HR Strategy for Each Stage of Business Development
An HR management strategy is essential for businesses in the current digital transformation era. At a scale of 200 employees, you cannot apply the same HR management strategy as when the company had 20 people.
In an article in Entrepreneur, Heather Doshay – Vice President of People at Rainforest Company, divided a business’s development process into four stages, corresponding to the four stages of human life. In each stage, Heather Doshay points out the key personnel a company needs to succeed. Heather Doshay completed her doctoral program in Organization and Leadership at the University of San Francisco (USA). She was a member of the Forbes Human Resources Council.
See more: What is Turnover Rate? How to reduce the Turnover Rate in a business
Mục lục
1. HR Management Strategy in the Childhood Stage (1-50 employees)
The HR management strategy during the childhood stage is extremely important. Because this strategy will shape who your business will be in the future.
1.1 The Situation
You have an endless source of energy and ideas.
1.2 Who to Hire
Creators: They are people who can connect with energy and inspiration like children. They constantly ask questions, sometimes more than can be answered. They create outside the box. They don’t care about the crowd’s attention. They just focus on getting the job done as well as possible. They want to experiment with many different projects. In this state, chaos is acceptable. Most mistakes need to happen at this stage so the business can build resistance for the next phase.
1.3 Tips for an Effective HR Management Strategy
Don’t assign initial employees titles like “Head of/Director of… at Company X.” Unless you are sure they will stay with you through the next stage of development. Many newly established companies face problems when their team enters the first development stage.
Initial employees are given very high titles, such as director, vice director, department head… However, the creative employees at this stage often struggle to draft an optimal HR management process for the business. Additionally, the title “Director” will only add more stress to these employees.
Instead, if a promotion is needed, use the title “Team Lead.” Over time, if this employee truly stays with you into the next stage, then promote them to “Head/Director” when their management skills have matured.
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2. HR Management Strategy in the Teenage Stage (50-150 employees)
When the number of employees increases to 150, the business will need to go through a second round of funding.
2.1 The Situation of HR Management Strategy in the Teenage Stage
This is the stage where the company successfully completes its second funding round or has a stable customer base. At this stage, you may be looking for opportunities to expand the market or launch new products. The company is gradually completing the necessary elements to become a complete enterprise. Therefore, what you need is a vision as well as excellent tools to hone the company’s core competencies.
2.2 Who to Hire
Implementers: You know what you need to do to succeed but lack the necessary personnel and processes to achieve it. Therefore, you need someone who can roll up their sleeves and clean up the mess from the previous free-form creation stage. These will be the people who can harmonize with the creative employees to build the strategy, vision, and process foundation as a solid framework for your business to continue growing.
2.3 Recruitment Tips in HR Management Strategy
Pay headhunting firms to get more quality candidates. Most startups choose to ask for referrals from acquaintances. However, this method often doesn’t provide a diverse range of options for the company.
3. The Adolescent Stage (150-500 employees)
Reaching the 500-employee mark is when the business needs a strong breakthrough.
3.1 Situation
150 employees is considered a very important milestone. This is when your company can no longer postpone stabilizing its HR strategy or continue to apply the relaxed startup culture. During the adolescent stage, creative employees will be the group that struggles the most to adapt. The execution team at this stage will also slow down as they need to analyze to provide appropriate directions.
Therefore, you need personnel who can optimize initiatives in a way that is suitable for long-term employees. Without appropriate changes and encouragement for initiatives to flourish, the company’s profits will decline, and the initial employees will gradually leave.
3.2 Who to Hire
Optimizers: They are employees who value data processing. They will consider everything you have built and find ways to optimize it. Their inspiration comes from reviewing the current situation and finding ways to optimize it. These are the people who may conflict with creative employees. If an optimizer holds a management position, it is highly likely that creative employees will resign at this stage.
3.3 Recruitment Tips
Optimizers do not necessarily need an MBA or two years of experience working at large corporations. To hire these individuals, you should invest in a rigorous recruitment process to identify the necessary qualities in potential candidates.
4. The Mature Stage (over 500 employees)
In the Mature stage, the business begins to grow steadily.
4.1 Challenges in HR Management Strategy
When transitioning from the adolescent to the mature stage, all the necessary features for the business to operate stably are in place. Although problems will always arise at any stage of development, you now have a complete operating system. Therefore, you will know what inputs are needed to achieve the expected results. You will no longer need to hire personnel just to operate that system. You need a strategy and to attract investment to continue developing the company.
4.2 Who to Hire
Experts: With a scale of 500 employees, one manager cannot handle all the work. The main solution is to hire more experts. These experts are not necessarily executives in various departments. They can be specialists with deep expertise and extensive experience in your business field. They can also be technology experts who help you introduce automation into the company.
4.3 Recruitment Tips
At this stage, people will proactively come to you because of the company’s brand. To stand out in the recruitment market, ensure your business brand is aligned with your employer brand. Additionally, you also need communication experts to create a compelling story about that brand.
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