Do you have the right framework in place to scale your training, and take your business to the next level? Here’s how to know.
By Chris Ronzio, Founder and CEO of Trainual
So your business is growing and everything else seems to be growing along with it. Sales? Check. Your team? Check. List of to-do’s? Double-check.
But…what about your training?
If you’re like many entrepreneurs, training is the one thing that often falls off the radar during phases of growth. In fact, many don’t even have the luxury of premeditated hiring — it’s usually done in short order out of need. Before you know it, you have a team of people each executing on processes in their own way.
But hiring more people without scaling your training often results in redundancies, inefficiencies, and a lack of alignment among your team. I’ve seen this play out time and time again in businesses, and over time identified common gaps that should be addressed before sustainable growth and scale can be achieved.
Here are five things to have in place to scale your training.
1. A repeatable product or service
Of course you have a product or service, or you wouldn’t be in business. Plain and simple, right? Sort of.
Many businesses have extremely customizable products and services, around which it’s incredibly hard to build processes. It’s like the caricaturist at the park who can only hire really good artists so they can customize every painting or drawing for each customer. It’s not a product that can be easily replicated by someone other than a skilled artist.
On the other hand, if your business prints replica artwork, you can easily hire someone to run the printer, or to package the order. You must have established, repeatable processes before you are ready to scale.
2. A clear way to deliver that product or service
Some businesses want to be all things to all people, which almost always backfires. I’ve gone through this myself over my 19-year career, so I can relate. But when it comes to the delivery of your products or services, the best bet is to simplify, not pacify.
If you reinvent the wheel every time the product is delivered or fulfilled upon, it will not only create inefficiencies, but make it near impossible to build a system around.
3. A clear role for each person who delivers that product or service
If there are blurred lines in your company, and too much crossover between who does what, new business will almost always lead to more confusion. You have to have clear handoffs between each role.
At the barbershop I go to, everyone chips in answering phones, greeting customers, sweeping, cutting hair and collecting payment. But on the busiest days, no one can answer the phone. Hair collects everywhere on the floor. Customers are frustrated waiting for their barber to return from the cash register. To really scale, they would need a dedicated receptionist. Are you ready to hire your receptionist, or does everyone still have a hand in everything?
4. A timeline for how long it will take to get someone up to speed
If you don’t know how long it will take to train a new hire, you won’t be able to gauge when you need to hire — and this can leave you in the lurch if you grow and don’t have the resources to fulfill on the new business. When you’re starting to train people, you need to think backward and identify when you’re going to run into a capacity issue.
For instance, if you know how many customer support tickets your current team can handle, but you don’t know how long it will take to get a new hire up and running in that role, you won’t know when to hire to accommodate growth, even if you can predict when you will be at 100 percent capacity on support tickets.
5. Concisely documented material
If your training materials are disorganized and hard to consume, your people might interpret them in a different way than you intended, or worse yet, disregard them altogether. Have just enough specificity to communicate how to do something, without overloading your team with extraneous details.
My company has everything so precisely documented that I could lose half my staff tomorrow, and have a new team up to speed in a matter of days. Of course, I don’t want that to happen, but the takeaway is that documenting the roles within your business and the processes attached to those roles makes onboarding and training something that is repeatable and…drum roll…scalable. It also can save you a lot of money and time, which is something any C-level executive I’ve ever met would get behind.
So, keep your sights set on scaling. But don’t forget that a key building block of scaling your company successfully is preparing your training to scale, too. Here’s to moving onward, and way upward.
If you’re looking for a tool to help you document your policies and procedures, train, grow, and scale your team, check out, Trainual.
When leaders take deliberate steps to show employees that they are trusted, “employees are more likely to be powerful, confident individuals.”
However, most commentary on employee empowerment focuses on the ambiguous or intangible; Leaders are told to “encourage communication” or “provide opportunities for ownership,” but are seldom given concrete advice on how to do so.
At Divvy, we see a lot of people receiving their first corporate credit cards and we wondered if that kind of experience—something targeted and tangible—could affect employee morale. We decided to test our hypothesis.
Here’s what we found:
In a workplace data study, we surveyed 268 people from a dozen companies.
Our goal was to measure changes in employee sentiment after receiving a corporate credit card.
To do this, we asked employees to agree or disagree with various statements relating to their company—modeled after an annual workplace survey. We measured their sentiment before and after receiving their corporate card.
Responses were ranked from 0—strongly disagree—to 10—strongly agree. While not all categories showed significant change after receiving a corporate credit card, we did measure meaningful improvement in the following three areas:
Employee empowerment
Company pride
Career development
1. My company empowers its employees.
Of all the categories we measured, employees reacted the strongest to feelings of empowerment.
After receiving a corporate card, the majority of respondents agreed strongly that “My company empowers its employees.” We measured an astonishing improvement of 1.72 points (moving the average rating from a neutral 6.65 to 8.37).
2. I’m proud to work at my company.
If you want employees to be proud of where they work, a corporate credit card could help improve their team spirit.
When asked to agree or disagree with this statement—“I’m proud to work at my company”—sentiment improved by 0.58 points after receiving a company card.
3. My company looks for ways to develop my career.
Respondents were asked how strongly they agreed with this statement: “My company looks for ways to develop my career.”
Before and after receiving a corporate credit card, employees moved from 5.1 to 5.29 on average—an improvement of 0.19 points. While this may not seem like a significant jump, any HR rep can tell you that it’s incredibly difficult to move the needle in workplace culture surveys. We found it notable that something as simple as a corporate card could affect a positive increase.
Is such empowerment sustainable?
For each of these categories, our research discovered an interesting, significant bump after employees received the physical card.
While our research has not (as of yet) measured whether this increase is sustainable over time, we are looking forward to studying the more long-lasting effects of this change.
A corporate credit card is just one way to improve employee sentiment, but overall, our findings support a positive impact.
Here at Divvy, we’ve seen this time and again with our customers—corporate cards have the power to change company culture.
Amber Johnson, COO of Jump Software, said the cultural impact boils down to two words: “trust and accountability.” Employees who never had the power to swipe a company card now feel a sense of accomplishment and ownership.
The results we’ve found have a simple solution: empower your employees by giving them credit cards.
This blog originally appeared here. Thank you to Divvy for support PHX Startup Week!
About Divvy
Divvy is free expense management software paired with smart corporate credit cards. If you want to learn more about their product, schedule some time to chat.
Ask most people to envision an innovator – more often than not, they will picture the classic image of a lone genius furiously coding away in a dark and messy dorm room.
Whether it be Zuckerberg or Gates this stereotype has permeated pop culture. It makes a great story and is definitely meme-able (as shown), there’s just one problem: It’s all wrong. The reality is, the typical profile of a successful innovator is completely different. This view of Zuckerberg is the exception, not the rule. So, if you think you can’t be an innovator because you’re not like one of these guys, I’m here to convince you otherwise.
At Venture Café, a global community for innovators of all backgrounds, we believe “innovation is for everyone,” and here’s the data that proves it.
Age According to the Harvard Business Review, the average age of entrepreneurs at the time they start their company is 42 years old, which is twice as old as your typical undergrad. But what about the most successful startups? Surely, they are started by young founders and that’s why the stereotype exists! In short, no. When considering the top 0.1% of startups based on growth, the founders had an average age of 45 when they started their companies. This age remains the same for startups that successfully exit through IPO or acquisition.
Gender When venture capitalist Jennifer Neundorfer was describing her firm, Jane VC, to Crunchbase last year about their decision to focus on funding female founders, she said: “We’re going to invest in an underlooked asset class that is overperforming.”
A solid investment strategy considering that women only receive about 2% of venture capital, yet the number of unicorns with one or more female founders has been on the rise. In 2019 alone, out of the 78 companies in the United States that reached unicorn status, 27% of them were founded by women. Neundorfer has a point.
Ethnicity People of color lag drastically behind in receiving funding with just 1% of venture capital going to black founders. Similarly, Latino founders receive 1.8% of funding while Middle Easterners barely faired better with 2.8%. Asians were the second-largest backed group with 17.7% of venture capital, while the rest, a whopping 77.1% went to white founders.
But just because these entrepreneurs aren’t getting funded, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. Over the last two decades, black women have become the fastest-growing demographic of entrepreneurs, owning nearly 60 percent of all black businesses.
If you find this inequity extremely frustrating, you’re not alone. In 2019, Serena Williams publicly launched her new venture fund, Serena Ventures, which focuses on early-stage investments in companies led by women and people of color.
● Go to PHX Startup Week! Check out sessions from experts in your area, but also check out a few that seem like they have nothing to do with you, because you never know, maybe they do… (also- don’t miss our Kickoff Event on 2/17!) ● Follow #yesphx for all things innovation & Phoenix- The hashtag is most active on Twitter, but use the # wherever you get your social media fix. ● Surround yourself with diversity. Diverse people, diverse industries, diverse functions, diverse hobbies, diverse challenges. ● Stay engaged with the community. Check out Venture Café Phoenix when it opens this fall with the weekly Thursday Gathering. ● Start. Your. Business. So now that I’ve convinced you that you are an innovator, tell us in the comments below: How do you want to change the world?
Venture Café connects innovators to make things happen. What initially sprouted from a single location now has drawn together scientists, creatives, developers and civic-minded leaders in 11 cities around the world.
Through inclusive programming, spaces, storytelling and engagement, Venture Café Global Institute is focused on building a global community of communities. Venture Café Phoenix will launch in Fall 2020.
We hear it time and time again: in the race to become the next unicorn, throngs of entrepreneurs pick up shop to relocate to one of the major tech hubs like Silicon Valley or Boston in pursuit of growth and funding opportunities.
While these hubs have proven fruitful for countless tech startups, moving there doesn’t guarantee success. In fact, it can become more of a challenge to grow a business in unknown territory, especially if that territory comes with a soaring cost of living and a high turnover of residents, such as the case with Silicon Valley. That’s one reason why the movement for entrepreneurs to remain between the coasts is gaining momentum.
This trend hasn’t been lost on cities, universities and local leaders, who are actively creating funds and launching initiatives with the purpose of fostering environments where startups can grow, thrive and eventually contribute back to the ecosystem. Such as the case with Phoenix.
Planting seeds for a future of growth
Startups need to build deep, impactful connections within their communities to succeed over the long haul. In major tech regions that are already saturated with competition, this can become a serious challenge with many entrepreneurs feeling isolated and without support, during the stages they need it most.
But if there’s reason to have ties to these regions, it is possible to get the best of both worlds without uprooting your life and business. More and more, founders are choosing to double down on the communities in which they live and simply hop on a plane to access the major tech hubs when necessary.
By choosing to build where you got your start, you can often establish a bigger presence for yourself and your company, stretch your capital further and deepen relationships within an already familiar ecosystem, especially with universities, established entrepreneurs and key community stakeholders.
In Phoenix, we have a robust community of stakeholders who want to see our local startups flourish in their own backyards and pave the way for successive generations. That’s why cities are increasingly focusing more of their economic development efforts on supporting entrepreneurs by creating funds and competitions with the promise of seed money for winners. Universities are creating incubators to help young leaders transition from idea to implementation. This is very much alive in Phoenix –– and we’ve seen more investors enter the market as a result.
Raising money locally makes entrepreneurs more attractive globally
The majority of startups can only bootstrap for so long before they need to seek funding. This is where relationships are so key and why it’s helpful for startups to mature in the environments where they’ve established meaningful connections with investors and other key business leaders who’ve observed their growth. And, these relationships don’t just benefit startup founders –– they’re also fruitful for the investors.
Besides wanting to support and invest in promising startups for their own monetary gain, local investors have another vested interest in getting involved with homegrown startups –– it stimulates regional economic development, which has longer-term gains for everyone. Investing out-of-state means many returns also stay out-of-state. By prioritizing their investments to high-potential startups in their region, investors are directly and positively impacting the area in which they live.
When outside investors find startups buoyed by community support, they see stability and longevity –– two important characteristics that make startups more appealing to invest in. Take, for instance, Steve Case’s “Rise of the Rest” bus tours, which encourages entrepreneurship across the country and specifically outside the major tech hubs. This initiative, with the involvement of big-name investors like Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt, recently closed a $150 million seed fund specifically to invest in cities that have been historically overlooked. As cities establish and grow their own entrepreneurial ecosystems, investors from elsewhere can’t help but want to get involved.
Stepping up to raise up entrepreneurial ecosystems
When all hands are on deck and through a continuous commitment to one another, the flywheel model of a community carry begins to gain momentum. The more engaged academic institutions are, the more involved key community partners become, and the more committed local investors are, the more likely startups will be set up to succeed. With this support helping startups thrive, the more the local workforce benefits and the economy will grow. Eventually, more local investments will be made and the circular model will strengthen.
But community carry only works when the startups who benefited from the model take steps to contribute as well. No matter the stage in the cycle, there are a number of ways entrepreneurs and their teams can boost the vitality of their city’s ecosystem. This includes hiring from the local workforce, being a mentor to share lessons learned with those coming up next and choosing local vendors when possible. It also means prioritizing volunteerism and philanthropy and eventually investing in other startups.
Silicon Valley will always be a major draw for entrepreneurs. But with major investors looking to expand their reach and reduce their risk, entrepreneurs could benefit from marinating in their local ecosystems and presenting themselves to investors as the growth drivers within their local ecosystem.
Sonny Patel is the founder and CEO of Insurmi, an AI-based engagement platform for insurance carriers.
He started the company just three years ago at the age of 21 while working as a sales director and financial advisor at a top life insurance company where he realized the process of buying and selling insurance was unnecessarily cumbersome and outdated. He was determined to change this and went to work to develop a solution that would simplify and take the guesswork out of the insurance buying process. That solution would eventually become Insurmi.
Now, Insurmi is being used by a number of top-tier global insurance carriers to easily generate new business online, streamline customer claims, and deliver excellent customer service through conversational AI.
By Joe Flynn, Senior Manager, Technical Architecture at Insight
A huge part of technology, especially how it affects business, is an exercise in fear.
Remember when IT pros were reluctant to move basic Office 365 to the cloud? Or when it felt absurd to think about workers answering emails on airplanes? Augmented reality in the workplace? Yeah, right.
Metaphorically, in that big ocean of a technological change, there’s an appeal for businesses to ride the waves. But doing so is hard, and each wave seems to be more daunting than the last.
Modern IT management is a big wave
The IT industry has been moving toward a more unified approach to IT management for some time now. Modern IT management is about consolidating tools that embrace cloud centricity and make life easier for IT — whether that’s with provisioning, patch management, pushing out applications and anything in between.
The move to the cloud is on. This infographic breaks down 21 stats on cloud adoption — and gives 7 best practices for migrating.
Many of the clients I work with use a big jumble of toolsets. They may image a machine and manage it with a toolset meant only for that device. For another device, they use another toolset. One tool for anti-virus. Another for encryption. It’s a very fragmented environment.
When fragmentation is all you know and nothing breaks down completely — and you use numerous resources to maintain that environment — the risk of adopting something new might feel scary.
Unfortunately, fear isn’t sustainable in the IT industry (if you’re not willing to face it head-on).
Eye openers
Because technology forces change, and companies are becoming tech companies at heart, we’re all being nudged down a different path.
An eye-opening tech report: The 2018 Insight Intelligent Technology Index surveyed IT decision-makers to understand the impact of tech on business. See the findings.
I’ve found that companies addressing their fear of change experience a catharsis of sorts. Based on conversations I’ve had with clients, they’re coming to these realizations:
1. The efficiency gains are remarkable. I once had a client who told me it took five hours to image one machine. Don’t get me wrong, the process was clearly defined. The machine would go to one group that would throw the image on, another group to set it up for users and then a third group to help users transfer all of their data. But with the evolution of technology to a cloud provisioning model, it just doesn’t make sense to spend that much time and resources on such an inefficient process.
2. Fragmentation is costly. This notion goes back to management toolsets. Although the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” our clients are finding it’s a short-sighted view. Outside of licensing costs, the operational costs associated with supporting an increasing number of devices, dealing with maintenance windows and everything under the sun are really starting to weigh down financially on the business.
The 6 pillars of modern IT: Insight Chief Information Officer Mike Guggemos breaks down what IT pros need to master to drive meaningful change in this podcast.
3. It’s a journey, not a leap. Many clients aren’t fully ready to release what they have on-premises to the cloud. That’s okay. We know there are limitations with legacy apps and deployment, and some things will simply have to stay on-premises — for now. As tech inevitably evolves, more companies will make the shift to the cloud. An encouraging way to think about it is that modern IT management is still in its infancy — businesses may be behind that curve, but we’re all evolving here.
4. We’re all moving in the same direction.
Take it from Brad Anderson, corporate vice president of Microsoft, who Tweeted some reassuring social proof stats on Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS):
As of July 7, 2018, EMS has 85,000 customers (a 13,000 increase in 90 days alone) and 82 million active licenses in the EMS stack (up 55% in 90 days). This growth is huge, but mostly, it’s reassuring that businesses are moving toward cloud-based management.
I believe fear can lead to all kinds of positive change. Fear makes people hesitant, but think of it this way: The more hesitant an organization is to ride the big wave of change, the more time it has to think things through, build a strategy and have some great epiphanies along the way.
For additional content around the Top 8 IT Challenges, go here.
About Joe Flynn Senior Manager, Technical Architecture at Insight With more than 20 years of industry experience, Joe focuses on the Microsoft stack of technologies to help clients keep up with the workplace technology curve. His expertise revolves around the latest cloud tools that drive collaboration, communication and security.
