Business

Growing businesses have to juggle a number of challenges, but the one that they face most commonly is how to maintain their culture, while successfully managing rapid growth. According to an Inc. survey of CEOs of American private companies, 72% believe that maintaining company culture is the hardest thing about managing a growing workforce.

For every company, the scope and timing of this battle is different. At Sermelo, for example, we first experienced the dilemma of growth this past May. Until that point, we were small enough to fit on one floor in our four-storey building. After a couple of full-time and part-time hires, however, we were ready to expand. The dilemma was how to divide the team between the floors so that we ensure that the collaborative, entrepreneurial and insight-driven culture we've established was not lost in the move.

There are many paths you can take to maintain a company's culture during times of growth. Below are three lessons that helped us successfully manage our first significant growth experience and preserve our culture as we continue to expand.

Organisation is key

While it may seem inconsequential, having all your ducks in a row when it comes to admin and IT processes during a growth change can actually be essential. Nobody likes change and employees are no different.

Whether it's a small change like splitting our team across two floors, or a big one like jumping from a team of 10 to a team of 30 in a short period of time, it is important to ensure that you minimise the negatives around the experience as much as possible. We made sure that the new floor is fully set up in terms of IT and phones well in advance to help employees move into their new working space as smoothly as possible.

Engage your team with the change

During times of change, good, strong cultures are often destroyed due to employees feeling lack of control over what is happening. Therefore, it's a good idea to find elements of the process that...