“It’s such a big thing – I don’t think there’s really a quick answer,” admits Heena Rabadiya, the operations and finance manager at Collective Content. “I’ve been really open with our MD. I’ve told them that the moment our current processes won’t work is when we start bringing in more people from the outside.”
As the first person hired solely in an operations role in her agency, Heena is navigating uncharted waters.
She joined back in January and has found herself in a bit of a pickle: how does she implement new changes without overwhelming the team, or making a mess of the agency’s already established culture?
“We’ve got loyalty from the members of the team we already have, and they’re loyal to us because they know us and have been with us for so long.”
As the agency grows and brings in new people, Heena foresees more challenges to come, grappling with three big questions:
- How do you prioritise which policies to implement first?
- How do you introduce new processes without alienating long-standing team members?
- How do you prepare for growth while maintaining the agency’s current culture?
“People might come in and be like, ‘Hold on, why don’t we have this in place? Why aren’t things done like this?’” she says. “But we can’t throw seven new policies at the team in one go and be like, ‘Right, read all of these, make sure you’re following them really well.’”
So, Hive Mind, we’re turning to you for help with this one. How on Earth can Heena roll out these new processes whilst also maintaining the agency’s culture?
If you think you can help Heena, come along to our next operations mastermind and offer your wisdom.