Growing your company's workforce can be an exciting window of entrepreneurial expansion. After all, having the resources and need to hire more employees is a very good sign that your business is on track to meet bigger and better goals. But what happens when your staff grows just larger than your return on investment? Many companies leveling off after rapid growth find that their teams have become too large, and might consider reducing overhead by scaling back. Trimming excess from a roster of employees can be a difficult decision that saves a business money and productivity in the long run. Here are three signs that might make you consider consolidating:
1. Managers step on each other's toes. Consider a company with separate marketing and public relations departments. If mid-level managers are quarreling for jurisdiction over an area of brand strategy, it might be a sign that neither of them has enough to do, or enough executive authority to do it well. Too many cooks in the kitchen can breed miscommunication and idle hands.
2. New hires feel lost. When adapting to a new role, professionals are eager to get their hands dirty and prove their worth to superiors. If an employee who wowed you in the application process struggles to find a meaningful niche in your office, it could be that all the meaningful niches are filled.
3. Your office has an unofficial social secretary. The Harvard Business Review describes the employee with too much time thusly: "These workers spend the most time in the halls. They organize the office birthday parties. Perhaps their jobs were made simpler by the new online HR or finance system a year ago, and new duties were never assigned." Morale and corporate culture are vital, but measure employee value by how they work, not how they play.
