When a new startup business is created, it often relies on a skeleton staff. This is usually due to financial restrictions. Even though the entrepreneur might want to employ more employees to help them get their new business up and running, there’s a likely chance that they don’t have the money to do so. So, they just employ the bare-minimum team that they need in order to take care of the current workload. Once the business starts to make a bit more money, though, it is time to start thinking about expanding the company and taking things further.
Once you do start to hire more employees, you will no doubt hire people who are a lot more focused in their work. In the early days of your business, people will have helped out in various different aspects of the company. But now you have more staff, you can afford to hire dedicated employees for the likes of your finance, marketing, and HR. Of course, this means that you will need to start establishing a few departments in your company. This will bring some structure and order to your business, which can help it stay efficient and productive.
You might think that establishing a new department within your business would be easy. After all, you just need to give it a name and hire some employees to take care of it, right? Well, unfortunately, it isn’t quite that easy. In fact, it can be very easy to get it wrong, and this could make it difficult to set the necessary structure in place to ensure that the department is a seamless addition to your company. Are you starting to wonder how you can go about creating a new business department successfully? If so, read on. You just need to follow these next few tips.
Be Clear About Why You Need This New Department
First of all, you need to be 100% sure that you do in fact need this new department in your company in its current state. If you think that you would be able to hold off establishing one for a certain business aspect for a few more months, then it is usually best to do so. That’s because setting up a brand-new department can be extremely expensive. If you end up creating one prematurely, then it could end up becoming a huge strain on your business’s finances. That’s mainly because you will end up taking on new hires before you can really afford them. So, before you do decide to create a new department, it’s really worth taking the time to research your business’s current situation and making sure that it is at the right point to take on one more department.
Set Up A Department Action Plan
Next, once you’ve decided that setting up a department is the best course of action for you and your company, you need to create a plan that can help you do just that. This plan should include a few steps detailing how you will establish the department, including information such as how many employees you will need for it. Other things that should be included in the plan need to be things like the scope of work that it will take care of. Ideally, you should write down this plan and publish it so that all of your current employees can see it and are made aware of what is going on in their place of employment. You might also need to share this plan with your bank manager and investors if you will need some more money to help fund this new department.
Find The Space For It
Are you sure that you have the physical space for a new department? This is often one point that many entrepreneurs forget to consider. You will be hiring new employees to help populate this department, and they will need to have space in your office. Hopefully, there will be some space for a few extra desks next to each other in your current work environment. If there isn’t any extra room, you might have to consider moving into a larger office. In fact, when they start to create different departments, some entrepreneurs like to move into large offices that offer them plenty of individual rooms. That way, each department can have its own room for its employees so that they can easily work and collaborate together.
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Consider Who Will Be Right For The Team
Of course, you might not need to hire anyone new to join this new department – you might have enough employees currently working for you that can be moved into it. This might take some company restructuring, but it could be worth it as it will be a lot cheaper than hiring some new staff. If you are taking this route, you need to consider your current employees and figure out who will be the best fit for the new department. This will largely be based on their skill set and previous experience. You should also take this into consideration when you are hiring new employees too as everyone who works in the new department needs to be a good fit for it.
Create A Specific Budget for This New Department
Once you start adding departments to your business, you will need to start creating specific budgets for each of them. These shouldn’t replace your overall company budget, though. The department-specific budgets will give you numbers and figures that can be used in the larger one. These department budgets will give each manager the chance to see exactly how much money they have to use on the various items and appliances that they will need to buy throughout the course of the year. They also keep spending on track and ensure that no department manager ever overspends on accident.
Build Its Own IT Network
You also need to take some IT and tech considerations into account when setting up a brand new department in your company. There’s a good chance that the department will benefit from its own IT network or setup. You can get a reliable company like Down To Earth Technology to help you with this. It’s also a good idea to consider whether the department will need any specific software of computer programs. These are often worth it as they can help automate processes, which will help to increase the overall efficiency and productivity of the department.
Create Some Goals and Targets for The Department
While you are still working on building the department and incorporating it into the company, it’s a good idea to think about a few goals and targets for it. These are things that the employees in the department can work towards. It’s a good idea to put some short-term and long-term goals in place. The short-term ones can be achieved over the first year of the department while the longer ones might take a few years to achieve. Working towards these targets will give all of the employees something to work towards, which can help them feel highly motivated at all times.
OK The Department Plan With All Managers
Before you do start setting up a new department, you will need to ok your plan with each of your managers. Even though they may not be working within the new department, there’s a good chance that the establishment of a new one could impact on theirs. So, you will need to make sure that the new department won’t lead to you neglecting the needs and wants of other necessary departments within your company. Plus, your managers will be the main people who liaise with the new head of the department. Because of this, it’s a good idea to set up a management-wide meeting that they can all attend. This will give them the chance to voice any concerns and uncertainties that they may have.
Make Sure All Stakeholders and Investors Are Onboard with The Idea
It’s not just your managers who you will need to run your new department idea by. You also need to let all of your stakeholders and investors know these plans as well. After all, they have a financial interest in your business so will be intrigued to know all about the running of it. Not only that, though, but if they are unhappy with the plans for a new department, then they could put their foot down and prevent you from setting it up in the first place. So, when you meet with them make sure that you are ready to pitch to them and that you are able to tell them multiple benefits of creating a brand-new department. I’m sure that you will be able to win them over if they seem to be a bit cautious at first!
As you can see then, setting up a new department in your company will be no easy feat. But with a little dedication and elbow grease, it should go off without a hitch.
