How HR Teams Support Scaling in Hyper-Growth Mode
Businesses today are growing faster than ever. Increased globalization combined with better business technologies are helping organizations hire and scale in a way that’s more distributed and — in an ideal world — more efficient. But we all know what they say about the best laid plans, and when it comes to scaling your people operation in hyper-growth mode, it’s better to stay ahead of the potential breaking points than risk blindly succumbing to them. Every day, the people team at TripActions works hard to move fast while simultaneously planning ahead for those potential pitfalls. Luckily, there are a few tried-and-true ways to equip your HR team to support your organization as it scales at lightning speed.
Prioritize employee engagement and satisfaction.
The numbers have spoken — establishing an employee-centric culture that prioritizes engagement and satisfaction is simply good for business. When you consider that happy employees are 20% more productive, and happy sales teams sell 37% more, it becomes crystal clear that prioritizing your workforce’s well-being is critical to your business’ ability to successfully scale. Consider what your team is doing to ensure employees feel engaged and satisfied at work. How are you creating environments in and outside of the office that make employees feel supported and remain productive? Especially in hyper-growth mode, everyone across the organization should be running full-speed ahead and aligned around the same goals. Because of this, it’s critical that employees feel engaged and satisfied — not frustrated, overwhelmed, and ultimately burnt out — while on the job.
Provide solutions that make it easy to be more productive at work.
In their consumer lives, employees can request a ride home from the airport, get late night snacks delivered, or reorder laundry detergent at the push of a hand-held button. On top of that, cross-channel support for all of these services is always customer-centric and often available 24/7 365. With so much convenience at their literal fingertips, it comes as no surprise that behind-the-times business technologies are simply ignored in favor of more innovative alternatives. An example of this can be seen with corporate travel booking and management — it can take over an hour for travelers to book on most legacy tools, which leads them to take to consumer travel apps instead. Today’s state-of-the-art corporate travel technology takes the friction out of the corporate travel booking and management experience to keep road warriors productive and satisfied whether they’re in the office or on the road.
Scale your values along with the business.
As an HR team, you’re not solely responsible for building and sustaining the culture, but you should do what you can to inspire your workforce to live out your values — from the top down, across regions, and throughout teams. If the organization is growing, the values it was built on need to keep up or you risk losing sight of your North Star. Leveraging your managers is one way to successfully scale your culture and keep your entire organization values-aligned, as is building in feedback loops to better understand your people and gain insights into where you’re hitting the mark and where you may need to put in some extra work.
Hire and grow your talent thoughtfully.
Last but far from least, hiring and retaining the right talent is crucial for businesses scaling in hyper-growth mode. Train your team to recruit with culture and values in mind to ensure candidates are motivated by and excited about the direction you’re collectively headed in. And for those passionate employees who’ve seen you through to where you are now, it’s important to provide the right learning opportunities so they can grow their careers alongside the business.
When a business is growing at lightning speed, its culture can fall by the wayside if the integrity of the people infrastructure isn’t properly thought through or cared for. With these culture-centric tips in mind, however, your HR team will be well-equipped to help successfully scale your workforce, even in hyper-growth mode. Register for this upcoming webinar, Scaling HR at Lightning Speed to Support Your High-Growth Company, to learn more about the tactics, strategies, and technologies that help support the people side of business growth.