How to Build and Maintain Your Small Business Team
There are plenty of factors that determine whether a startup will be successful or not, but I am sure you will agree that having the right team is among the most important ones.
Plenty of business owners say that they struggle to find skilled enough workers as there are no good candidates at all. But to be honest this statement is not entirely true.
To a certain extend the major problem is that companies do not have an effective hiring strategy and fail to find the right workers among all candidates.
Failing to establish a good HR strategy is a serious problem mainly in startups and small businesses. They lack the resources, know-how and public image of big corporations, which means that their job offers gain less exposure and attract fewer candidates.
The problem, of course, is not so one-sided. Often companies fail to identify what they need in the beginning and that is the major reason why they attract only candidates that are not qualified enough or their qualifications are not suitable for what the company really needs.
Another problem small business owners often face is how to maintain their team motivated, willing to work and achieving good results. Usually, companies end up in this situation due to bad managerial decisions and poor organizational structure.
That is why in this article we are focusing both on hiring new employees for your small business team and building the corporate organizational structure afterwards.
(Check also: 9 Facts About Motivating Employees Everyone Thinks are True)
Identify your needs
We have already mentioned this problem in our intro. A lot of companies build their hiring strategy on false assumptions about what kind of candidate they need. The only way to cope with that is to take enough time to evaluate exactly what you need.
Take a closer look at your current team and ask yourself what qualities you need, but nobody has it. That is what you need to look for in a candidate. Make sure that you meet both conditions. You only need to hire a candidate if there is work that nobody in the office can do or if there is – it would be ineffective.
Let’s explain it with a simple example.
Let’s say that you decide to add a sales expert to your small business team. You do it because you think that an expert will drive your sales up and there is nobody in your team with the necessary qualifications and experience. But after you hire a sales expert, you realize that your product or service is still not ready for selling. You end up with a sales guy with little or no work at all and a salary to pay that does no good to your budget.
How to avoid such situations?
Make sure that when expanding your team you meet one simple condition – there is work and nobody from your current team can do it either because of lack of competences or because it would be ineffective.
The right job offer
When candidates apply to an open position they usually worry how their resume will be perceived by the company. But in the same time companies rarely care enough how their job offer will be perceived by potential candidates. And that is a huge mistake.
Preparing a compelling job ad is not an easy task, but it does not mean that you cannot do it. You just need to follow some simple rules.
The right job title
A common mistake among companies is to choose a title for their ad trying to be as creative as possible. But that is not the right approach. What you need is a keyword rich job title. Think of the words your potential candidates would use when they search through job offers.
To put it simply, your job ad title needs optimization just as the headline of a blog post needs it.
Introduce yourself
Do not think that only candidates need to impress you. You also need to impress them. Start your job ad with a solid description of your company. State what you do, how you do it and what you value about your team members. Potential job candidates need to have an insight of your corporate culture before they apply for your open position.
The description
That is the place where you can be creative. Many companies write boring description of the job role that can attract nobody’s attention. Do not make the same mistake. Think of your job posting as an ad and try to sell yourself. Do not forget that before a candidate grab your attention, you need to grab theirs.
The salary
Should you include a potential salary in your job advertisements? This is a question managers often ask themselves. A study from job search engine Adzuna found out that about half of the companies do not include such information in their ads and this tendency continues to grow.
Should you also not include salary details?
There is no strict answer to that questions and the final decision is up to you. We can only give you some of the advantages and disadvantages of not including this information.
Cons
Many candidates do not respond to job offers without salary details.
You may end up with a lot of candidates with false expectations about the potential salary.
Pros
Your competitors do not know how much you pay and it is harder for them to steal your candidates with better offers.
The Interview
O.K., you have identified what you need for your small business team, reached a decision that you need a certain candidates and wrote a compelling job offer that grab the attention of many candidates. You have selected the most suitable ones and offered them the opportunity to come to a job interview. How to do it the right way.
First of all, do not forget that the job interview is not only about learning more about a job candidate, but also for the job candidate to learn more about you.
LinkedIn influencer Jeff Haden advices companies to spend the same amount of time answering questions as they do asking such. A stupid way to lose a good job candidate is by making the interview an interrogation, where you are the only one asking questions and you are not willing to share anything about your business.
By answering your candidates questions you show them that you value your potential employees and that you care about your company’s image.
Apart from that, the questions you ask are also important. During the interview you need to ask only questions that clarify what you have read in the candidate’s resume or that will help you understand whether that personal is suitable for the job. Asking questions which answer lies in the candidate’s resume is a bad idea and a clear sign you haven’t paid enough attention while reading it.
The interview is also the opportunity to test your candidates if they are suitable for the job. Give them a test or even give them a task to do at home. That is a great way to see how they think and how they react when given work.
Finally, you need to close the interview in an appropriate way. We often hear people complain that they have been told that they will receive a follow up, but companies never provide it afterwards. That is especially rude for a number of reasons.
First of all, the person will most certainly complain about your actions to other people which will hurt your reputation. Moreover, you never know what will happen in the future – you may need this candidate at some point.
Choosing the right candidate
This is the hardest part of the hiring process and the time when most companies say there is no suitable candidate. But in most cases that’s not true and there is someone who can do the job just fine. The problem is that managers look for the ideal candidate and as we know nothing in the universe is perfect. It’s the same with job applicants. Every single one of them has some drawbacks.
In fact, what companies need to realize is that they do not need the ideal candidate, they need the most suitable one among all others. Potential team members shouldn’t be ruled out because of small drawbacks. You as a manager or team leader need to realize that everybody has them.
A good advice HR experts give is to focus not only to qualifications and previous experience but also to culture. And there is a good reason for that. Qualifications and experience are aspects that can be achieved, but culture isn’t. Even if you find a candidate that has good expertise he won’t fit in your team unless he has good culture.
The bottom line:
When hiring a new employee have in mind those two advises:
- Do not look for the ideal candidate, look for the most suitable one.
- Do not make a decision for hiring only based on qualification, but focus on the candidate’s culture as well.
Different personalities, different needs
The hiring process is definitely essential for building a good small business team. But it is just the beginning. What matters after that is how you treat your team members.
The most essential aspect of leadership that employers need to understand is that different people have different personalities and different needs. If you want to keep every member of your team happy and motivated, you can’t just treat them in the same manner. A good managers understand each of his employees needs and reacts accordingly to them.
A while ago Forbes published a great article identifying 9 different corporate types and how employers should deal with each of them. You can check it out for more inspiration on the topic.
The bottom line:
Once you have your team set up, you need to keep it motivated and willing to work. The only way to achieve it is to show empathy and to treat each team member according to his personality and needs.
In a small business team it’s easier to know all your employees well and if you don’t do it, you are making a huge mistake.
Motivation and reward
I am sure you will agree that a big mistake employers do is not letting their employees going up the corporate ladder. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should promote each team member after a certain period of time – that is just impossible.
What you need to do is identify which of your team members has managerial skills and deserve promotion. The problem is that many employers still feel reluctant to let a person go up the corporate ladder even if they know that this person has the desired skills.
One simple thing business owners need to understand is that nobody is perfect and a single person cannot do all the task. At certain point every successful organization grows and needs more team members with managerial skills.
Furthermore, look at all this from the employees’ point of view. One of the most annoying things is to work hard and achieve good results without anybody noticing it. That is surely among the most demotivational factors at the workplace.
That means that letting your employees go up the corporate ladder is good when building a small business team for a number of reasons.
- You do not waste good talent.
- You help yourself manage the company.
- You keep your team motivated by rewarding good achievements.
Building the organizational structure – who is responsible for what
The organizational structure of a company is the way all employees are divided into different departments. Having a good organizational structure is one of the most important aspects of building your business team as it helps your company grow and bring profit.
One of the essential parts is to build a structure where each of your team member’s responsibilities are clearly defined and each of them know to whom he or she must report. Usually, this information is outlined in the person’s job description.
An effective organizational structure will help your team complete task faster and with more quality. Imagine a team where nobody knows to whom he is accountable and where everybody gives task to others. This is something you need to avoid.
A few things to keep in mind when building the organizational structure of your small business team:
- All of your team members should be divided into separate departments according to their responsibilities (i.e Sales department, support, etc.)
- Each department should have at least one supervisor.
- All supervisors should be accountable to a higher level manager or directly to the business owner.
