Growth, Part 3: Back to Basics Tour
The importance of streamlining workflow, knowing when to hire, and training your team in the best possible way.
We’ve had the pleasure of having multiple mentors over the years, and one of the best exercises we’ve done with them is to create a visual organization chart. The point is simple and obvious: make a full list of responsibilities by position, then step back and see the mess you created.
I mean that in the gentlest way, but my guess is that there’s likely a better way to distribute (or redistribute) responsibilities. Taking this one step further, I like to compare this organizational chart to workflow and see where the kinks are. What I look for is where decisions and efficient execution are being held up (whereas perhaps that sign-off can be done by one person), creating a bottom up process executable by as few people as possible. Keeping the kitchen staffed but simple, so to speak. Remove the extra cooks.
From there, I start to sift through the responsibilities and start redistributing them to areas or folks that have the capacity and agency to execute. In a lot of cases, this is one responsibility in/one responsibility out. The wrench to keep out of the plan is not unloading too many new things onto someone, or completely shifting their job without consideration for pay increases proportional to additional work, interest level in the kind of work, and personal motivational factors that help people succeed. It’s a bit like Tetris. But it’s how we have an internal team of three.
Now, say you’re looking at a list of responsibilities that outweigh your current team’s capacity. That means it’s time to bring someone new on. Where is it that you need the most help? Specifically, what tasks are on that list that can be distributed to a new specialized position that comes with autonomy? Simply put, you don’t need an assistant — you probably need an operations manager.
Compare that work to the current going rate for that job in YOUR company's area. Do some research on competitive salaries. Then, look at your businesses projected profit at year-end (hello, balance sheet). Do those numbers match? If yes, time to hire. If not, charge more and spend less. Don’t lie to yourself; you’re only delaying the inevitable. (I know, I have done this more than once.)
If you do hire someone, for the love of all that is good in this world, train them well. Don’t assume they know everything about the inner workings of your company — but don’t patronize them either. Have an employee playbook on the basics — think values, benefits, etc. — and spend time with them reviewing that responsibility list you created when you were looking to hire the new position, and ensure they have the tools to be successful. This is going to take a month. No shortcuts, no matter how tempting.
Two other things I want to point out in this stage are first, to understand how your company communicates both internally and to clients. Second, have your training, tracking, and operational software up to snuff. Our team communicates asynchronously (the buzzword á la minute) and uses a fair amount of systems, which can be different for some folks. However, the time spent encouraging the use of these systems helps overall team performance in the end. Because no one needs to work harder on the little things.
— Mallory Ulaszek, Co-Founder
