Every mature business began as a fledgling. It had to establish a vision, secure funding, and get organized around that vision. The recipe to graduate from startup to corporation is unique to each enterprise, yet there are a few identifiable ingredients that they share. Each one, at the end of the day, will need to employ gifted people who enable the sale of a viable good or service. To that end, the human aspect of Human Resources becomes the leading asset that defines the success of one’s company.
Strategy
The dawn of an organization is yet incomplete without a discussion of the grand design. What forces will your leadership apply to achieve the enterprise’s objectives? How will the team plan for rainy days? Netflix’s original industry was specifically DVD shipping. With changing tides in the financial fabric of the early 2000s, the streaming giant regrouped its strategy and is now one of the most popular forms of entertainment with a significant amount of data at rest. Meanwhile, its early primary competitor, Blockbuster, now has just a single flagstaff store. Communicating a flexible and forward-thinking strategy among your group is vital to keeping your operation on top.
Product
The product of your business is what motivates people to shop with you. What is the value of the aforementioned product to your proposed target markets? Does that merit allow you to bring in a substantial profit from just one or will you require repeat customers to see a financial impact? For the Snuggie, interestingly, the value proposition is essentially a blanket, something that’s existed for millennia and is a household item. However, the ingenuity of adding sleeves to fleece bedding for humans has an obvious benefit that was evidently marketable. After all, we are creatures of comfort and this is particularly noticeable with the high rise in device usage for recreation or work. Add to that the sweater-blanket combination comes in various colors and designs, you have an immensely popular product indeed.
Talent
It is one thing to recruit the best people, but it is altogether another thing to support a well-trained team on-the-job. Now that you have a strategy and a product, are you offering optimal professional development for your staff? Does everyone learn as they go or are you strict about mandatory education prior to the start of tasks? According to a report summarized by the US Department of Labor, there is not much data on the proper timing for training but education that mimics actual job performance requirements is more effective at retaining employees. Furthermore, these groups were also said to be more productive than other groups who experience generic training. Ultimately, making time to prioritize appropriate instruction for your team will provide them with a foundation for positive results.
Technology
You may be asking yourself, how can people exist at the center of technology? That’s a great question. Developers establish the science that calibrates the machines to the human work we do. If the device can exceed the work we are able to perform, for instance, machine learning and AI, then it should at least be capable of communicating or interpreting on our behalf for our best usage. For instance, Amazon uses automatons in its warehouses to decrease the time workers have to spend trudging through the facility. These robots are an advancement to the working environment and instead of being competitive, they exist as an additional tool for the distribution personnel.
Process
Your series of business processes can make or break your customer’s experience. Are multiple people having to make the same decision daily? Is there duplicative work that is slowing down operations? By taking a human-centered approach to designing the procedures in your organization, you can attend to the functions that are not automated and must be completed by living beings. Once you identify these tasks, they can be appropriately outlined and documented. This activity list, so to speak, has the benefit not only of showcasing the moving parts of your business for the purpose of improvement but also enables the sharing of tasks. If one person is out of the office, operations won’t cease to exist. This method for intelligently designing procedures nullifies the risk of detriment due to human error.
