As a leader, it’s important to know where you want to be as your business gains more traction. While growth comes more naturally and organically, scaling your business requires a little more finesse.
Before we continue talking about the best practices and qualities to look for in recruitment when scaling your business, let’s take a minute to quickly establish the difference between scaling and growth.
Scaling Vs. Growth
In the most simplistic terms, growth is to “spend more money to make more money”. Resources are added to your company at the same rate as the increase in revenue. Scaling, on the other hand, focuses on increasing revenue at an exponential rate, while only adding resources incrementally.
Scaling stresses on achieving “growth” with less resources, for this reason it relies greatly on talented hires who can be innovative in their approach. Scaling pays much attention on optimising processes, adopting methods that streamline the company to produce greater results without expending more resources. This is why you will see a lot of successful scaling companies outsource their secondary processes (anything that isn’t directly related to their primary services).
Importance of a Good Hire in Scaling
Great talent doesn’t come by easily. When it comes to hiring to scale your business, the best people are the ones who can meet your company where you are.
By now you may have figured that in order to scale properly you need to hire the right people. Not only should they believe in your vision, but more importantly, they need to be ready to optimise their approach at work.
So what does it mean to hire those who can “meet you where you are”? Essentially, your approach to recruitment should vary depending on the size of your company. While some candidates are better for a smaller firm, they may not fare as well in a bigger organisation. Below we point out the approach that is better for each situation and the qualities that you should look for.
Finding Talent for Startups and Small Businesses
Being small has its advantages. The most evident is the overall flexibility and access to high level decision makers in the organisation. All this means that you are more responsive and can react to the market more quickly.
For a small business where resources are tighter, hiring generalists can help your business in a big way. These are the “Jack-of-all-trades” who can take on many different roles. With little to no prior structure, you benefit from people who can be involved in more ways than one to set up the foundations of your business.
As they are the first building blocks of your future empire, capability is one thing, but, even more so, they should see eye to eye with your vision. Because of the small scale, it’s possible for you as the leader to take more time to fish out the people who share a good chemistry with you. Keep in mind that they have a strong influence on the company culture, so your first hires should reflect or demonstrate in some way the qualities you would like to see in your company.
Another important thing to look for are the “leaders in the making”, you should never overlook the need for such people as they will prove to be an invaluable resource as you scale your business. What do they look like?
They are the ones who show passion for their work, rather than waiting around passively for the next order. These workers will prove to be very helpful in a small company, as they are committed to producing results, covering more grounds in the initial stages of the business.
Recruiting for Mid-size to Big Companies
Unlike the small-sized companies, as your business grows bigger it’s crucial that you adopt a more strategic approach towards recruitment.
Where there used to be 30-50 people, it was possible for you to be more involved in each hiring process, but, as the scale increases, it’s important to have the appropriate systems (recruitment plan) in place to secure the right candidate.
While generalists are essential for small businesses and startups, as the company grows in scale, it is fundamental that you optimise and branch out your reach to compete in the market. This is usually a good time to start hiring more specialised talents, acquiring more professional skillsets to broaden the company’s offerings.
In many cases, this is also a great time to start utilising professional recruitment services. This way you have the advantage of access to professional knowledge, allowing you to reach further into the market into deeper waters. A pain point for many leaders as they branch out to finding specialised talent is the hidden stress for them to know that trade.
What you need to keep in mind, however, is that these specialised hires should in all respects be more knowledgeable than you in the thing that they do. Therefore, a recruitment consultant can prove to be very useful in helping you understand and identify the right candidate and whether or not such talent is indeed the answer to achieving your goal.
Links International is an award-winning industry leader in innovative HR outsourcing and recruitment agency in Asia. If you’re looking for an award-winning recruitment company in Asia, please contact us.
