Originally published on Tapscape.com
As an entrepreneur in tech, you’ll have to consider – and follow through with – restructuring plans. Maybe you’ve done well and have decided that it’s time to scale. Alternatively, you’ll have to do so because your current system doesn’t work. Whatever the case, there are numerous considerations to be made if you want to do it right.
Here are 5 of the most important things to consider:
Figure Out What You’ll Need
As with anything else in entrepreneurship, you’ll need a plan. To construct that plan, you’ll need to take a holistic look at your tech company, from what you currently have to what you’ll eventually need. This consideration should cover everything, from new positions you’ll be creating, to the logistics of managing that many people, including their workspaces and equipment. From this point onward, you’ll be able to determine your total costs and craft a complete plan.
Be Careful with Job Titles
New positions mean new job titles, which is exciting and beneficial for numerous reasons. For one thing, it can serve as a fantastic reward for long-term and loyal employees, which can secure future engagement and loyalty from them. Unfortunately, it also comes with a few caveats. Assigning high positions with the word “chief,” for example, can give employees a tremendous amount of power, which you may not want to assign casually.
When opening new positions, look beyond the job title and sort out the long-term ramifications of even having that job title exist. For example, the wrong job title can severely limit an employee’s future promotion or career prospects, which may make the position feel like a punishment for old employees, or less appealing for new ones. If you’re having trouble figuring things out, consider talking to legal counsel or to other businesspeople to get a better idea of which job titles are safe and which ones you need to take care with.
Sort Out Future Leaders
With growth and reorganization comes bigger teams, and with bigger teams come the need for middle management. For the most part, you’ll want to promote people to the position, as people who’ve been working the company for a while know how its systems functions, requiring a far less stringent onboarding process than a brand-new face. However, if no one seems to have the right skills or personality to lead, don’t hesitate to hire someone outside the company.
Consider Your Personnel
Properly reorganizing your tech startup takes more than more office space and equipment. You’re going to need people to fill all those new seats. Some of them will come from your core team, and they’ll need replacements for their old positions. Others will be entirely new hires because no one on your current team has the skills required.
To figure this out, you’ll need to study your roster. “Ignore their job titles at this stage, and focus entirely on their performance and skills. From there, you can get a good idea of how many people you’ll need to hire, and for what positions,” suggested Basia Najarro Skudrzyk.
Figure Out the Future Structure of the Company
Once you’ve taken a look at your personnel, the required skills, equipment, and so forth, it’s time to figure out what the actual structure of the company will be. This will determine a lot of things, from who has control over what, to how many people report to a specific manager. Depending on your needs, you’ll have a manager who’ll have control over major parts of your company, while others will control small – but no less critical – teams.
Make sure that you assign people who can handle the load you’re giving them. No two leaders are precisely alike. Some are best suited for leading small and fast teams, while others have a macro-angled mindset that lets them manage massive numbers of reports and people without flinching. Both have their place in your organization, and what you need to do is make sure that they’re leading the right groups.
Whatever the reason for your reorganization, the important thing is that you do it right. What you decide at that moment will determine your future as an entrepreneur. The more effort you put in, the easier you’ll make it for yourself and your startup in the future.