When your business is expanding, it’s a time of great change. It’s also a very exciting time though. But it’s important not to forget about how the expansion might impact on your employees. They might not feel confident or prepared for what lies ahead for them.
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If your employees aren’t prepared, then your business is not prepared. If you go ahead without first making sure your staff can handle the change, you could be heading for a disastrous failure, and you don’t want that. Here’s what you should do to make sure your staff are as prepared as they possibly can be.
Make Them Feel a Part of the Expansion
Your employees should not feel left behind when your company starts to expand. It’s vital to make them feel like an important part of the process. There are lots of ways you can make sure they’re a part of it.
Keep them informed about what’s happening and make sure they all fully understand the direction in which the business is going. You should also answer any questions they have and ask them for their suggestions. This will make them feel like they’re taking part in the expansion of the business.
Start Delegating More
Once the expansion starts, you should think about which tasks can be handed over to your employees. If you give them more responsibilities and allow them to have a bit more freedom, they will be much more positive about the prospect of expansion.
This makes sense for another reason too. When you expand, you will undoubtedly have a lot more work to deal with. It doesn’t make sense to handle it all by yourself, so it’s only logical to delegate tasks to your employees.
Get Them Motivated for the Challenges Ahead
Making sure your staff are excited and motivated for what challenges and tasks lie ahead of them after the expansion is very important. If they don’t have the same enthusiasm for the expansion that you do, it might not be a smooth transition.
To get them motivated, you could go to www.speakersassociates.com and bring in a motivational speaker. You should also do everything you can to make the idea of expansion sound exciting and appealing to them, and discuss worries with them.
Make Sure There Pay is in Line with Their Work
If business is going well, which it must be if you’re expanding, make sure this is reflected in the pay your employees receive. They’ll be much more positive about the expansion if they get a pay rise as a part of it!
You could think about linking performance to pay. Or you could give shares in the business to employees and run the company on a co-operative basis whereby the staff collectively own the company. This will give them a much greater reason to make a success of the expansion.
Consider Bringing in New Staff Members
I’m not suggesting you replace your old employees with new ones. But bringing in additional staff is something you should definitely think about when you’re expanding. New employees can bring more experience and new perspectives to strengthen the workforce as a whole.
So, don’t neglect your employees no matter how busy you are preparing for expansion. Remember, it won’t be a success unless your whole workforce make it one!