You can have an incredible product/service, high NPS scores, customer retention rates, & glowing testimonials. But if you don’t have an incredible, high-performing team, you won’t be able to scale. If you aren’t actively building an intentional, high-trust culture, you won’t be able to attract the top talent you need nor retain the superstars you have, & your growth will stagnate, if not bottom out all together. 

Is this meant to scare you? Nope - it shouldn’t scare you, but rather it should light a fire underneath you. Scaling is scary, but it is so freaking fun. You are totally capable of getting the results that you desire, but you can’t do it alone. And to that I say HUZZAH! Who wants to do all of this alone? If you go down in flames (which you won’t), the only thing that makes it better is having a team of people who are there to catch you & help bring you back up. If you achieve your wildest dreams (which you totally can), do you really want to be throwing confetti & popping champagne all by yourself? OF COURSE NOT. Scaling a business is not a ‘party of 1’ endeavor. 

As you fundraise & scale, lean on your People Ops team. Here are 6 ways they can help: 

1. Define the Culture

Defining your culture is the key to attracting & retaining the RIGHT people for your unique organization. Clear communication of who you are as a company & what you stand for (coupled with your charming personality) is your best recruiting tool!

Culture is something that will just happen organically (trust me - you put 2 or more people together & a culture will form), however it has an enormous impact on every single aspect of your business. So why leave it to chance? Spoiler alert: you definitely should NOT leave it to chance! You need to be intentional & define what you want & need the culture to be in order to achieve your vision. 

Culture is your company's values & beliefs manifested in the behavior of everyone at your organization. In other words, your culture is built by the daily behavior of every single person on your team. So to define your culture, you need to clearly identify exactly what behaviors will lead to your organization's success, & then systematically, & consistently teach them to your team. These are the behaviors that bring your company’s values to life & drive your success. We call these your Core Behaviors (like Core Values only better, because they are actionable & allow you to effectively operationalize your culture). 

2. Own the Internal Communication Strategy

When it comes to having a high-performing team, getting the right things done, & not  wasting time or money, internal communication is EVERYTHING. It is amazing to me how crucial clear & consistent communication is & how little attention it actually receives from leaders & organizations. I see teams using Slack, only to find out their CEO only uses email, which creates confusion of where communication & work actually get done. I’ve talked with employees who are failing to progress on key initiatives because they aren’t sure where or when to ask questions. I’ve seen silos form within organizations because some leaders are intentional about using Microsoft Teams/Slack as a platform to build connection & team culture, while other leaders at the same organization don’t use it, & their teams feel left out & like they don’t belong.  

In my experience, 90% of the time when there is conflict on a team, or lack of progress, it comes down to being either a communication issue or a trust issue (or both).

When you scale, you move fast, & you need your team to move fast AND in the right direction, all together. This is why your company’s communication needs to be ON POINT. Be proactive & intentionally lay out the expectations for how you will communicate at your organization for maximum productivity, impact, & team connection. Your People Ops team can establish, implement, & oversee a clear “This is How we Communicate Here” strategy. This should include what communication tools you use (Slack, email, Asana, Zoom, monthly all-hands, weekly 1:1’s, etc.), why, & how. Here’s an example of The Perk’s as a reference. 

3. Level Up your Candidate Experience

As you scale, you will attract amazing new employees with your inspiring vision, your intelligent & unique team, & your intentional culture. The recruiting & interviewing stages are so fun & there is truly nothing like the feeling you get when that signed offer letter drops in your email from a new person who totally thrills you. 

It’s a tight hiring market right now - candidates have a lot of options & it’s becoming harder to close the deal. You need to make sure that every interaction with potential employees is on-brand & on-point. You want to make sure your candidates love interacting with your company, & that the recruiting, interviewing, & hiring processes are quick & frictionless.

Your People Ops team can create, implement, & train your internal team on the workflow from time of candidate application submission through offer/rejection. Even if you use applicant tracking systems (like Greenhouse or Lever) & recruiters, you still need to develop your own unique candidate experience that is on-brand & has your unique culture infused throughout.

4. Run a World-class Onboarding Process

So now you have an incredible candidate experience, & your new employees feel like a million bucks as they are being recruited, interviewed, shmoozed, & sold on your vision & how they can help you get there. Excitedly they sign the offer &...crickets… 

Don’t let the momentum drop! Don’t have your new hires feeling like the interview process was smoke & mirrors! Too often I see companies land the new hire only to then ghost them until they log-on/show up on day 1 & then they sit through a clunky, low-energy, confusing, & sometimes painful onboarding process. IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! 

Onboarding is the time to win the hearts & minds of new hires & get your employees excited, committed, engaged, & educated on who you are, why you exist, what you do & how you uniquely do it from the get-go. 

A great onboarding experience is critical to drive employee engagement, retention, & productivity. And the faster you can get your new hires up to speed & producing, the better off the entire organization is (& them personally - no one likes being the new person who doesn’t know anything. Everyone wants to provide value as soon as possible). This is why I encourage you to track & measure Time to Productivity as a success metric for onboarding, & always be working on reducing your team’s Time to Productivity. You should constantly be asking yourself, & those who are going through the onboarding process, what could we do to make the onboarding process even better? What is one thing we could teach earlier that would get people up to speed quicker? What changes can we make to shorten the Time to Productivity? 

Your People Ops Team can & should be in charge of creating & running a world-class onboarding process. And onboarding doesn’t just start on day 1 - this process should begin from the time of the signed offer letter (candidate experience should flow immediately into onboarding). Your onboarding should be clear, effortless, & focused on establishing connection with the new hire, so they feel as though they belong on the team & trust those around them from day 1.

5. Keep a Pulse on the People & Culture

People want to work for a company that cares about their experience, asks for & listens to their ideas, & makes positive changes based on their feedback. Your People Ops team can keep a pulse on the people & culture by conducting anonymous employee satisfaction & engagement surveys (I recommend at least monthly, & you could use a software tool like TINYPulse, or just stick with google forms) or doing Stay Interviews. They can create & present reports to you & the rest of the leadership team on what they’re hearing/seeing, proposed action plans, & success stories of action taken based on the feedback received. This way, you know that while you’re hustling for the next round, your people are being seen, heard, & valued, & that positive changes are being made to make your culture even stronger. 

This can also become a powerful element in your recruiting - tell potential employees about your continuous feedback process, & how/why you solicit employee feedback. Give them examples of feedback received & changes the company has made as a result. This shows them that you are not only a company who cares about their experience, but you also take deliberate action to make the workplace even better for them. 

6. Be your CEO Communication Coach

You have a lot you need to focus on when your fundraising & your time is razor thin (hello investor meetings & pitch deck revisions!). This is one way your People Ops team can specifically help YOU during this time of scaling. 

When I was VP of People & Culture at a quickly growing & scaling health IT startup, I knew that if the team trusted & believed in our CEO, then my job would be much, much easier (because the team would be happier, more clear on what we were doing & why, & thus they would be more productive, & the company as a whole would progress faster & make a greater impact). 

So it was crucial for me to be my CEO’s communication coach & let him know when the team needed to hear from him, what they needed to hear, or when he just needed to jump into Slack & engage more in our #celebrate channel to build connection & rapport with the team. 

Have your People Ops team be your eyes, ears, & coach during this time. Not with the intention to tattle, but with the intention to help you be the CEO you want to be, & give the team what they need to feel supported & capable. 

As my CEO at the time put it, “I feel like I’m running & leading the charge with the vision  & the fundraising, & I can stay focused because I am confident that the whole team is coming with me, because you’re there ensuring that they do. And I know that if I need to stop & turn around, that you will be the one to tell me to stop & turn around.”

“You can’t do epic shit with basic people.”

Alright Leader, I know you want to do epic sh!t, & so you need epic people. Focus on what you need to be focused on (fundraising & scaling), but don’t neglect your team & your culture in the process. Lean on your People Ops team! And, if you don’t have a People Ops team, or you need to amplify your existing one, check out our Outsourced Chief People & Culture Officer services where we can help you do all of the above (& then some), & also support &/or coach & train your current People Ops team. 

Cheers to scaling, growing, leading, & succeeding!

Pssst...I LOVE connecting with & growing my community! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn - see you there! 🤗

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