Team Building – Dutch Uncles

OkCredit: The Kirana Tech Story Beyond Just Payments

Shalmoli Sarkar — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 02:35:05 +0000

A hard-bound fat notebook generally bright red with the symbol of ‘Swastik on its first page has been the recordkeeper of the monthly credits of the neighbourhood’s Kirana shop. But what seemed to be cumbersome for the local shopkeepers was the task of tallying through those small bills or slips of paper, that have a higher chance of getting misplaced and prone to human errors. Any mismatch found while settling the outstanding will lead to a sour customer experience.

There is a visible gap here, where the larger corporates could afford automated account management platforms there was none for the local shopkeepers, which made them stick into the same old notebook format of managing accounts for several years. Where digitisation is burgeoning into every sector, three IIT graduates thought to bridge this gap by introducing a digital ledger app for small business owners that digitises their transactions and documents payment and freeing them from the ordeal of maintaining manual accounting books.

How is OkCredit Disrupting the ‘Bahi Khata’ Management

OkCredit, founded in 2017, is the brainchild of three IIT graduates Gaurav Kumar, Harsh Pokharna, and Aditya Prasad. Realising that most of the small business owners are shy of using new technology and but at the same time there is a deluge in the smartphones, their product OK Credit runs on a basic smartphone that equips the small business owners and their customers with an uncomplicated and secured way of maintaining credit and debit records of their business on an account basis. For ease of usage and relatability, OkCredit supports 13 different regional languages on its platform and has a voice note feature for the users to record the transactions. OkCredit brings efficiency in business by quick settling of balance amounts by allowing the local shopkeepers or Kirana store owners to view its monthly breakdown of credit purchases through a web page link that displays the breakdown. Instead of manual reminders for settling, it can send reminders through WhatsApp and SMS.

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It is cumbersome for the local shopkeepers to tally through those small bills or slips of paper, that have a higher chance of getting misplaced and are prone to human errors.

OkCredit : Other than Managing the Accounts

Other than being a digital account management platform it has various features – OkStaff and OkShop. For local or mid-sized retail shops there is more than two staff working but OkStaff is a one-stop staff management solution where the shop owners within the comfort of a click can manage staff salary and attendance and can send free alerts through WhatsApp or SMS. The app supports 10 Indian local languages. The workshop feature allows the local shopkeepers to have their digital shop by displaying their products and offers.

Ok Credit’s Success and Funding

The pandemic has proved to be beneficial for OkCredit as it played a big role in reviving the small and medium businesses by aiding them to get back their outstanding amounts. In 2020, Ok Credit captured around 0.5 percent of the total GDP i.e. a transaction worth $ 40 billion. It currently has 2.4 crore registered users and 5.5 lakh users are recording transactions everyday. In 2020, the app has witnessed more than 800 million transactions with usage found most in merchants belonging to the age group of 31-40 yrs and 10 percent of the users in 40-50 yrs are adopting the app due to local languages available. Business verticals such as Kirana stores, mobile recharge shops, electronics, apparel, medical stores, and eatery shops form a major chunk of the customers. OkCredit has so far raised funding of $84 million from investors such as Y Combinator, LightSpeed India Partners, and Tiger Global.

What is in it for MSMEs and Startups?

Small and medium businesses form the bedrock of the Indian economy, as according to CII (Confederation Indian Industries ) this sector employs around 120 million people and contributes 30 percent in Indian GDP. The local businesses and shopkeepers are realising that pivoting operations to digital will bring efficiency, better inventory management and a doubling of revenues. There is an aspirational change among the local Kirana owners as they want to equally compete with the e-commerce giants. Hence, the future seems bright for the startups who want to bring different digital solutions to solve the business problems faced by their neighbouring local shopkeepers.

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How is Workday Innovating Human Resource Management

Shalmoli Sarkar — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 06:35:04 +0000

There is no denying that the amalgamation of technology in human resource management has disrupted conventional employee management in the corporate world. From, AI-based hiring to Big Data infused performance appraisal, the seamless technology integration in HR functions has eased the job. However, in a bid to reduce spending and hire the best of talent, new models of workforce like the gig economy, remote working, and AI-powered digital workforce are mushrooming and being adopted by corporates. With newer workforce models emerging, we need to revise our earlier deployed human resource management tools and processes. This calls for innovation in Human Resource Management (HRM) and this thought of innovating HRM as per the dynamic environment has been understood by Workday.

Founded in 2005, by David A. Duffield and Aneel Bhusri, Workday is an enterprise cloud software provider for financial management and human capital management. It delivers human capital management, planning, and analytics applications for the World’s Fortune 50 Enterprises.

Workday- Reshaping the HR management with technology

Charles Darwin had once said, “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives, but the species that survives is the one that can adapt and adjust best to the changing environment in which it finds itself.” In this scenario, the changing environment is driven by technology that is transforming every job. Those HR leaders will come across as survivors who can effectively manage the workforce while remaining agile to the changes.

Workday has developed and built solutions that can support a diverse and distributed workplace.

Elevating employee experiences by Machine Learning

Workday People Experience

By deploying Machine Learning, Workday is curating personalized experiences for each user. This product will aid the HR manager to gain insights about every employee in the organization and help in guiding career development to its employees. It can effectively process a large number of queries from employees regarding payroll systems. Workday People Experience increases productivity by quickly addressing issues. It enables the employees to seamlessly access information, tasks, and seek answers from any third-party source or application.

Talent management with Machine Learning

Backed by Machine Learning the Skills insights solutions of Workday helps HR managers to determine skill gaps in the organization by analyzing the existing skill set. This feature proves to be beneficial when the company is working towards a new business offering. The HR manager can leverage real-time dynamic footprint to understand if the employees possess the right skills to do the job. From the skills’ graph, the relationships between skills and job descriptions can be mapped.

Talent marketplace

It is a talent mobility platform that enables companies to find and borrow talent, and identify skill sets based on the type of projects, gigs, and other opportunities. Let us say, for instance, an employee who is interested in exploring new projects will receive opportunities to work in a different department based on the skillset the individual has.

Decision making simplified using Data Science

Workday People Analytics coupled with augmented analytics gives business leaders visibility into the most critical trends of the organization and its drivers in a story format.

Workday’s Discovery Boards, a drag and drop data feature helps users to quickly visualize data for forecasting financials, identify patterns, understand people and discover insights. HR managers can use Discovery Boards to understand the grey areas of business and understand where potential skill gaps might exist.

Workday’s acquisition with Peakon

With the onset of the pandemic, the workforce model has transformed to work-from-home that has its own set of challenges. 2021 started with Workday acquiring Peakon, an employee success platform to provide a continuous listening platform for employees. In a remote working model, the communication with employees is limited due to which the company is unaware of employee challenges countered. Thus, the companies must develop a system to resolve employee grievances effectively. The continuous listening platform will help understand employee sentiment, provide real-time visibility into employee experience, facilitate ongoing feedback and provide recommendations for actions. It will empower the HR leaders to gain insights into employee feelings, demands, and behaviour, thus fostering an inclusive work culture with improved organizational performance.

What Startups Can Learn From Workday?

Startups who are yet to begin their entrepreneurial journey should understand the drawbacks of employee attrition in the early stages of the business cycle. This would eventually lead to spending more money and significant time on recruitment causing a decrease in productivity. Therefore, understanding the challenges, skills gaps, arrangement of relevant training and learning programmes for new projects can prevent employee attrition and empower the employees. With new remote workforce models emerging, the startups or small businesses should leverage technologies like ML, AI or deep learning for an improved workforce management.

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Is Professional Employer Organisation (PEO) a Smart Investment for Start-up?

Chayanika Sen — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 10:35:02 +0000

Starting up a new business is no easy job! From building a team from the scratch to market your product or service -there’s a lot in the plate for a start-up owner. And then many of them fail too. So, what’s the solution? Some studies state that PEO increases the survival ratio by 28%

A report by IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics found that 90 per cent of Indian start-ups fail within the first five years. The main reason being lack of innovation. So, what is holding back businesses from innovation? Many studies and surveys have revealed that the top challenges faced by start-ups are the insufficiency of talent. Although there is no shortage of skilled talent in India, start-ups struggle to attract, hire, and retain the top talent in their initial years of operations.

While many start-ups fail because they can’t market their product or run out of money, the most common challenge of insufficiency of talent can be easily solved.

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A PEO or a professional employer organization offers comprehensive HR solutions like payroll benefits, tax administration, and other regulatory compliance assistance for businesses and start-ups.

What can start-ups do?

Apart from having realistic goals and understandings, start-ups need to have a thought-through strategy to recruit their key people. They need to have short term and long-term hiring strategy in place. Apart from having the right technical talent, start-ups also need to focus on soft skills and behavioural traits that they want to have in their candidate.

Understanding the right mix of talent and hiring them is a crucial factor for any start-up’s success. Unfortunately, many start-ups don’t realize how to cope with such dilemmas. In such scenarios, PEOs can plug in to bridge the gap.

Research conducted by NAPEO revealed that small and mid-sized start-ups and businesses could benefit by partnering with a PEO. Companies can expect higher growth rates, lower attrition rates, and an overall higher business survival rate, not to mention higher growth rate.

What is a PEO? Does my business need a PEO?

A PEO or a professional employer organization offers comprehensive HR solutions like payroll benefits, tax administration, and other regulatory compliance assistance for businesses and start-ups. It has been noted that companies that work with a PEO can grow 7 to 9 per cent faster with 10 to 14 per cent lower employee turnover rates. In case you are considering expansion across geographical boundaries, a PEO can help navigate the complexities of the processes like overseas hiring, adhering to compliance regulation of the land, managing payrolls, etc.

What can a PEO do for you?

It can offer a plethora of services like payroll, HR administration, risk and compliance management, employee benefits, training, compensation policies, etc.

HR administration

With a trusted PEO by your side, you can free yourself from managing all HR administrative tasks and outsource them to it. For example, employee recruitment and onboarding, regulatory compliance, workforce management, employee termination, and dispute assistance can all be managed by this organisation. From policy development to drafting an employee handbook, a PEO can help with all HR administration tasks, including behavioural assessments, employee termination, resolving disputes, conducting return-to-work programs, job description drafting, and so on.

Employee benefits

A good PEO company can help with employee benefits like health insurance, retirement plans, commuter plans, and similar other Fortune 500 employee benefits that is otherwise difficult for a start-up to offer. Such lucrative benefits definitely help to attract the top talents for the start-ups.

Employee training and development

PEOs can also help in shouldering the responsibilities for employee training and development.

Tax issues

The most significant benefit of having a PEO is PEOs are responsible for managing payroll and filing payroll tax returns. However, if there are any errors you need to bear the obligations as well since you will be in a co-employer agreement.

Risk and compliance

When you plan to expand your business internationally, you need to comply with the local laws and regulations. A PEO can help you stay up-to-date with laws and regulations through its risk and compliance measures. For example, it can help you comply with the safety training measures or workers’ compensations and so on.

Payroll processing

The PEO’s software comes in handy to keep track of the employee payroll information, workforce management, expense reports, paid time off, etc.

Benefits of using a PEO

PEOs save your time and energy by handling your employer’s responsibilities. But that’s not all that a PEO does for you. Apart from saving your time and headache, it saves cost, helps you adhere to HR-related compliance issues that can otherwise lead to fines, help you hire better and faster, and much more. Highlighted below are some of the key benefits of investing in a PEO.

Employee Benefits

As a co-employer, a PEO can offer a wide range of employee benefits to your employees. For example, through PEO sponsored benefit plans, it can offer vision and dental coverage as medical benefits, or a flexible medical expense spending account, life and disability benefits, and so on. The PEO’s role will be to enrol employees in these plans, negotiating insurance deals, etc.

Payroll

Working with a PEO can also help you save costs in payroll processing of your employees. It also helps to automate the payroll process without much hassle.

Pro tip: While hiring a PEO, look for one that has a simple, straightforward fee.

HR Compliance

HR laws and regulations are complex and dynamic. Do you know that non-adherence to these laws can lead you to hefty fines? At the same time, how familiar are you with the local HR laws of all countries/states/cities you operate in? Know that you need to comply with the local regulations even if you have one employee operating remotely from a particular country or a city. That’s why, HR compliance becomes a complex issue for organizations that are expanding businesses in new territories. Collaborating with a PEO comes in handy in such scenarios.

Recruitment

The biggest challenge of startups is hiring the ideal candidate in a fast turnaround time. This means there is not much time to build an employer brand to attract talent. Additionally, you need to spend a lot of time and money creating job ads, posting them, interviewing and screening, shortlisting candidates, background verifications, and finally retain them. A reputed PEO can offer recruitment assistance so that you can hire the right candidate in no time. An experienced recruiter knows how to read people for a specific role. For example, they can analyze tone in a phone interview, ask the right questions and assess the emotional intelligence to determine the candidate’s suitability for the job.

Minimize legal expenses

The biggest threat for any business operating overseas is facing legal lawsuits for noncompliance. So, keeping a tab on your employer liability is essential. Thankfully, PEO shares liabilities with employment-related claims and help in risk mitigation until you gather expertise in the area, which is one more reason to invest in a good PEO.

Investors love PEO

Investors love it when they see your business growing, and you need to expand your team. And when it comes to expanding your team, PEO is the first choice for entrepreneurs because there are multiple benefits under one umbrella. Starting from healthcare benefits, worker’s compensations, recruitment assistance to employment tax management, EPLI insurance, employment law compliance, and more. In short, a PEO is a one-stop solution for entrepreneurs who don’t have time to run the HR functions.

PEOs save money

PEOs help you save money, and investors love it when you go frugal with your business expenses. Saving money is one of the utmost priorities for start-ups, and PEO fits in well here.

PEOs help to hire the best

The biggest challenge faced by entrepreneurs is hiring the right talent, not to mention retaining them. What start-ups need are attractive benefits to attract, engage, and retain their top talents. PEOs can chip in here because they can offer precisely what candidates need that start-ups can’t afford to provide – benefits. When you have the right talent on board, the bottom line keeps growing, and a growing bottom line always keeps the investors happy.

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PEO is a great benefit to have as a start-up but it is also important to be aware of some of the barriers you might face while taking it on to make an informed decision.

Disadvantages of having a PEO

While PEO has many benefits, it is also essential to highlight some of the disadvantages of having a PEO.

1. As a co-employer, there will be relinquishing some control over your business.

2. The PEOs usually manage HR functions for different organizations, so your business might not have exclusive and in-depth attention.

3. Since you will be in a co-employer agreement, you need to burden equal responsibilities with the PEO if any dispute or issue arises.

4. Know that PEOs just support you in administrative and HR tasks and do not replaces your obligations.

What to look for when selecting the best PEO

It is evident from the above discussion that having a PEO has numerous benefits for a start-up. However, it is an important decision because you need to have a co-employment agreement with the PEO. Additionally, you need to find the right PEO service with operational existence in your industry and in countries where you are expanding. Here are some pointers to look out for when selecting a PEO.

1. Find a PEO that is trustworthy and reliable. To ensure, choose an IRS certified PEO.

2. Look for a PEO that offers scalable solutions so that you need not worry when you scale your operations.

3. Many PEOs offer self-onboarding and online benefits enrolment. This can save all the concerned stakeholders enough time and money. If you’re hiring a large number of candidates, this can be an effective solution.

4. Choose a PEO that offers attractive benefits for your targeted candidates.

5. If the PEO is partnering with any third-party vendor to offer a particular benefit, for example, dental insurance, ensure the vendor is registered in your state.

6. Look for PEO that offers specific benefits that can benefit your business. List down the services you want to have in your PEO, for example, HR services, employee benefits, etc.

7. It is always a good idea to look for a PEO that has an easy-to-navigate employee-facing interface.

The bottom line

A PEO can be a start-up’s best pal, helping you with all the support you need so that you can scale up your operational efficiencies. However, you must choose the right PEO that you’re working comfortably with because you will be co-employers with your PEO. If you have any doubts or questions, reach out to your PEO immediately. Ensure your employees are comfortable working with the PEO if you want to retain them in the long run.

The post Is Professional Employer Organisation (PEO) a Smart Investment for Start-up? appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Decoding Succession Planning in Business

Preeti Verma — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 08:26:10 +0000

We might have witnessed in many 80s’ Bollywood movies how the villain flaps a complex plot through forged Wills or keeps the legal heirs in the dark by embezzling the property papers. The villain may also try to prevent the heirs from fulfilling the conditions of the Will. Such plots have been turned into good suspense, thrillers as well as action movies. And after watching such movies, has it ever occurred to you to write your own Will? Quite likely that it did not trigger the thought. Have you ever imagined who is going to gain from the business empire that you have been building for years after you are dead? All of these efforts are somehow partly aimed at leaving behind a rich legacy for our loved ones? You need to bestow it to someone, preferably through a proper Will. The operational demands of running a family-owned business or other closely held enterprise can be all-consuming, but it is always important that business leaders take the time needed to assess their organization’s business succession planning.

The penalty for failing to get ahead of leadership or ownership changes can be significant, as the coming years may bring substantial transfers of wealth as businesses change hands and adopt new ownership structures. The long-term survival of a business, and the preservation of the wealth that has been built, will likely depend on getting ahead of those changes through strategic succession planning.

For private, sole-managed, or family-owned businesses, a solid succession plan can drive the growth of the business, reduce taxes, and set the stage for retirement. On the same side, family-run businesses may benefit further by focusing on preserving harmony within the family. Succession planning is not only an important and evolving process, but it needs to be an integral part of a company’s business strategy and operations. According to a study by the National Association of Corporate Directors, fewer than one in four private company boards say they have a formal succession plan in place.

There isn’t a good reason to justify the common oversight of not planning for business succession. Some business leaders are too caught up in the challenges of the present, while some have a subconscious aversion to the reality that they won’t be around forever, or assume succession Will work out naturally. Others are aware of the task’s true complexity and find it overwhelming. Ultimately, however, the reasons people avoid succession planning aren’t as important as the reasons they should embrace it.

For a business, working without a succession plan can invite disruption, uncertainty, and conflict, and endangers future competitiveness. For companies that are family-owned or controlled, the issue of succession also introduces deeply emotional personal issues and may widen the circle of stakeholders to include non-employee family members. The next 10 to 15 years are likely to bring substantial transfers of wealth through business ownership handoffs across generations and other new ownership structures. The long-term survival of those businesses, and the preservation of the wealth they have built, will depend upon a clear and early focus on strategic succession planning.

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For a business, working without a succession plan can invite disruption, uncertainty, and conflict, and endangers future competitiveness.

Understanding Succession Planning

Succession planning is a process that draws upon many business disciplines. Many privately held businesses display solid professionalism and enviable profits in their daily operations, yet fail to properly plan for and complete the transition to the next generation of leaders. Even the most sophisticated and knowledgeable business professionals can get caught in a web of complicated issues.

In fact, many business owners do not carry out a managed transition to a successor leadership team. In the case of family-owned businesses, only 30 per cent survive into the second generation, around 12 per cent survive into the third, and only about 3 per cent operate into the fourth generation and beyond. A solely-owned company’s owner usually has a personal vision to retire and sell the business ‘someday’, but he or she may not have adequately considered what it will take to make that vision a reality.

Even leaders, who profess they will never retire, have to acknowledge that no one remains at the helm forever. An unprepared new management group, or even a poorly managed transition to competent management, can trigger significant loss in value. If leaders want their businesses’ intrinsic value to remain intact for the benefit of their successors, they should start the planning process sooner rather than putting it on the back burner.

Many leaders choose to embark on a long-term program to identify and then groom the company’s future executives. In some cases, a careful planning process may reveal that selling the business instead of maintaining successor ownership really is the answer for their situation. Not all succession plans are created equal. If your business has a succession plan in place, the questions on the facing page can help determine how effective that plan and your current practices actually are.

However, what goes on in the minds of the promoters to effectively decide the succession planning is driven by various factors, few being, applicable laws, preservation of wealth, limited liability, synergies of thoughts, flexible structures, ring fencing of assets, timing to initiate succession planning, cross-border presence, amenability of structures to tax and other duties. Similarly, the laws governing the succession are critical for any succession planning, but the choice of successors, who may not necessarily be only from the family, is an important factor for the same. Unlike individuals, in case of corporate houses, succession planning is rooted deeper to choose the right structure, who can lead the group companies, and the composition for the board of directors for the group companies and the rights that the promoters, including their successors, should have.

Need of a Succession Planning

Succession planning is a multidisciplinary process. When you engage in succession planning, you are not just focusing on the future, you are preparing for the future. However, without a deep understanding of the present it is impossible to plan for the future. Leaders have to know the current reality of their businesses; how they operate, where the value lies, what their needs are, and who their most vital customers are, in order to prepare for new leadership and new structures that can provide continuity in the ways that matter.

Succession planning is also important for preserving family wealth planning in advance, the future of family’s businesses. Several iconic national and multinational businesses started off as family businesses, and here they are. Think of the companies like NewsCorp, Reliance Industries, Walmart, Ford Motors, Tata Group, Volkswagen, Dell, BMW, Samsung, TVS, Birla Group, Jindal Steel and many more to count on. Around 90 per cent of the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP) is created through family-run businesses. And India is one of the countries, where family-run businesses are predominant. The family-run businesses make up 79 per cent of India’s overall GDP.

The traditional view on succession planning is focused on inheritance through a Will and the wishes of a person after his death. However, this method of estate planning is not necessarily conducive to all kinds of assets. In the past, it has been found that most of the family disputes in relation to ancestral wealth arise out of testamentary dispositions. The most unfortunate thing in such disputes is that they can go on forever and the wishes of the testator often do not materialize.

Be it the country’s biggest conglomerate or small family businesses, everyone is grappling with succession planning to ensure that the wealth is safeguarded. The clear case of entire Raymond group dispute between father Vijaypat Singhania and his son Gautam Singhania is an akin example of the importance of succession planning, especially in a family driven business. The feud between the father-son duo became really ugly, where the Raymond Group promoter and chairman Gautam Hari Singhania made a statement, highlighting the gravity with which the succession planning needs to be looked at:

“Tomorrow morning if I die, god forbid, there are identified people who will take charge of everything. Raymond can run independently and competitively. My children are very young. I have a responsibility to my wife and children, to my employees and shareholders, my banks, institutions and customers”

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When you engage in succession planning, you are not just focusing on the future, you are preparing for the future.

Similar is the case between the media scion Rupert Murdoch and his son James Murdoch of News Corp; and Yes Bank. The Bank is also juggling its fate of who will be at the helm of affairs after the erstwhile promoter and managing director Rana Kapoor had to step down after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) directions.

Indian Succession Laws

The origin of Indian succession laws can be traced back in the year 1865, when a draft of the Indian Succession Bill was first submitted by the third law commission in its first report for the year 1854-55. Originally, it was proposed as the Indian Civil Code, a title which was later altered to Indian Succession Act, 1865. A number of legislations relating to succession were passed from the year 1865 to 1925, and all these legislations were consolidated in the year 1925 and the Indian Succession Act, 1925 or Succession Act was enacted.

A separate legislation governing Hindus, including Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, was enacted in the year 1956, namely the Hindu Succession Act, 1956 or Hindu Succession Act. Accordingly, Hindus are governed by the Hindu Succession Act and certain other provisions of the Succession Act. Muslims have their own textual law of inheritance, while Parsees, Christians and the persons, whose marriage is solemnized under the Special Marriage Act, 1954 are covered under the Succession Act.

Testamentary Succession

This means succession by way of a ‘Will’. A Will is a legal declaration of the intention of the testator, an individual who makes a will, with respect to his property which he desires to be carried into effect after his death. The registration of a Will is not compulsory but if desired it may be registered by the testator during his lifetime.

Intestate Succession

When a person dies without making a Will, his property devolves as per the provisions of Succession Act and Hindu Succession Act, applicable to Hindus, and it is known as intestate succession. In case of intestate succession, (i) if the deceased was governed by Succession Act, a letter of administration is required to be obtained from the court of competent jurisdiction for administration of the property of the deceased; or (ii) if the deceased was governed by Hindu Succession Act, the property devolves in accordance with the provisions of the Hindu Succession Act, to Class I heirs, Class II heirs, agnates or cognates, as the case may be.

Hence, succession planning should indeed be considered as a must-have for any organization for ensuring continuing management, growth and development of the business without any disruptions.

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How to Build Team for Your New Venture

Chayanika Sen — Tue, 19 Jan 2021 16:41:03 +0000

A team can make or break a business.

No, it’s not just a vague claim or a random speech, but based on a research analysis done after post mortems of 101 startup failures. The study revealed that the wrong team is one of the top three reasons why startups fail. So, if you’re starting your business, it is essential to have your recruitment strategy in place to build your team from scratch. But have you thought, how do you make your first team? If not, we have some actionable insights for you to ponder.

How do you want to build a team?

Before we explore how you can build your first team, let’s understand what a great team is and how you want your ideal team to be. To begin with, set a clear and definitive goal for the team. If you’re assigning tasks to the team, each team should understand the broader picture behind it and shouldn’t be doing it for its sake. Define clear roles for each of the members. There shouldn’t be any scope of ambiguity in it. Establish a culture of open and transparent communication between the team members. Whenever one has an idea, they should be able to communicate it. Remember, a strong team is not about individual achievements but is all about collaboration and teamwork.

Now that you know how your team should look like, here are some recruitment strategies and actionable insights to consider.

Introspect and self-analyze

No matter how cliché it sounds, it is true to the core and it is now backed by research evidence which states that we’re not much self-aware. So, take out time to introspect and self-analyze. List down things that you’re skilled at. Consider all sorts of skills and not just technical skills. Remember, soft skills are equally important for a leader to have. Are you a good listener? Do you consider yourself as a good orator? Write them down all. Next is, behavioral skills. This is extremely important, which will help you decide your management style and choose your team accordingly later on. Here is a simple table to help you get started.

Technical Skills	Soft Skills	Behavioural Skills
JAVA	Communication	Assertive
Testing	Writing

Sample table for self-analysis

Your top skills and where you lack

It is obvious that you won’t have all the skills to run a business successfully. For example, to thrive, your business might need a great product developer, a project manager, and a marketeer. If you are a good project manager, list it as your top skill. And note down the other two skills that are must for your business, but you lack it. Once you work on the above table, build your team on this finding. Your ideal team members should have skills that you don’t.

Hire the right people to get the job done: Build a team with a long-term vision in mind

Now that you are done with the second activity, it is pretty clear what kind of people you want to have in your team. Hire people who just don’t spur off ideas, but are hands-on and can get things done. Remember, you cannot be lavish in having too many team resources, especially when you are starting up. So, hire people who can work on strategies and are also hands-on.

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Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people.

- John Rockefeller, American Business Magnate

Focus on core functions, great to have leaders who can multitask

Build your team with a long-term vision. This will become easy if you have the architecture of your business ready. Start off with identifying the core functions that you’re going to have. Will you need IT support? Do you need to focus on sales and marketing? Choose team members who are hands-on in these areas. It is always great to have team members who can multitask. For example, there is no harm in hiring someone who can manage Finance and look after HR activities too.

Avoid homogeneity in the team

While selecting your team members, ensure you’re building a diverse team where you have people from different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, etc. That’s because when you have a homogenous team, all team members will have a similar personality, they will work the same way and will be driven by the same factors. They might even think the same way too! But when you have people from different backgrounds, they bring in with them fresh perspectives, and you can explore other avenues. The way they work, the way they think would be different, giving you a huge opportunity to explore and diversify into areas you might not have considered otherwise. In short, diversity brings in creativity.

Build a connection between each other and a connection with you

Your job doesn’t end by bringing some great minds under one roof. You need to handhold and guide so that each member starts understanding others and comes together to work collaboratively. Teams who can work collaboratively show marked improvement in productivity and boost up the overall team morale. Team building exercises are a great way to establish team bonding between each member. It helps to build trust and let them know that they can depend on one another. Team lunches are another great way to know each other. If you’re building a virtual team, then keep aside a day every week when team members can discuss stuff outside work and bond with one another. Virtual tours of home, fun games, ice breaker sessions are some cool ways to get to know each other.

Not just your team members should know each other; it is equally important that you know each of your team members well. When you know their strong areas, interests, and weak points, you can delegate tasks accordingly. Make efforts to know each of your team members well. Connect over one-on-one calls to learn about them. However, remember, you are the leader, so you should maintain a professional decorum all the time.

Encourage contribution and collaboration

A progressive organization is the one that encourages contribution and collaboration between team members. Harness the power of your employees’ ideas and leverage them for organizational growth.

Set the right culture and stick to it

You can’t start your startup without having a compelling culture and a vision. And be open to communicating it to your team even before you hire them. To make a business successful, it is important that every team member buy-in your vision and work towards it collaboratively to achieve success. A compelling work culture helps to convey the vision. Building an org culture is not easy, and it takes time, so stick to it and promote it on every occasion. Be it your company website, social media posts, how you deal with your customers — all should reflect your workplace culture. A strong work culture can speak a thousand words on behalf of you. In the long run, the work culture will be the handiest tool to hire top talents.

Monitor and review

Finally, you need to continually monitor and review the team’s overall performance and lead from the front. Be the ringmaster who orchestrates every employee’s performance because 97 percent of employees say that they feel a drop in productivity and team outcome due to the lack of alignment in the team. Do not shy away from removing a person from the team who is a misfit, do not align to the company culture, do not agree to the company vision, or anything else that may come in the way of building a strong team culture. In this regard, the ‘hire slow fire fast’ mantra can come in handy. Take your time to evaluate a person well before hiring because reports have shown that a bad hire can cost you a lot more. The cost of recruiting, hiring, and onboarding a new employee can be as high as $24,000. It’s not just expensive, but time-consuming too. So, have patience and choose the right candidate to build your first team.

You cannot do without a recruitment strategy. Period.

“Let me have some sales, see the revenue growth, and then I can consider having a recruitment strategy to build up the team.”

Many first-time entrepreneurs do not consider having a recruitment strategy in the first place.

If that’s what you’re thinking, then stop there. Because you simply can’t just do without a recruitment strategy, especially while building your first team.

A recruitment strategy is not just writing a job description and hiring for the open roles, but much more to it. Remember, all the top talents are right out there; all you need to do is draft the right hiring strategy to tap the potential candidates. And when you’re building your first team, you just can’t afford to hire randomly. Your plan must be thought through and carefully drafted. An effective recruitment strategy can do wonders for you. Here are the top three reasons you should have a hiring strategy to build your first team.

1. Hire candidates with niche skills

Does your business need employees with some niche skills? Do you want your CTO to have the experience of handling a specialized business scenario? Brainstorm all these finer points, list them, and hire to fulfil these requirements instead of hiring a random candidate.

2. Consider hiring budget

If you’re working on a tight budget, work out different options that may attract a potential candidate even if it’s not monetary. For example, you can consider giving a stock of the company to the CHRO if you cannot match up the expected remuneration. Offering a senior designation or some essential responsibilities can also compensate well if your budget is tight.

3. Woo the passive candidates

As LinkedIn mentions, passive candidates are considered to be the cream of the candidates. They are the candidates who have a job but might consider joining you at a later point in time. A recruitment strategy can help you identify these candidates and woo them to pick you when they have a job change in mind

Where to find the right candidate to build team?

Now that you know what kind of employees you want to have in your team, the next obvious question is where you find such candidates. Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Hire a recruiter to do the job

If you have the budget, invest in a good recruiter who can help you find the ideal candidates.

Explore LinkedIn

If you do not have the budget to invest in a recruiter, leveraging professional networking sites like LinkedIn is another great idea to tap potential candidates. Build your network there and start interacting with people before you make them the offer.

Leverage social media

It is always a great idea to tap candidates on social media because you get to follow them and see how they interact and behave with others for months before approaching them.

Some important tips:

1.Avoid the usual interview questions. Be creative and innovative with your hiring approach.

2. Put the candidates in challenging situations to understand their true selves.

3.Create a workplace simulation. Let the candidate solve a real-life scenario that he or she will face on a day-to-day job. This will help you to gauge how the candidate would perform on-the-job.

4.Finally, do not neglect culture fit while hiring. Determine if the candidate can adapt to your company culture and can work in a team.

5.Last but not the least, keep improving your hiring strategy. Review it every six months and see what worked and what didn’t, fine-tune it accordingly. Doing an employee survey among the new recruits is also a great way to get fresh perspectives on your hiring strategy.

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Unity is strength,when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.

- Mattie Stepanek, American Poet

Easier said than done!

All of these are easier said than done. It would help if you had the right recruitment strategy in place to hire the right candidate because the wrong people can take your team to the ground while your business can reach heights when you have the right team in place. Take the points discussed here and work on it to build your dream team.

What is your suggestion to build a rocking team?

The post How to Build Team for Your New Venture appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Team Building: Key To Organisational Success

Aakash Sharma — Tue, 29 Dec 2020 11:34:42 +0000

Any venture is as successful as the team members undertaking it are.

Be it a sport or a start-up; it is the team that leads to the successful completion of a project. It is worth noting the cliché – there is no “I” in teamwork. A well-coordinated, planned, and analysed strategy can only be executed when all the team elements do their tasks and assignments with utmost sincerity. The individual team members build collaboration, and getting the best team in place for your business or sport is what we call ‘Team Building.’

Let’s delve into the details of what team building is and how you can get the best people to be a part of your team.

What is Team Building?

Team building is a collective term for strengthening social relationships and defining roles in teams and often includes everyday tasks. It is different from team training, which involves strategies by a group of business leaders trained to improve efficiency, not interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

Many team-building exercises are aimed at identifying and resolving personal problems in a group. These measures improve the team environment’s efficiency, effectively improving the workplace culture and output by individual members. Team building is a crucial foundational value of any organisation and is continuously used for group purposes like sports teams, education classes, military units, or flight crews.

Theoretically, team-building exercises often include:

goal coordination,
forming effective work relationships,
reducing ambiguity in the role of team members, and
finding solutions to problems in a group.

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Team building is strengthening relationships between team members to achieve group goals more effectively.

Team building is one of the most commonly used team development activities in an organisation, usually undertaken in a team-building retreat or corporate excursion. In this retreat, team members seek to solve potential problems and build trust by participating in activities that are generally not of their forte.

Of all organisational activities, one study found that team development has the most significant impact on improving corporate performance compared to financial indicators. Meta-analytic studies have shown that team development activities, including team building and team training, can improve the level of objective performance and subjective supervision of a team. Team building can also be achieved through deliberate personal disclosure activities.

Effectiveness of a Team

The impact of a team-building varies from one organisation to another. The support of team members, their maturity, knowledge, and ability to cooperate are the most useful traits that are polished in an active team-building event.

To create a strong team that makes you more aware of team goals is key to effective team building. Teams shall work hard to define the goals, mission, and vision of their organisation. As a result, team building is associated with increased productivity and achievement of goals.

Team Building-Effect on Performance

Team building activities have been scientifically proven to be effective. Setting goals and outlining clear roles affect cognition, influence, action and team members’ effectiveness within an organisation. Such activities have the most significant impact on the process and results of tasks. They can help eliminate harmful elements in any team structure, such as lack of coordination or trust. Setting and describing goals are practical because they can increase motivation, reduce conflict, and help define personal interests, goals, and incentives.

Although any sized team can use team building activities, usually teams with at least ten members seem to benefit more from such activities. This is because large groups typically have a more significant bank of knowledge and skills than small teams.

Why is Team Building important?

Team building is necessary for the following reasons:

Achieving the aim

In building a team, members are explained the laws of the group’s activities in advance for establishing clarity regarding the aim. Assign tasks to members based on their abilities, experience and forte ensures everyone a fair opportunity. This helps members to strive to achieve the main goals of the group. This approach also improves work development and employees can learn to work together to achieve organisational goals.

Promoting competition

Weak teams are motivated to work harder when there is fair competition out in the field. Most team building activities involve different factions competing for specific goals. Whether the team wins or loses, members can perform better. This not only motivates employees but also encourages them to apply this principle in their work. Evidence shows that competition can increase labour productivity.

Establish direct interaction

Whenever employees have to work together on a task, they often communicate through email or online forums. Digital communication is indeed helpful, but it lacks the human touch of delivering emotions and the message and adding to the quality of a team member’s overall performance. In this case, face-to-face conversation is usually advantageous. Not only does it help decrease confusion, but also to be more social experience together.

How to build a team: Approaches and Methods

It is not enough to only determine the qualities that make the team successful. Leaders also have to identify and learn to incorporate these qualities into their groups.

When forming a team, some things need to be kept in mind, including the following:

Goal Setting: Explanation of team goals

Having clear goals is very important for the success of a project. This means that each leader must first explain how each group member’s actions will help them achieve their goals. In addition to the purpose of posting leaders, members must set specific priorities that must be considered. This way, each member knows precisely when and where they need help.

With clear goals, members can see how their individual professional goals align with the project’s purposes. Without this clarity, many employees might focus on team performance while overlooking their preferences. With open communication, employees can always ask about the relationship between their personal goals and their organisation’s goals.

Role Delineation: Choosing team members wisely

There are three main areas to explore while selecting a team member: personality, diversity and skill level. It is well known that some people strive to be a better member of the team than others. It is also true that individuals can learn to work purposefully as a unit if given the right space and time. Someone who prefers to put the team’s interests before their interests makes a great team member. It is distinguished by independent roles that people have to work on separately. Individuals who like to work together and grow better as part of a group are crucial for building an outstanding team.

Delegation of Tasks

Managers have to strike a balance among the different skills and experience of team members. It helps in understanding the productive division of work since the power and leeway is given to members. New members should also acquire skills to work as a fully functioning part of the team. Leaders may have to partner the new members with those who have the experience to mentor them.

Diversity in Team

Difference and diversity in a team are more than just a combination of experience. It also means how people from different cultures, races and races work together to achieve goals. Differences can be vital as they allow team members to see goals from different angles and find the best way to achieve them.

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Setting goals and outlining clear roles affect cognition, influence, action and team members' effectiveness within an organisation.

Applications of Team Activities

As we have established, teams building exercises in an organisation are a common way to improve performance. Leisure is an integral part of team building, but the goal is to increase productivity, focus, and unity. Pure recreational activities can help, but it needs to be done regularly and consider the abilities of team members (sports, for example, are not suitable for everyone). You just have to be more open with the help you render toward other people.

Employee collaboration exercises can create team solutions that make sense to them and directly impact individuals, teams, and the organisation. Practical teaching and branch methods are effective ways to bring new generation team members years into the workplace.

Staff participation is as effective as:

Employees love problem-solving activities,
Troubleshooting activities create a sense of ownership of tasks.
Employee’s capacity can increase and
Competitive activities encourage a results-oriented approach.

Outdoor activities can be fruitful to add to groups, but there are plenty of group building activities.

Ideas for Team-building activities

The most common activities can start with a small picnic. In the breeze, some quality time can be spent visiting nearby parks during the week. The purpose is to get together and share quality chat time over lunch. Fun activities can also be sponsored, like bowling, a store visit, a riverboat ride, going to a comedy club trip, and playing soft games. This is all eventually aimed at shedding the nervousness, which can be very painful to express in a team’s formal setting.

Physically demanding activities such as rock climbing and rope training can create fear and apprehension in the face of physical discomfort for people with disabilities. Therefore, in team building, some employees cannot participate calmly without being agitated and such activities must be avoided.

There are many benefits to team building, which is a positive impact for everyone participating. What must be kept in mind is that the best practices for making the team engaged should be viable, fun and useful not to mention local and easy to perform.

Challenges to Team Building

Assembling teams to address specific problems to identify and rectify underlying causes is now always easy. The most common challenges for team formation are as follows:

Lack of Teamwork Skills

One of the challenges that leaders face is finding enthusiastic staff. Many rely on educational institutions to bring these skills to students. However, students are naturally encouraged to work and succeed individually without the need for collaboration. It works against the behaviours necessary for teamwork. Studies have found that team coaching improves cognitive, sensory, process, and performance outcomes.

Virtual work environment and inter-organizational bounds

People who do not share the same physical space are more likely to join forces within the same organization. Members often do not have transparent relationships with people of other groups. Studies show that face-to-face communication plays an essential role in creating an effective group environment; it is the key to building trust. Group meetings guide members to identify group activities “through mutual agreement” while strengthening informal connections.

Globalization and virtualization

Teams are composed of members with different languages, cultures, values, and solutions. In some organizations, close-knitted physical discussions seem to resolve problems.

In a nutshell, team building is strengthening relationships between team members to achieve group goals more effectively. Successful teams can be more effective than individual contributors.

Read about other organisational topics like Leadership: Lift Your People Up, Bring Them Together and Management – It’s All About Getting Your Business Together on our website.

The post Team Building: Key To Organisational Success appeared first on Dutch Uncles.