Vice President of Human Resources at monday.com.
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It might seem counterintuitive to talk about scaling given the current economic climate and the number of layoffs that have taken place over the last several months. But, one common denominator among companies facing the difficult decision to make layoffs is that many of them scaled too much, too quickly.
It’s taught us all a lesson: Scaling with intention is crucial for long-term business success.
Drawing on this lesson, as my team and I reflect back on 2022 and prepare for 2023, we’ve noticed three key areas that deeply affect an organization’s ability to scale: processes, systems and hiring plans. Whether or not your business is anticipating significant growth in the next year, maintaining an eye toward scaling is still important so that you’re prepared when the economy eventually begins its upswing.
Building Effective Processes
In 2022, my team came to realize that we had several key processes missing. At first, we were hesitant to overload ourselves with burdensome processes, but as our teams and organization grew, those processes became crucial and we ended up behind the eight ball.
Now is the time to build the proper infrastructure, so it’s in place when your team is ready to grow, instead of waiting until you already need it. For example, the processes my team had in place for things like cross-departmental collaboration, travel and procurement were not good fits for the scale of the company and ended up slowing us down instead of helping us speed along.
As you look ahead to 2023, anticipate the processes you’ll need through the end of the year and ensure that they can scale along with your team. Then, you’ll be able to prioritize and review your processes and adjust them, as needed, along the way.
Overhauling Systems For Peak Efficiency
As an organization grows, it’s easy to accumulate a lot of systems that end up hindering its overall success and efficiency. My team accumulated plenty of systems in 2022—so many that we ended up with a few duplicate systems, systems that weren’t a great fit for scale and ones that were lacking crucial communication. In sum, we lacked a holistic view of our entire systems map.
The challenge comes when, as an organization grows, each individual team and department adopts software and systems that they need to make their work run smoothly. Without proper oversight, there’s no way to ensure that each system accomplishes a unique objective and communicates seamlessly with the others.
This is where adding someone like a CIO could provide a lot of value to a growing organization. A CIO can help your team maintain a holistic view of all the systems across the company and create a system map to ensure that all systems are communicating properly with each other so the entire flow can scale more smoothly.
Hiring Strategic Positions For Business Growth
Timing for hiring certain positions can be a challenge. On the one hand, it’s important to anticipate the need and hire before you’re in a crunch. On the other hand, you want to ensure that every position is truly necessary and not preemptive.
This is where I believe many companies ran into a challenge in 2022—teams didn’t anticipate all of the required positions and all of the needs in advance. To think strategically about hiring, you need to review organizational structures so you can properly plan for hiring the positions critical for business growth.
If you don’t take this step, it’s highly likely that you’ll have to significantly adjust plans for opening and filling positions to keep up with growth. This, in turn, can leave teams, processes, and systems underprepared and understaffed.
Think very carefully about your organizational structure and make note of how you plan to expand and which roles you’ll need to bring on board and when—all while keeping in mind the needs of an organization at your scale and maturity level. It’s not an easy process, but it can be vital for your organization’s success.
It’s clear that despite a slowing economy, considering scale is as important as ever. Keeping processes, systems and hiring closely aligned with the real size and needs of an organization means you can build out an organization's structure that is fit to scale. This not only helps make the entire organization more efficient but also ensures employees feel supported and properly equipped to do their jobs.
Scaling is about more than just literal growth, so be strategic and organized as you look ahead to 2023 and beyond.
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