When your company is growing fast, it’s a good thing. The other exciting part of a growing company is watching your team grow from around 2 people to over 30 people within a particular time frame. The sad part however is that at the point where you have already hired over 100 people, it is very easy to lose the grip on your company’s startup culture.
First things first, why is a startup culture important in a company? When a company is starting, stakeholders and employees give their best to grow the company. Everyone feels involved and valued, and this results in increased morale and productivity. But what happens when there are just too many people and you cannot micromanage them to keep the startup mentality? Here are tips you can consider to maintain a startup culture in a growing company:
1. Arrive early and leave after everyone has left
In big corporations, bosses get in late and leave early, sometimes before anyone has left the office. To maintain a startup culture in your growing company, you need to show the same zeal you had when you first started. Lead by example. That way, your employees know that no matter how hard they work, there is always somebody working harder and more committed to the job than them. It maintains the hustle mentality that startups usually have. Your employees will avoid being late because they know they’ll always find you in the office. Even when they leave earlier than you in the evening, they know that the struggle is still on.
2. Team-building events
Organizing team-building events outside the office is a very good way to maintain a startup culture. In huge companies that have lost the startup mojo, team-building events are rare. They provide a space where your employees to interact with each other without the constant pressure of deadlines hovering over them.
Encouraging your employees to interact outside the office creates strong bonds between them. This also enhances communication across the company. Startups tend to have better interpersonal communication as a result of such outdoor meetups, and you can implement this as your company grows.
3. Praise people who live up to the company’s core values
Each company has its core values. When starting a company, core values are drilled into the employees’ systems and they learn to abide by them. However, once the company is growing and more people are employed, founders face the added challenge of ensuring that these core values are still driving the company.
To ensure that employees continue to live by your company values, it’s important to praise and award the employees who follow the values to the letter. This encourages other employees to stick to the brand principles.
4. Let the office be a source of laughter
Most companies have a lot of fun together as startups but grow into dull corporations after a few years. As the CEO or the founder, maintaining an uplifting atmosphere at work is your responsibility if you want to maintain the startup culture. Laughter keeps employees happy, and you don’t have to be the one cracking the jokes. Just make sure you create an environment that encourages employees to have fun, while still getting work done.
5. Hire right
When hiring, watch out for the employees who like to start small and move fast. Such employees are looking to grow with the company and will go above their duty to ensure the company grows.
Some employees are not meant for the startup environment and won’t buy into the startup culture. Hiring these types of employees will do a lot of disservice to your company.
6. Know your employees better
As a company grows, more employees come in to help move things forward. Sometimes founders and CEOs find themselves in situations where they don’t know the first names of their employees, let alone anything about their lives.
Startups are the direct opposite. Founders and CEOs always know their employees by name. They go the extra mile to learn more about the employee’s families and future goals. Employees love it when the head of a company tries to know them better and it creates an important connection on a personal level.
Maintaining interest in your employees, even as they increase in number, retains the startup culture. Over time, you will probably have too many employees to get to know each of them. When this happens, you should still strive to know a bit about everyone, even if it’s just their first name. After all, employees who feel seen are more likely to remain with you for a long time.
7. Involve employees in shaping culture
Sometimes the best way to keep a startup culture in a growing company is by involving the employees in shaping that culture. Every month, task an employee with ensuring that a certain part of your startup traditions is maintained. By doing this, the culture becomes an intricate part of your employees. Since they helped shape it, they are probably more likely to follow it.
8. Maintain the efficiency of startups
Startups are typically very effective in completing work and meeting client demands. Big companies tend to develop bottlenecks and bureaucracies that hinder faster completion of work and service provision.
To keep the startup culture intact, eliminate the bottlenecks to ensure client satisfaction. Startup culture is based on moving swiftly and fast, meeting or superseding clients’ requirements, and moving on fast from past mistakes.
9. Continue innovating
Google has retained relevance for several years because of the startup culture cultivated in the firm. The company has retained its culture by continuing to be innovative. Despite being the most valuable company in the world, while they test Google Glasses and try out space balloons and driverless cars, they continue to create and dream of new things.
10. Listen to your employees
When your company starts growing, fight the assumption that you know it all. Learning never ends. Additionally, your employees have a wealth of knowledge that could be beneficial to your company. As a founder, you need to listen more and talk less.
11. Open various small branches
Opening various branches of the company ensures that at each location, the team is easier to manage and effect the startup culture you desire.
For many entrepreneurs, the winning startup culture is one of the reasons they enjoy running a business so much. While maintaining that culture as your business grows might seem complicated, the above tips should help you build an environment that both you and your employees love.
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