Your company clearly understands the problem you aim to solve, developed the product, created an efficient go-to-market strategy and scraped together some capital, but what about human capital? Knowing how to structure your startup’s team is crucial to early success—especially in a satellite office. In fact, even an established business branching out into a satellite location is bound to need some readjustments. Whether you’re a new startup or a seasoned company, one issue we see consistently involves building the right team.
After you find a coworking space, a good understanding of how your team needs to work will help you stay on track of your goals, know who’s accountable for what, and cut back on confusion. Here are just a few things to keep in mind when establishing your team’s official positions.
Know What Roles Your Company Needs
While various industries have different needs to address, there are bound to be some new roles or positions you’ll need to fill. What roles do you absolutely need in house What can you outsource? While some positions may not be as essential to your day-to-day, creating a contingency plan and knowing who’s responsible for what will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
While having one person dole out responsibilities, determining roles should be a collaborative effort. Talk with your team about their current positions, ensuring everyone has a firm grasp. Then, as new responsibilities arise, work as a group to determine who’s best suited for roles that might fall outside their typical job description. Not only do all of these simple steps help maintain efficiency and accountability, the also make it simpler to onboard new team members to different roles down the road.
Keep Work Capacity Even
After you’ve defined and sorted out who’s tackling which responsibilities, determine how much time various tasks will take during the typical work week. The worst thing you can do is overload certain employees while others have little on their plates. While it’s always great to have that go-to person or persons, relying on them too often can be rather detrimental to their individual productivity.
Establishing capacity, down to the hour, can help you and your team avoid these issues. Many smaller companies opt for a capacity management tool to ensure everyone knows exactly what they’re responsible for as well as how much time is ideally allotted.
Reevaluate Office Roles and Job Descriptions
Every business is bound to evolve over time and your priorities will probably change. Establishing defined roles early on is a great way to prioritize and stay on track, but remaining too inflexible as your business grows defeats the purpose. Set aside a little time every month or quarter to look at your team’s capacity and defined roles. Are you allotting too much time for tasks that have grown less important? Conversely, are there more pressing issues that aren’t being given the necessary attention due to capacity restraints?
Again, the gist is to constantly reassess and adjust. Proactivity is the best way to handle not only your company’s day-to-day, but makes solving unexpected issues a little easier. As mentioned earlier, planning and reevaluating are tasks unique to various industries. You know your business and your team better than anyone, so trust the fact that you know how to steer the ship!
Do What Works Best for You
While every industry is unique, don’t get bogged down by what’s traditional or what’s expected. Maybe some of this advice doesn’t suit your new team’s needs. Your ultimate success stems from the ability to recognize the best strategy for team. You can read about best practices all day long (this blog notwithstanding), but at the end of the day, determining your team’s roles and capacity will come down to you.
If you’re still feeling a little lost, talk to colleagues, peers, and anyone else you trust. Attend industry events and programs and seize every opportunity you can to pick someone’s brain and collaborate.
Now that you’ve got your team’s responsibilities all planned out, it’s time to your perfect office. With plenty of open, collaborative office space as well as designated offices, Ascender has the perfect space for your startup or satellite group. Come check us out by booking a tour.
