals. With a global network of more than one million active and passive candidates cultivated over 14 years of recruitment expertise we can find you the skills you need and assist you with onboarding and employee aftercare. Providing you with the best possible recruitment experience is what drives us. To discuss your recruitment needs contact Energize Recruitment today.