Are Company Culture, Hiring, Retaining & Motivating Your Team an Overlooked Aspect of Growth?
In the field of business, the term growth is mentioned with reference to increases in bottom-line, market share, and portfolio. Traditionally, success in any of these three aspects, be it reaping higher profit than the previous year, gaining more clients or customers, or expanding the scope of goods and services was considered growth. However, a truly successful growth can only be attained if there is a balanced growth in all of these features at the same time. Unlike having the sales and marketing department handle growth of the company, there seems to be a trend of having growth teams in many of the leading MNCs.
What can be considered to be a typical growth team?
It is a person’s go-to reaction to relate a positive surge in numbers as growth. This works apt if you consider departments like marketing, product development, data science and design. Hence, all the growth team has to do is to quantify the results based on results or performance of the departments. However, in the last 5 years, much has changed with the concept of growth hacker marketing.
Until only a few years ago, a company had to market itself using billboards, television ads, print ads and whatnot. Consider a company at this age. Before even officially thinking of marketing methods, they would have already done some kind of marketing through the internet and also unknowingly taken up suggestions and feedbacks. After the rise of internet, and with it the possibility of instant feedback and improvements, many different departments have been brought down to the click of a button.
Now while we talk about growth, one might feel that everything that a company depends on for growth is covered and calculated. We analyze every output that comes for mistakes or signs or growth but there is one thing people tend to often overlook; the source of the output, Staffing.
Why is staffing the most overlooked aspect of growth?
Research suggests that staffing is one of the most overlooked aspect in growth across most companies. We have been taught and advised to put all the effort into creating the best possible system but for some reason, we keep forgetting that even if we do successfully make the best system, we still need manpower and labor to work the system who would at the end of the day be the reason for the output. Even after having the perfect system, if the output isn’t ideal, hiring and firing of staff will go on but the blame will go to the failure of the system.
Imagine you create the ideal system but all the wrong staff working on it. They end up blaming the system because they obviously would not blame themselves and them not understanding their work culture would direct the blame there. However, on the other side, if you create the ideal system and recruit all the right talent personally for your company, then that is the end of worry. Output and growth will show up on its own.
Growth of your company majorly depends on the staff. There is no point in investing all your finance into the system if you are not willing to do the same to find people who are eventually going to run the system. Investing in an RPO company, staffing agency, staffing company or RPO agency will ensure that the right kind of personnel works for you. You will have to depend of resources as such in your tenure of growth.
About the growth equation and the how variables in staffing affects it
An employee is the combination of the investment, the growth rate you expect and the growth that is accumulated over the years. This could have been easily made into an equation if only there existed no variables. However, in the business world, it is not as ideal. Irrespective of the kind of control you have on the business, there will be these three factors which make every recruitment different.
1. The recruitment process:
The recruitment process is nerve-racking not just to the interviewee but more for the recruiter. Based on a few tangible or intangible tests or interviews, the recruiter should be able to find the best fit for their company. This does not only include analyzing the person’s expertise on the department they apply for. It also includes how well they gel with the company culture and understand the expected growth in the company. From structuring to the interview process to asking the right questions and finally finding personnel you are 90% sure will give out their best while being comfortable working for you is nothing less than a hectic task.
2. On-boarding Process:
Unless you have a clear cut idea of your goals and objectives and more importantly how exactly you hope to achieve this, it will be near impossible to promise in advance that you will have all necessary resources to help you and the employee to give their best. If the reason why the employee decides to join your company is because of what exactly you offer, then there is minimal chances of mistakes and maximum chances of ideal output.
3. Retention:
Talent retentions can be very challenging to you if you are not sure of how to ensure tenure after you find the right talent. Recruiting the right fit for your company doesn’t just stop your work. The real work is making sure they have a reason to stay in your company. Nobody likes a monotonous work life. Throw in challenges and keep the workforce engaged so that they do not get bored. Another big part of retention is to ensure that you either recruit personnel who are comfortable working in the work culture you have for the company or you compromise of work culture and let the employees work according to their work style. The latter bight not prove to be the best when uniformity of output is considered. Make it a point to convey to your employees about the work culture they are expected to understand before recruiting them. Only if the workforce is comfortable and understanding of the company style will they be in a position to put int their best effort in an atmosphere they can work with.
Staffing might not be the sole reason that is responsible for the company’s growth, but it most definitely is one of the major reasons. Though technology seems to be taking over jobs from every department, you still need someone at the other end of the system clicking all the right keys and making it work. Invest in staffing and recruiting and your output will have a strong foundation leading to the growth of your company.