The Winning Startup Team Structure You Should Consider

You’d think that with a winning idea, sizeable capital, and an exquisite marketing approach, your startup would be practically unstoppable. Yet, you would be profoundly wrong.

Not that these three vital elements don’t have any impact on your success, they most certainly do. But there are other, often overlooked factors that will shape your brand’s ability to thrive in the modern world today, and one of them includes your team structure.

It makes sense: your employees are the backbone of your business. They are the first ambassadors of your business, and the very first people to have the same values that have shaped your brand. They are the ones communicating directly with your target customers and spreading the word of your brand.

Due to their incredibly important role in your business growth, it’s truly crucial to hire and work with the people who will represent your business in the best of light.

Essential Organizational Strategy for Your Startup Team Structure

Here’s how to ensure proper hiring choices within your business and help your brand grow through your teams!

1. Flexibility in the workplace

Times have changed quite a bit since the era of the cubicle. The nine-to-five still prevails in certain businesses, but it has become more or less replaced by a more flexible approach that enables employees to choose and adapt their work to their life, and not the other way around. This is the way it should be. We have talked about work-life balance for ages, or complained is more like it, but we have done little to support it.

Today, employers have to put their employees’ needs first. That includes their personal needs and preferences, and not just whether or not to give them that corner office with the bay window, or a raise. Certain perks have become the new norm that now lets companies bloom and their employees thrive. Some of the following are considered must-haves for any new startup:

• Flexible hours – Letting your teams choose how and when they work will help them give you their best and most productive hours. If single parents need more leeway, why not give them a chance to work and enjoy their parenthood?
• Remote work – Casual Fridays have turned into “optional” Fridays in a way, as more companies are now letting their employees work from home on certain days of the week, and each employee can get a different arrangement as long as their productivity doesn’t lag.
• Transparency – Keep your employees in the loop of all relevant changes and events within your company. This helps build trust, honesty, and loyalty among all of your teams.

These are just some among many policies brands are starting to embrace in their effort to build stronger, more loyal teams.

2. Empower diversity

Most companies tend to stick to traditional channels to hire their employees. However, as the world changes to embrace a greater, more diverse spectrum of abilities in people, the workplace begins to change as well. Brands that want to build truly versatile cultures need to look beyond their typical corporate hiring policies.

Some of the more forward-thinking startups have decided to go the extra mile and use disability employment services in order to enrich their culture in that manner. This gives them a diverse skill set, a better understanding of their audience, and builds their reputation as an equal opportunity employer. Learn from the best and make the most of these and similar strategies to empower diversity under your own roof.

3. Refresh your hiring strategies

Are you still clutching onto those piles of CVs as if you were holding on to dear life itself?

Unfortunately, after years of poor hiring choices and missed opportunities, businesses have finally realized the fallacy behind relying solely on resumes. These summarized bits of information cannot possibly be the only or the best way to qualify someone for the position. In fact, there are so many other, more creative ways to look for talented individuals than to rely on CVs alone.

Have you considered hiring freelancers, remote workers, or part-time employees? How about getting in touch with certain highly qualified candidates before they’re actually looking for a position?

Asking more specific questions in the interview is another method to refine your hiring process, so make sure that your strategies suit your industry and help you select the right team members from the start.

4. Soft skills over experience alone

As impressive as someone’s education may be, any brand’s culture cannot be built only on expertise or knowledge. In fact, studies show that out of all new hires that fail in the first year and a half, almost 90% of them are a result of attitude issues. As stellar as their skills may have been, these people have failed to thrive in their work environment because of a mismatch of personality.

How your team members prioritize, how they resolve conflict, how they collaborate, and how they communicate are all relevant factors that will ultimately help them succeed or fail in the workplace. These traits, among many other soft skills, will also determine how well they communicate your brand’s values to your customers.

Conclusion

It’s time to take your hiring practices to a new level. Make sure to use these tips in order to find the best candidates for your culture, and you’ll contribute to your brand’s success for years to come.