Rescaling is the process of adjusting the size of your workforce to align with your current needs. This can involve layoffs, hiring freezes, or reassigning employees to different roles in the company. There are many reasons why you may need to re-scale your workforce. It could be due to changes in the market, such as an increase in demand for a particular product or service. While in other cases, it could be due to changes in your strategy or business model. Though re-scaling for growth is an exciting time for any company, it still needs to be strategic. If you’re looking to expand your organization, ensure you’re valuing each new hire, onboarding thoroughly, and staying updated.
Hire with care
The most important piece of any organization is its people. This fact can be easy to forget when you’re trying to grow. Typically, this might happen if you rush to hire new employees as quickly as possible. And there are plenty of valid reasons why that could be the case. For example, there might be projects on the horizon that you need new workers for, or goals that you want to reach in the near future. Either way, the short- and long-term future of your company will benefit from taking the extra care to recruit the right people.
There is a saying: “Hire for culture. Train for skills.” While skills are important, many leaders agree that it is more important that new hires are a good culture and value fit for the organization. Before rescaling, your organization should already have clearly established values in place. As you grow, make sure you’re looking at potential hires through the lens of those values. New hires need to have the right combination of skills, experience, and character. And no deadline is worth hiring people who are not the right fit.
Onboard thoroughly
Once you’ve identified the right candidate, a solid onboarding process is key to a healthy workplace. While you might be tempted to test your new hires by “throwing them into the deep end,” retaining that employee depends on establishing a great first impression and training them first. For example, your workers shouldn’t meet with clients until they’ve gotten to know their own teams, processes and values. And you probably don’t want them handling major tasks before they’ve gotten used to your organization’s workflow.
These are all subjects that would be covered in the onboarding process. While you don’t have to create a specific curriculum for each position, you should aim to get the training as specific as possible. eLearning can offer a convenient way for you to manage that. By designing these training materials in an online format, you can refine sections here and there to fit your different teams and roles. Don’t be afraid to ask your own employees to add input. Their knowledge of the intricacies behind their roles can do wonders for any new hire.
Stay up to date
Rescaling is a great opportunity to update your training. Growth in a company means that you’ve been doing things right up to that point. Refreshing your skills and strategies when you’re growing is the best way to stay at the upper end of your industry. eLearning offers several ways to make this process simple. By utilizing microlearning, you can provide bite-sized content to your employees to increase their knowledge. Through personalized learning, you can make the content relevant for each of your teams. And by using performance support tools, your employees can always access this information, in the flow of work.
Takeaway
Growth is an exciting time for companies. However, you need to be strategic to meet that continued growth. As you rescale your organization, there are a few key steps to help make this process smooth and effective. Begin by hiring with care, your company is made by its people, so bring the best ones on board. Once you have the right team members in place, onboard thoroughly so that new hires have the best opportunity to succeed. And finally, use this time to keep your entire company up to date with the latest trends in the industry.
If you’re rescaling your workforce and want help designing your onboarding or a reskilling program, then contact us! Digitec Interactive (now Apti) has over 25 years of experience designing training programs. We have the team and technology to design, build, launch and support your organization.