To start a business, it is very essential that the start-up hires the right employees. However, it is also important to bring out the spirit of a team among all of them. For example, if you are planning to establish a business of mobile app development, then you should hire mobile app developers in Canada with relevant experience in this particular field. The employer or the manager could start by understanding the skills that each and every member of his team possess, and assign work accordingly. In this manner, all the employees would be working up to their potential.
Next, it is the vision of the organization that the employees must understand. For this to happen, the employer must share this vision/goal with his subordinates so that they can work towards achieving it together. The employees, accompanied by their skills, must be passionate enough to do so. The goal can be accomplished only if the zeal to do so exists.
If you look at research on why startups don’t make it, the wrong team is among the top reasons.
The following steps may be helpful to any new start-up:
- Focus on Goals
- Find Suitable Employees
- Grow with the Company
- Feedback
- Involve in the Work
Focus on Goals
Any organization that is just starting up needs to be more focused on achieving its goals than others. This is something that will reflect in the attitude of the organization and you in particular. Goals make you come back to the office the next day. Be passionate about your goals. You could set certain goals as:
- Satisfying Customer Needs
- Work till today’s goal is achieved
- Providing 24×7 Support
- Providing the Product without any fault
- Rewarding Team Members
The Right People
Next, the start-up must search for people who are willing to work with them with a passion to achieve the desired goals. Ensure that you do not fall prey to someone who might be just on the lookout for some lucrative designations but may actually lack the spirit that helps achieve the targets. Such people may have very high expectations irrespective of the time the organization is going through. High perks, bonuses, and other privileges are all that they might be desiring. Be aware.
Also read this post : Why mobile app is Better Platform for your Startup?
However, such individuals are very handy when they become partners or investors. Any success or failure is bound to be shared by them also. As such they will keep track of all activity that is taking place within the premises of the organization.
At this point of time, your skills can be cultivated. The start-up needs to have a culture of its own that will lead it to its goal. So, find people who have the capability of working with the same zeal as the owner does. Like minded people will lead the company to success, and its goals to fulfillment.
Vision
The employees who are working with the organization must be familiar with their (the company’s) vision. This is the job of management to explain the culture that they want to build in the organization. After all, employees are the building bricks of the company. The employees must know what the organizations wants to become in the times ahead. A hierarchy (customers, management, partners, colleagues etc.) that exists can also be explained and how to communicate within that hierarchy must be made clear to each one in the organization. Be a Team Member yourself, to begin with. Always follow a simple rule not to say “I will work to achieve goal” instead say “We will work together to achieve this goal”. “We” depicts your team spirit which creates positive environment in workplace.
Involvement
Once inducted into the organization, do not let the employees feel a sense of no-doer. Get them going from day one with some useful work. Once they are doing something provide them time frames, or timelines in which to finish a work. They might see this as a chance to show themselves to their superiors and look for rewards as well. While on rewards, employers or senior management must come up with different types of rewards for employees who have come good with their work. These may be in the form of a pay hike, a bonus, a vacation for a few days etc. Another thing that the management can do is mentor their employees by partnering them with a senior or experienced person.
There will be people,however, in the organization that may always find fault in whatever projects are being undertaken. It might be due to their personal life, financial problems, some inability (physically or mentally) that dissuades them from doing their work. Deal with such employees very carefully. Handle them softly before imposing judgements or straight away firing them. These should be the last resort only.
Roles
An organization will only grow if all the members of that organization know what they are supposed to do or what are their roles. If this is not clear, there might be misgivings in a team and eventually, the organization and the employees will both suffer. Roles and the tasks to be performed by them must be updated from time to time.
Grow with the Company
Do not hire people who might want to be the Chief Operating Officer, Manager, Head of Department or want some title for them. Such people are not interested in the organizations’ but their growth. Let all the employees of the organization understand one basic fact – Everyone grows when the Company grows. Nobody gets a title until he/she deserves it. Of course, someday someone from the lot will get to have that position but as for now, they have to be just a normal employee. Make the concept of a review in the organization a regular feature so that the employees feel that they are bound to grow and will also put in some effort for the sake of it.
Team Building
To make the organization grow, it is necessary that the employees grow along too. If a project demands some set of skills, ensure to update some existing employees with the required skills rather than bring in new ones. This has a double benefit – the project gets the required skills, and the management gets an updated employee without having to spend much.
Team Value
The employees of an organization must have a bonding with the company. They must know that in good or bad, the organization will stand by them. Provide employees with the tools they want. Some leaves here and there would just enhance the employer’s image in their eyes (after all everyone has a life besides the company). Also, ensure to celebrate whenever an employee in the organization achieves a desired goal. This will fill him/her with pride and the employee will put more efforts while working on another project.
Feedback
As people start working with the organization, the organization must keep all its eyes open to all its employees. This ensures that nobody is falling behind schedule, or going off track. In case such a thing is noticed by the management, there is the process of feedback that is good for both the organization as well as the employees. While the organization benefits by completing its project on schedule, the employee benefits by not making the same mistake time and again. Feedback is a report of the employee’s progress but on a softer note. As such it must be taken on a lighter note so that it has benefits instead of causing grudges.
The Work
Last, but not least is the work itself. The organization exists because it desires to achieve certain goals for which it needs to work with the right people following correct schedules and growing with those people who are ready to give their time to the organization. If the organization works with a focus in mind, in due time it will become the focus of its customer who might even become permanent customers of the organization for some products or services. The work of the organization can only be seen through the output it brings to the customers. Any negligence and the whole progress from the beginning to the project end might yield a negative impact on the organization. The organization has to bear in mind these factors before it can present its product in the market for the customers.
Keep in Mind
Some employees in the organization are just there to distract the professional environment by giving irrelevant ideas. Do not allow any of such employees to hinder the growth of the organization. It is fair enough to give them a chance but not every time. People who do not want a change either in their way of working or in the organization should be welcomed to leave. Also, it is better to avoid the employees who consider themselves the best. Let them survive by their way of competition.
Having said all this, a word of understanding – “Do not resort to micro-management”. Micro-management is when you start observing your employees too much that they feel like prisoners when inside the company. Give them a free-hand and see the results. If they don’t turn up with something good, resort to feedback but not Micro-management.
What’s your best advice for building a superstar team?