The core of scaling strategy is centered on creating business models while designing organizational principles and hierarchy that easily scales in order to generate consistent growth and avoid stall-points. Meanwhile, diminishing additional costs and resources can support this goal – adding resources at the same time you are adding revenue.
Simply put, companies need to scale. If a company isn’t growing, it’s declining. As clients, markets, and employees change, organizations must change with them rather than remain stagnant.
Human resources (HR) leaders have the opportunity to pioneer scaling strategies for organizations and implement lasting changes that drive growth and advancement.
Below are five ways HR leaders can spearhead and support scale strategies within their organization.
LEVERAGING SERVANT LEADERSHIP TO GUIDE TEAMS
The servant leadership style is based on the idea that leaders prioritize serving the greater good.
Leaders who uphold this style serve their team and organization first rather than their own objectives, providing strong support to employees in order to achieve a shared vision.
Servant leaders support employees and teams at lower levels, promoting organizational agility. Employees given autonomy to make decisions and provided the skills and tools to complete their jobs bolsters independent relationships that allow employees to respond and adapt to quickly evolving situations.
Simultaneously, servant leadership offers better collaboration, stronger teams, and a positive work environment.
This methodology allows employees to work together harmoniously and augment employee commitment, trust, and loyalty.
A culture of employee engagement has a substantial impact on operating margins, demonstrating the value of each new hire within the workplace culture.
PRIORITIZING HIRING & GROWTH
While building cooperative teams is important in promoting scale strategy, integrating leadership teams toward common goals is also critical in paving the way to success.
“It is important for internal stakeholders and leadership groups to prioritize hiring and growth,” said Lorynn Walton, an HR executive with experience leading change management and human resource functions across diverse organizations.
“A first step in scale strategy is promoting alignment with leadership groups where the goal and scale and hiring is a priority.”
Lorynn Walton
A unified front among leadership and stakeholders ensures alignment across both daily operations and long-term projects, driving continuous growth and change.
Establishing alignment and primary goals for hiring and team growth adjusts strategy mindset and aids in influencing long-term decisions to reach objective milestones – bringing leadership together to strategize accordingly.
ESTABLISHING PARTNERSHIPS WITH OUTSIDE VENDORS
Alongside supporting growth internally, promoting external growth is equally important.
“Expanding programs to support the growth is an integral step in scaling organizations,”
Lorynn Walton
“Driving talent acquisition by partnering with your county Workforce Development Boards and minority groups, utilizing employees’ social media and networks, and developing training programs to promote within than backfill positions easier to fill are great strategies to use.”
Leveraging external partnerships and stakeholder partnerships provide opportunities to tap into new pools of talent and broaden employee branding and diversity.
Whether this means partnering with community and minority groups to extend diversity in talent acquisition, utilizing recruiting services to onboard new team members, or leveraging social media to bolster employer branding, establishing external partnerships and stakeholder relationships allow organizational scaling.
UTILIZING FORMER TALENT POOLS
While companies used to be intentional in avoiding recruiting ex-employees, this proved to be a shortsighted strategy. Statistically, it costs half as much to rehire an ex-employee as it does to hire a brand-new individual, and rehires are 40% more productive in their first quarter at work.
Rather than spending time and resources to train a new employee, rehires do not require this level of attention and already have an understanding of team and leadership dynamics.
Even more importantly, former employees are known quantities, and the risk of a mis-hire is almost completely eliminated.
If not actively promoting a viable rehire policy, former employees can serve as excellent ambassadors and marketers for their prior workplace.
Former employees are just as likely to influence outside opinions about an organization as current employees.
Building and maintaining goodwill with former employees can fortify the company’s reputation, brand, and influence, effectively building employer branding from first-hand accounts.
SHAPING ORGANIZATIONAL EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION (EVP)
When candidates consider joining a new company, they look at the employee value proposition (EVP) of their new employer, or the total value to the employee of working for the company – including, salary, benefits, training opportunities, stock values, a company’s brand value, and the quality of its leadership.
Strengthening EVP attracts and retains top talent, optimizing recruiting expenses by creating more engaged candidates, building strong company culture, and improving the employee experience.
EVP is influenced by financial rewards and compensation, employee benefits, career development, company culture, and work environment.
Aligning a focus on shaping and growing EVP creates more intentional decision-making and can promote generous cost-savings in hiring costs year-over-year
