“Do I need to hire to grow my team?” is a simple question that doesn’t get asked very often by leaders in tech. Most leaders don’t think to ask this question because growth and hiring are so intertwined in the tech industry; often, when teams need to hit new KPIs or begin to feel stretched thin, it seems like the only option is to make hires.
And sometimes teams require additional support, but an overreliance on hiring can put leaders in a difficult position once a company’s momentum begins to slow. In addition, relying solely on hiring to propel growth can cause leaders to overlook the untapped potential within their existing teams.
It’s for these reasons that Francesca Scantlebury-Colman looks at team growth through a broader lens. As head of talent at Conduktor, Scantlebury-Colman works to help leaders at the company take a more cautious, calculated approach to growing their teams. They are motivated to approach problem-solving with a critical mindset through the hiring process and then prompted to look inward to understand their own team’s performance, motivation and opportunities for growth.
The ultimate goal is a more sustainable approach, one that sees hiring as an option to help a team grow, but not the sole option. Here’s how Scantlebury-Colman helps leaders at Conduktor reach that conclusion.
Conduktor’s Apache Kafka user interface is designed to make Kafka easier to work with and is used by engineering teams at NBC, IKEA and Honda, among many others.
How do you take a cautious, calculated and intentional approach to growing your team that negotiates both current needs and future variables?
It’s critical to assess current needs and compare those to future goals where possible. By evaluating a team’s current workload and skill gap areas, we can make better decisions regarding what needs must be addressed immediately and what can be pushed to a later date. Does every project need to be worked on at the same time? Likely no.
The long-term goals of the team also need to be addressed. Discussing the strategic direction with hiring managers and encouraging them to anticipate potential changes, both internally and externally in the industry, can completely change the prediction of a team’s growth.
As a leader, what inputs do you seek out to ensure you are taking a cautious, calculated and intentional approach to growth?
Data and metrics should be used to measure and quantify the numerous key factors that can affect hiring. For example, data on team results and effectiveness, retention, individual employee performance and employee reviews can all inform talent teams whether a team or department should hire and in what capacity. Some of these metrics are often found in collaboration with other teams, like people or human resources and are hugely beneficial to developing strategic hiring plans.
Alongside this, seeking diverse perspectives from across the organization is also important to the decision-making process. Collecting data from different departments and cross-functional stakeholders can provide insights and perspectives that aren’t available when you just speak to a single person, like a hiring manager. Having the flexibility to make adjustments based on these insights is crucial.
In instances when you haven’t grown your team, how have you successfully run with a lean team?
By encouraging and cultivating a culture of learning and development. Many times when a leader or hiring manager feels the only way to grow a team is to hire, the problem could be solved by up-skilling or providing new opportunities to existing team members. When factoring in hiring time, notice periods, and onboarding ramp-up, the hiring process can take up as much time as leveling up current employees.
The hiring process can take up as much time as leveling up current employees.”
On top of this, in these situations teams and employees are often not performing at their best. Good management and leadership are pivotal in helping employees to achieve their full potential, and when the focus is on hiring and not current team members, blind spots can develop. Thinking about the potential of individuals, encouraging up-skilling and looking at areas of team improvement can greatly raise overall performance and possibly negate the need to hire. With minimal but critical changes, a team or employee can completely change their productivity levels.
