Finding talent for your business is hard. As your business grows, it is important to find the right people to help take your company to the next level. Yet, the tech industry is a competitive market for recruiting and retaining talent for the long-term. To expand your high growth team with top talent, it is important to have a plan for expansion, build and maintain culture, expand your regional recruiting pool, and boast dynamic leadership.

Understand your Growth Plan

Having a clear vision of where the company is going will help during the planning and execution phases of expansion. Companies that are strongly aligned with their mission should do the work to ensure any plans for growth are aligned with that mission and vision. What are the problems are you trying to solve or needs are you addressing? What products and services are you offering to address those problems or needs? What are your short- and long-term goals? How does expansion fit into these goals?

Then, there is a matter of how the growth will be achieved. There are a lot of options for expanding teams – do you want to move to a fully distributed company model? Do you want a second office? Consider your options and what makes the most sense financially, geographically, and talent-wise.

Once there is clarity for a growth plan, strategic communication is key. Let your people know what is going on, engage them, and bring them into the fold so that they can support the expansion and address growing pains as early as possible. What you say early on and how you create buy-in for your vision sets the stage for execution later.

Build and Maintain Culture

One of the challenging aspects of team growth is maintaining a semblance of the old company culture while also building a new identity to match new strategic vision and goals. After you have communicated the vision for growth, you can begin to build up a culture that cultivates and supports growth. Educate employees on how to think about scalability, how growth will impact their day-to-day roles, and how to make sure that all activities are advancing the growth vision.

It is important to welcome ideas and nurture an environment where creativity and innovation are encouraged and rewarded. “All change brings opportunity,” as the saying goes . New and more seasoned staff should feel comfortable with the expansion and their role in it. Once the team is more acquainted with the growth strategy and the accompanying innovation culture, it will be easier to continue expanding the team and adjusting organizational structures appropriately.

If you plan to use a “work from anywhere” approach, make sure that you’ve integrated the right digital tools and communication channels. Remote offices can struggle to build any kind of welcoming environment and collaborative culture, but with proactive strategies, you can minimize this challenge. 

Expand Beyond Regional Boundaries

One of the best ways to create a high-performing team that fits into your growth strategy is to look beyond the typical regional boundaries that limit talent pools for a lot of tech companies. Especially with the rise of remote work, companies have unprecedented access to a broader pool of talent. Additionally, there has never been an easier time to implement virtual recruiting efforts to dip into that talent pool. Many HR professionals are very acquainted with virtual interviewing technology. Harqen President Tim Ihlefld, says that their digital interviewing platform helps businesses continue hiring activities like engaging with and evaluating candidates, while still shortening the average hiring timeline by up to 70%. Use this to your advantage by creating remote positions when possible. 

The challenge in attracting regionally diverse talent is that convincing folks to uproot their lives and move across states or even cross-country can be a tough sell. For positions that require an in-person presence, you’ll want to keep an eye on people with less ties to their current community, like recent college graduates. Otherwise, remote work options are going to allow the most room for flexibility in talent recruitment and retention outside of the actual location of your company. Check out more tips for managing a remote office here.

Dynamic Leadership

Your team leaders are critical to every aspect of growth and expansion, from helping develop a strategic vision to cultivating the right culture at the ground level with team members. Make sure you are hiring leaders who align with your business values and goals, support your vision for growth, and motivate staff to do their best work and put forth innovative ideas. Be mindful that while leaders influence culture, they have to build an infrastructure to support it. The best growth teams and company cultures are leader-supported, not leader-directed. 

One America Works is ready to help companies think through how to expand their high growth teams across the country using the resources and talent of growing tech hubs. We are in tune with the fastest growing cities in the US, and they have many of the resources to support high growth teams. If you are looking for additional support for your expansion, go no further. Learn more about the five ways to grow a team or how to recruit new talent in a virtual environment. Plus, give us a follow for more updates!