Startups typically consist of relatively small teams. If you’ve recently started your own business, it may just be you and a few other people running the entire company. As such, each person has a bigger impact on the growth of your startup. If one person isn’t performing at their best, it’s a larger problem when they are one of five employees rather than one of one hundred.
Getting the most from your startup’s employees should be a major focus during your early years. Below, we’ll provide a few strategies you can implement that should help you maximize their productivity and ultimately lead to stronger business growth.
Conduct a Thorough Hiring Process
To get the most from your employees, it’s important that you first have the right team to work with. If you don’t hire the right people, your attempts to maximize their productivity will have a limited effect. During the hiring process, you’ll want to ask questions of the candidates that relate to your organization’s culture and learn about what motivates them.
For example, you can ask questions like “How do you motivate yourself to work on a project?” or “Tell me about a time when you needed to put in extra effort to complete a task on time.” By learning about what motivates someone, you can then either hire people who match your own motivational style or use those motivating factors after you hire the person to get the most from them.
Create a Positive Work Environment
A big impact on a person’s productivity is the environment in which they work. If people don’t enjoy working for your startup, they won’t be motivated to do their best work. You need to give people a reason to perform at their best besides a paycheck. To that end, you should focus on the environment you’re creating within your startup.
There are a few ways you can create a more positive work environment. One option is to publicly recognize when someone does good work, as everyone likes when their hard work is appreciated. If you’re in an office setting, you can also do things like playing music in the office, incorporating more natural light, or setting aside some time for team-building. Finally, ensure you bring a positive attitude to work each day, as your attitude will trickle down to the rest of the team.
Encourage a Competitive Atmosphere
In addition to a positive environment, you can also look to create a more competitive atmosphere. Some friendly competition among team members can encourage better work and team camaraderie. For example, if you have a sales team, you can host a competition to see who makes the most sales in a week or closes the largest sale. If your team has computer programmers, you could host a coding competition to see who can find the most vulnerabilities in your new software.
There are plenty of ways to add some friendly competition, whether it’s work-related or through team-building games like hosting a fantasy football league. To get buy-in from your team, consider giving out a prize to the winners. You could even find a trophy store and get a personalized trophy if you plan on having ongoing competitions. The more fun you make the competition, the more likely it is that it will motivate your team.
Provide Performance Training
One key to getting the most from your team is ensuring that they always have the skills necessary to perform at their best. Even if you hire someone with the right skill set, there may come a time when they need additional skills based on new projects or changing situations within your business. By training your employees, you can ensure that everyone has the necessary skills for performing their jobs.
There are several ways you can go about providing performance training. For one, you can find online courses and pay for your employees to enroll. Similarly, you can find nearby training organizations and pay your employees to attend. If you’re knowledgeable in the skill, you could also provide the training yourself. Finally, consider bringing in an expert to provide training and show your employees the best ways to implement their new skills within their existing projects.
Schedule One-On-One Reviews
Finally, make time to speak with your team members one-on-one. During these meetings, discuss with your employees how they could improve their performance and if there is anything you can do to assist them. For example, a team member may tell you that they need additional training with a skill or that the software your company provided is slowing them down. By regularly meeting with your employees, you can directly learn what they need to perform at their best and then work to incorporate their suggestions.
