Employees are the lifeblood of any successful company or organization regardless of size. So whether you are running a multibillion-dollar company or are a tech start-up, your performance comes down to the people employed by your company and whether they are fully aligned with your company’s ethos and vision for the future.
Alan Safahi is a successful entrepreneur and start-up founder based in San Francisco. And with over 30 years’ experience in business development in the tech industry, he believes that investing in employees is crucially important at all steps of your company’s development.
This investment begins at the hiring stage.
Hiring new employees
Hiring the right candidates is an important step that needs to be carried out very carefully. However many new start ups fail to gather the right people because they stick too rigidly to a tick box criteria such as academic and social background and are in a rush to get started.
By contrast a successful company, such as Google, has a more open policy that will favor talented candidates who demonstrate they have the right qualities rather than the right background. If a candidate already displays a willingness to develop and learn, this growth mindset can be developed to benefit your company.
Scouting and hiring the right employees takes time but is a crucial factor in the development of your company.
To ensure that your recruitment program is on the right track, calling in the services of start up expert and entrepreneur Alan Safahi will help establish a sound foundation for your company’s growth and development.
Investing in staff training is crucial
Investing time and money in training is paramount. Too many start ups run into problems because they fail to provide adequate onboarding for new candidates. But you can’t expect new employees to perform like fully integrated team members unless you invest time and training in their development.
By contrast a successful company will invest time and training in an onboarding and mentoring process so that new employees can quickly become fully integrated members of your team and are fully aligned with your company’s culture. This may require more time than you would like, but it will pay off in the long run.
Staff training and career development should be offered to employees throughout their careers so that as your company grows your employees can grow and develop equally.
Investing in employees is as important for start up companies as it is for multi nationals
If you are a startup company with a vision for the future, it is crucial to invest in obtaining the best and most talented employees for your team from the get-go.
Your company’s reputation is formed by the service you provide and in a highly competitive market, even small issues can make the difference between success and failure.
For example, if you get too many online reviews or negative social media posts complaining about your company’s performance it reflects badly on your whole company. This reputation can be hard to shake off yet can be caused by just one badly trained individual in your customer service department.
Alan Safahi is the founder of ZED Network; an online reputation management company that will help you maintain a good reputation online and will prevent a bad review from ruining the credibility of your company.
In the early days of any company, teething troubles can lead to mistakes but a negative impression online can ruin your future chances of success. All this could have been so easily avoided with more investment in your employees.
Investing in your employees improves performance and reduces costs
When you invest in your employees it not only improves company morale it reduces costs.
Offering benefits such as health care cover, gym membership, subsidized meals or free breakfasts are a few ways of helping your employees feel valued. Offering added incentives such as performance-driven bonuses and awards and investing in ongoing staff training helps employees see that they have a long-term future with your company.
Staff turnover is a major expense. According to statistics, it can cost as much as six months salary to fully train a new staff member so even if investing in your employees seems initially expensive it is the only way to guarantee the success and the future growth of your company.
