Maximize Your Team’s Potential

As you scale your small business and grow your team, it’s easy to become disconnected from the individuals in your company. Focusing on company growth can overshadow the importance of staying attuned to your employees' needs and capabilities. Rapid expansion often leads to the knee-jerk reaction of hiring more staff, which can be costly and at times unnecessary. To prevent this and maintain a strong connection with your team, implement a process of conducting a Capacity Check annually or before hiring for a new position.

Understanding a Capacity Check

When discussing the capacity of your team, time is often the first thing that comes to mind. However, capacity also includes skill sets, experience, and growth potential. You can assess these factors by creating a survey that gathers input from your team on various aspects of their roles.

Important Note: Only conduct a Capacity Check if you’re prepared to act on the feedback. Asking for input without acknowledging it can damage your relationship with your team and harm your company culture.

The Benefits

Enhance Company Culture

Employee turnover is costly and often results from poor company culture. Investing in employee retention can significantly boost your business's revenue. Here are three reasons to conduct a Capacity Check annually for your company culture:

1. Identify Overload: Find out if any team member is overwhelmed with their current workload.
2. Understand Motivation: Discover what drives and motivates your team members.
3. Determine Gaps: Identify any gaps in communication or tools needed for your team to perform effectively.

Smart Hiring

Hiring is a major investment and can be costly. Before starting the hiring process, ensure you are fully utilizing your current resources. Here are three reasons to conduct a Capacity Check before hiring externally:

1. Reveal Hidden Potential: Uncover if someone within your team wants to take on more work.
2. Identify Skills: Discover if someone has the skills or experience needed for a new role.
3. Support Career Growth: Recognize a team member’s aspiration to grow into a new position.

How to Create Effective Questions

Start with clear goals when developing your Capacity Check questions. Focus on understanding skill sets, time availability, experience, and growth potential. Here are some suggested questions:

• Which aspects of your job do you find fascinating and motivating?
• Are you satisfied with your current workload, or do you have the capacity and desire for more?
• Do you possess any skills that are not being utilized? If so, what are these skills?
• Do you have the resources you need to perform at your best?
• Does your job allow you to develop new skills?

Always include an open-ended question, such as: "Do you have any other input, suggestions, or ideas you’d like to share with the Leadership Team?" This allows employees to address anything not covered by the structured questions.

Communicating with Your Team

After developing your questions, share them with your team. Explain your motivation for asking and, if applicable, reference your Core Values and how the Capacity Check aligns with them. Emphasize the need for honest and thoughtful responses, set a deadline, and follow up with those who don’t complete the survey. This demonstrates that you value each team member’s input.

Analyzing the Feedback

When reviewing the responses, focus on actionable items. For example, a team member might:

• Want to work more hours.
• Feel that work isn’t evenly distributed.
• Have a skill set that could be used in another department.
• Experience communication issues regarding their responsibilities.

These insights will help you identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses. You might find that you don’t need to hire another team member just yet, or you might discover someone who can help with additional work until a new hire is in place.

Acting on the Results

Thank your team for their feedback, showing that you value it and plan to act on it where necessary. Follow up with individuals who raised concerns requiring further discussion. Develop a plan to assess the skills of those interested in additional or different work.

With your leadership team, address any overarching issues immediately. Holding yourself accountable to your Core Values or company culture is crucial in this process. Keep the responses handy for reference during annual reviews, when dealing with disciplinary issues, or as other problems arise.

A thorough Capacity Check can enhance team health, reduce turnover, and eliminate unnecessary hiring, ultimately saving your business money, time, and headaches. By staying connected with your team and fully utilizing their potential, you can ensure sustainable growth and a thriving business culture.

Download our sample Capacity Check questions here .

Amanda Painter is the Owner/Operator of Joy of Pursuit , a consulting agency that provides practical HR solutions for small businesses. Amanda is the author of The Team Solution Series: HR Coaching to Grow Teams and Profit .