No matter how fast you grow your company, you want to make sure to maintain a friendly environment where people feel like they’re part of an inclusive team, where they can be happy as well as productive.
When people feel comfortable in their work environment, they’re able to better connect with one another as well as with clients, and this is when they’re able to give their best.
So, moving forward into the new year, we want to take the opportunity to share some advice on how to maintain a friendly workplace while growing your company.
Implement a Good Hiring Process
A company’s employees are its greatest asset, so hiring practices can make a huge difference in a company. Sometimes it’s a hard decision to make because you always want the best people for the job, but when you hire someone who doesn’t fit well into your team or culture, it can lead to some major problems down the road.
You need to not only look for people who are talented in their field of expertise, but also people who are aligned with your company’s values.
A good hiring process will help you find valuable employees who are great fit for your team, enabling you to maintain a positive work culture and friendly environment even while growing fast.
When a candidate applies for a position at our hive and enters the selection process, they pass through several rounds of interviews to help us get to know them better.
If the candidate has all the necessary technical knowledge and seems like a good fit, we do our best to get them acquainted with our colleagues whom they would be communicating with the most in their day-to-day work. This lets us see right away how well they will potentially get along with our existing team.
To supplement our hiring process, we also organize various internships that allow us to share our knowledge with young talent, while at the same time evaluating them for potential employment.
Over the course of a 3-week internship, you get a really good idea of who is a great fit for your team and who isn’t. We’re happy to say that 60% of our interns stay to work with us and become part of our team.
You want to find people who are enthusiastic about coming on board and excited about working for your company, because you nurture a positive environment where employees feel empowered and appreciated.
Talk About and Reinforce Your Company Values
Your company values are at the core of your corporate culture. So, you want to communicate them clearly during the recruiting and onboarding process, but also reiterate them and make positive reinforcements on a regular basis.
At Bee IT, we believe in the importance of community, collegiality and solidarity. This means that everyone on our team always has each other’s backs to help solve and overcome any complex challenges.
We also strive to maintain a high level of trust, in each other, as well as our clients’ trust in our team. This has allowed us to maintain a high level of quality on every project, and we can proudly say that we have never lost a single client.
Communicating your company values helps employees understand what your company stands for, how they fit in and contribute to your company's goals, as well as what they can do to elevate their own careers.
A positive company culture helps you attract new talent, but also develops great employees who want to stay with your company, leading to growth for both your business as well as your employees.
Develop Traditions and Build Team Spirit
It’s important to develop traditions that are rooted in your company culture. It is also important to organize regular team building events that bring people together and build their team spirit.
Team building events are not only about fun and games, but about connecting people. When people feel close to each other, it motivates them to give their best effort in their daily tasks to contribute to the overall success of the whole team.
We also make sure to nurture the tradition of celebrating not only holidays, but also our team’s birthdays and personal achievements, as well as important milestones in our people’s lives such as becoming a parent.
No matter how big your business grows, you should strive to maintain an environment where each individual feels acknowledged and appreciated, as well as a valuable part of the team.
Maintain Open Lines of Communication
Open communication is one of our core values, and it is key to maintaining a great company culture and friendly work environment while growing your team.
You need to be able to listen to what your employees have to say, and they need to feel comfortable voicing their opinions without a fear of being judged or considered wrong.
People are more likely to be satisfied with what they are doing if they feel that they are being heard and that their opinions matter.
Open lines of communication also mean that people don’t feel awkward asking for help if they get stuck on a particular task. Our colleagues are always willing to jump in when someone needs help, which minimizes lost time and reinforces a sense of community and being able to rely on your coworkers.
Open communication also enables you to keep track of employee satisfaction, so you can know to do more of what’s making your employees happy, and change or improve what isn’t giving the best results.
This will help you improve your company's culture, minimize employee turnover, and increase your overall business success.
So, there you have it!
We plan to keep growing our company in the coming year while staying true to our values and principles, and we hope that what we’ve shared will help you on your own journey of growing your business!
We wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year from everyone at Bee IT!
