Companies that are scaling well can be faced with hiring large numbers of people at once, but often don’t have the systems in place that train, teach, and keep that new talent in place for long.
Allan Boyle is the founder of Saltwater Consulting, where he helps companies scale well. He gained his “special ops” training at Amazon, and has since focused on leading organizations through transformation, particularly leveraging cloud-based disruptive technologies.
Allan focuses on working with technology companies, which isn’t everyone’s strength. But his product market fit angle can be applied to anyone. There is a good chance that you have a vision for the way you can change the world, but any real effort must include the ability to lead people. To really scale, you have to get good at developing leaders and leaders of leaders.
Too often, scaling companies hire a lot of people quickly, but then fail to fully train their new hires. Typically on Day 1, the new hire is given their laptop and a general overview of the responsibilities, and on Day 2 the hiring manager goes out of town for two weeks, leaving the new hire alone and wondering what they are supposed to do next. With an effective launch plan, the hiring manager has a clear training schedule that can be reported back to HR after a few months. By doing this, a company can accurately determine how well a new hire has been onboarded.
When scaling fast, Allan warns, don’t just focus on acquiring soft talent. Find the right people to help with hiring, and then focus on the new hires for their first three to four months for a more effective hiring process that will help to minimize turnovers.
Allan offers his recommendations for developing a more effective onboarding process, creating an environment where new hires are properly trained, envisioning what the company will look like in the future, and then working toward making that a reality.
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Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the show, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.
We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around People, Strategy, Execution, and Cash so that they can Scale Up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Scaling Up is based on Verne’s original best-selling business book, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits.
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