Tech startups naturally are more focused on the growth of their companies and sometimes can overlook or ignore the importance of human resources. Since most are operating on a shoestring budget, they try to cut costs or manage the company on their own.
However, when left unchecked, an unstructured HR department can do more harm than good. Strong HR practices are better positioned to develop and retain employees and both are important for business growth.
In my recent chat with Toluwase Olaniyan, Founder of Worden HCD, on Tech Trends, he expatiates how tech startups can optimize their human resources to be more productive
CFA: Toluwase, welcome to Tech Trends.
Toluwase: Thank you so much, CFA. Thanks for having me. It’s such a pleasure joining you today.
CFA: Our world has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you think startups can cope in this very interesting time?
Toluwase: This is actually one very interesting topic because it’s really biting everybody hard. Like I’ve said to a couple of people, in recent times, coping in this time is difficult and not so difficult at the same time.
So, the very first thing I say to people is to run a very lean model and a lean team where you almost can have everybody together. The second thing is to put proper structure in place. Before now, a lot of businesses, particularly African businesses didn’t have structures.
They just do things, for instance, an MD would want the lowest person to report to him because he wants to belong to everybody, but that’s unproductive. If you have seventy people in the company and thirty-five report to the MD, it’s still unproductive.
Thus, he needs to learn both structure, build reporting structure such that you’re managing a very lean management team.
Now, if there’s structure, the person at the bottom of the ladder reports to somebody and then come back to the MD.
Having a lean team, putting the right structures in place, will enable business owners to work both physically and virtually. So, they don’t have to always come to the office and that reduces a lot of stress for them.
COVID-19 has actually brought a lot of change and I think that in embracing it, we should then understand how to switch around these things, build a lean team and set up a structure.
CFA: Before we dive deeper into the issue of systems for tech startups, what’s your take on some of the work that’s going on in the startup ecosystem today?
You can watch the full interview here.
