Growing the business means building the team

Growing to the next level requires new skills and additional capacity to deal with the expansion of the business. 

This can be achieved in a number of ways, from training and developing existing staff, to sub-contracting what can be performed more effectively by external suppliers, to recruiting new people that bring new skills and experience to the business. 

Bringing new people to the business

Before deciding on job titles and salaries, it is essential to define the business requirements to avoid jumping to conclusions and ending up recruiting the “wrong” people.  

The capacity of the business to train and integrate new recruits must also be considered carefully to avoid hiring too many people too quickly and ending up disrupting an already very busy team. 

Recruiting requires careful preparation.  Here are a few suggestions based on my personal experience: -

• Define the essential must-have requirements to focus the initial selection of CVs.
• Be prepared to be flexible on the nice-to-have requirements as candidates matching your exact requirements probably do not exist.
• Arrange more than one interview with different interviewers to get a wider perspective and a balanced assessment of candidates.
• Ensure the interviews and the recruitment process are a high priority for everyone contributing and that interviews are carefully prepared.
• Check the skills and experience of candidates using relevant and objective assessments (technical interviews, psychometric tests, references, confirmation of qualifications, etc.).
• Make sure candidates appreciate what is unique and exciting about your company, its culture and values.
• Keep the momentum and make decisions quickly as time is of the essence to avoid losing the best candidates.

Integration and personal development

Recruiting is only the first step.  Building a successful team requires careful management and integration of the new recruits when they join the business.  

This starts with agreeing and communicating their responsibilities and authority within the team to give them the freedom to contribute within a framework without having to be micro-managed. 

Beyond the initial integration of new recruits, supporting and monitoring the development of the whole team and its individual members requires constant and consistent attention.  

This should be a high priority for the business. 

Need for help

I believe that to grow their team effectively CEOs can greatly benefit from the help of an independent third party with a track record of having built successful teams themselves. 

If you would like to explore how I could help you, please send a message to herve@jardon.co.uk and I will come back to you.