6 Ways To Handle The Rapid Growth of Your Finance Team

Growth in a finance business is a positive thing. It’s a sign your company is thriving, attracting new opportunities, and engaging in exciting new activities. However, the sudden transformation from a small agency to a huge enterprise can be complex.  

A rapidly expanding business has growing pains. Your company culture might lose its clarity as new employees enter the workforce, and team productivity can falter as you struggle to create effective schedules. The more you grow, the more chances you’ll have of falling victim to communication problems, poor morale, and inefficiencies. There’s even a risk of siloes leading to problems with the flow of communication in your team.  

So, how do you cultivate and support business growth in a positive way? 

1. Have a Plan for Growing Mindfully 

A spontaneous approach to business growth won’t take you very far. According to studies, 97% of executives and employees believe alignment within a team influences the outcome of a project. Creating a plan or strategy for how you want to grow can help prevent chaos in the workforce. 

Start with a SWOT analysis, examining your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. From this analysis, you can begin creating objectives and key results, or “OKRs”. If your goal is to acquire more accounting clients, for instance, you’ll need to start by expanding your service offerings to a wider range of people.  

Ask yourself what kind of threats and issues you’ll need to overcome to meet your specific goals. To offer accounting services to a wider range of customers, you’ll need more trained accountants in your team. Will those people be working remotely or in the office? How will you make sure the people you hire match your company culture and support the current workforce? 

2. Get Help with Hiring 

One of the most common reasons why rapidly growing companies struggle is they rush into hiring new staff members without making sure those employees are suitable for their growing team. When a company expands, it’s under a lot of pressure to fill talent gaps as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this often leads to companies settling for “anyone they can find” instead of the people they need. 

Working with a professional recruitment agency will help to accelerate the path to hiring while ensuring you get the kind of talent you need. Recruitment companies will already have connections with the kind of specialists you’re looking for, and they can help you filter through applications to find people well-suited to your brand culture. 

3. Nurture Company Culture 

Attracting and hiring the right talent during a period of rapid growth is just the first step. Once you have your new team on board, you need to ensure they’re engaged, aligned, and keen to stick with your brand. This means constantly working on your company culture.  

According to studies, the reported turnover rate for companies with a poor culture is usually around 48%. Alternatively, brands with a positive culture benefit from a churn rate of only 14%.  

Your recruitment agency will help nurture and preserve your culture by helping you find the right fit for your team. However, you’ll also need to take steps to maintain this culture by: 

• Promoting communication: Make sure your employees are constantly communicating and collaborating, even if some of them are working remotely. Strong workplace bonds help to ensure a consistent culture.  
• Make values clear: Ensure your employees know what matters most to your company. How do you define success, and how will you evaluate the performance of each staff member? 
• Reward culture leaders: Recognising your employees is an important step in keeping them happy, but it’s particularly important to reward those who effectively demonstrate the values you consider important. This will help motivate other employees.  

4. Learn How to Manage a Growing Team 

As your company continues to expand, you’ll need to ensure you’re guiding, motivating, and supporting your employees correctly. This means having the right leaders in place. Your managers and supervisors will be crucial for keeping the different segments of your financial company on track. Ensure they have the tools they need to be as effective as possible. 

Extra training could be helpful for managers taking on a wider number of employees or people who need assistance learning how to use tools for a new kind of workflow. For instance, if your leaders are now responsible for hybrid teams and remote workers, they may need assistance learning how to use video conferencing tools and project management software correctly. 

5. Establish Clear Policies and Procedures 

The more a financial company grows, the more autonomy it needs to give its individual employees. As growth continues, your managers won’t have the capacity to work closely with each team member to ensure they’re doing things correctly.  

Creating clear policy and procedural guidelines for things like submitting reports, using financial software, and handling requests should mean your staff members don’t have to constantly get confirmation from supervisors on what they need to do next.  

Helpful systems and easy-to-understand workflows will ensure your staff can function like a well-oiled machine. Just make sure there are still ways for your employees to ask questions and gain additional clarity when they need it.  

6. Deal with Change Resistance 

Finally, while many of the people in your team will view your growth as a positive step forward for the company, there could be a handful of employees who are anxious about the transformation. When companies begin to grow, it’s easy for employees to start questioning their position in the changing organisation. Answering questions and being as transparent as possible with your staff can help to reduce disengagement and panic.  

Make sure your employees know why your decision to grow or expand is a good thing for them. For instance, they might be able to work on more challenging projects or reduce their workload if they’re currently overwhelmed. Keep the door open for any staff members who have questions or concerns about your plans, and be ready to reassure your teams. 

What’s Next? 

Enabling successful growth in your business starts with hiring the right people. Working with a professional financial recruitment company like Rebus Recruitment ensures you get the skilled people you need without compromising company culture.  

Get in touch with our team via email, or reach out on 01282 930 930. 

Thanks 

Rachel Mitson 

About Rebus Financial Recruitment     

Rebus Financial Recruitment provides a specialist and focused recruitment service to its customers, which historically range from various organisations, including SMEs, to large PLCs.     

We strive to offer both the client and candidate a seamless recruitment experience. Using our expertise, we get to the heart of employer and employee needs, and, in doing so, we match the two perfectly. To find out more, get in contact with one of our team today, or you can call us on 01282 930930.