Small growth companies face a tougher talent environment than medium and large companies. Here’s why: While they all share the challenge of finding workers with the needed work ethic and skills, two additional challenges make it far more difficult for the smaller employer:
- First, because they have fewer employees, each employee is much more important to their operation. So misfits and mediocre performers are a far greater detriment, and any defection of a high performer really hurts.
- Second, the small growth company desperately needs leaders with the talent and experience to make the right decisions and navigate growth stages, but it’s nearly impossible to pay what those leaders are looking for.
An important talent strategy then is to continually raise performance expectations, while making sure that everyone is developing greater strengths and making bigger contributions. Be especially watchful for people who are underemployed — whose skills and abilities have been overlooked, suppressed, or ‘pigeon-holed.’ There’s gold there.
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