3 talent management must-haves during rapid-growth
As companies reach various stages — from the start-up stage to the rapid-growth stage to the maturity stage — the needs of the organization evolve dramatically. Talent management also needs to keep pace with change.
A rapid-growth stage in particular brings with it significant challenges related to talent management. Companies at this stage need senior leaders who thrive on change and can take on moderate risk, yet who also like to build organizational structure and establish processes.
It can be a thrilling, yet risky, transition to make when moving from a start-up stage to a rapid-growth stage.
Here are three must-haves to effectively manage talent early on in those environments:
1. A healthy headcount/capacity
A fast-growth business means hiring lots of additional people to help manage new demand, while preserving the customer experience that propelled your growth in the first place.
One of the most challenging parts of managing growth is getting the right people hired with enough time to onboard them efficiently and get them to productivity on schedule. To do this quickly and effectively, you can introduce behavioral assessments to help define new or evolving job requirements and identify candidates or team members who are best aligned for each role.
Research shows that many successful rapid-growth companies even integrate workforce analytics directly into their online job applicant experience to streamline the capture of relevant data.
2. A great job and culture fit for personnel
In addition to adding personnel, it’s critical that every employee is positioned to drive success in the new environment. This means that each individual is behaviorally aligned with the requirements of their job and the larger team.
Since an organization’s culture is the glue that binds employees to the venture and to one another, organizations in growth mode can benefit from using workforce analytics to identify the fits and gaps between individuals and teams regarding the requirements of the new workplace.
Many rapid-growth organizations leverage data-driven insights based on science to help them understand how the talent on their teams today can get them into the future and what potential gaps may exist.
3. Powerful employee engagement
Aggressive growth brings changes, and not everyone handles change equally. As your organization scales, the more rigor needs to be introduced into processes like hiring, onboarding and coaching. In turn, workforce changes, product strategy changes, market evolution and more can impact engagement and ultimately, retention.
Productivity and engagement are at the heart of the healthy expansion of any business. And behavioral data provides managers with actionable insight to enhance and drive both.
The strategy and goals of the company drive the direction of the organization; science-based assessments provide data to help align the people side of the plan.
How Wipfli can help
Become a better leader with the help of Wipfli consultants. We can help you strengthen your leadership, strategy and culture through coaching, development and recruiting. Learn more about our leadership development programs or how we help clients with people, process and strategy on our organizational performance consulting web page.
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