As a small web development team of just two people, we recently faced the challenge of hiring a new team member. This experience brought to light a critical misconception about team growth: hiring multiple people quickly doesn't necessarily ease your workload or meet deadlines more effectively. In fact, rushing this process can have the opposite effect.
Many believe that adding more people to a team ASAP will automatically speed up processes and lighten workload. However, this “belief” overlooks a crucial aspect of team dynamics—delegation and communication. When you expand a team too quickly, you introduce more bureaucracy, more opportunities for miscommunication, and increased dependency. This brings the risk of slow progress and overly complex project management.
Onboarding and training are important, but the real issue lies in ensuring that new members are given meaningful tasks and ownership. Without proper delegation within existing workforms, some team members will have little work and others will have lots. This leads to inefficiencies and missed deadlines.
In our case, the challenge was compounded by the fact that I was the primary person responsible for training. My co-team member, due to a lack of experience and perhaps a lack of motivation, is unable to contribute effectively to this process. This leaves me as the sole mentor, further straining my capacity and potentially compromising the quality of our onboarding.
Trying to onboard multiple new hires simultaneously under these conditions is counterproductive. It dilutes the attention and training each new member receives, leading to a weaker overall team performance. The solution, I've found, is to grow the team incrementally and decisively. By bringing in one new member at a time and ensuring they are thoroughly trained, you lay a strong foundation. Once the new hires are fully integrated and confident, they can assist in training the next new hire. This creates a sustainable cycle where each team member not only becomes proficient but also contributes to the growth of others.
This way knowledge is disseminated effectively. The team becomes a cohesive unit where members support and facilitate each other's growth, rather than overloading a single individual with the responsibility of training. In doing so you also eliminate any single point of failure.
Companies often want to scale too fast, hiring more people than they can effectively train and integrate. This approach is short-sighted and will lead to subpar outcomes. Instead, by hiring one developer at a time and ensuring they are well-prepared, you can build a stronger, more resilient team.
In conclusion, the path to successful team expansion is not about rapid, mass hiring. It's about strategic, gradual growth. Each new member should be nurtured and prepared to contribute to the training of future hires.
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