{"id":54363,"date":"2023-10-20T16:27:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/tips-for-retaining-employees-from-takors-amir-farhand-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T16:27:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T16:27:21","slug":"tips-for-retaining-employees-from-takors-amir-farhand-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/tips-for-retaining-employees-from-takors-amir-farhand-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips for retaining employees from Takor\u2019s Amir Farhand – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Australian geospatial startup Takor<\/a> has been operating for nearly seven years now and CEO Amir Farhand says he\u2019s yet to lose one employee. <\/p>\n

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It\u2019s quite a feat, with turnover rates usually fairly high in the startup realm, and Farhand says it\u2019s down to growing personal relationships with staff and maintaining a good culture during rapid growth.<\/p>\n

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Takor has grown from Farhand\u2019s garage in Perth to a large office space with 14 employees, and was recently debuted on the ASX through a backdoor listing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re growing really, really quickly,\u201d Farhand says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m interviewing two people a week and adding about one a fortnight. We\u2019re adding at such a rate that we\u2019re trying to keep our products in line.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We asked Farhand for some tips on how startups can successful retain their employees, even if they\u2019re growing quickly.<\/p>\n

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Get out of the office<\/b><\/h2>\n

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The Takor team regularly catch up outside of the office environment, helping employees get to know each other at a more personal level. The team also goes on short getaways, with everyone packing into a beach house. These experiences are invaluable for a startup, Farhand says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019ve really got to keep a level playing field, and keep everyone equal. You have to get people out of the office, ask them about their weekend, and relate that to what we\u2019re doing as a company,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn the early days, the pay was really bad. We didn\u2019t have any money so we scheduled days out of the office where we could see our technology working. People would get excited seeing that in a real life scenario, and that would lead to ideas.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMost of the ideas for product enhancement come from the staff, not from me. The feedback is coming free from the people that are designing it, and that\u2019s what you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Celebrate diversity<\/b><\/h2>\n

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A lack of diversity is unfortunately commonly in tech startups, and Farhand says Takor\u2019s diversity is one of the things that sets it apart.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re very multiculturally diverse. I think we\u2019ve got people that are from eight different countries in our 14 staff members,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got days where once a fortnight you bring some food in that you eat in your home country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd we\u2019ve got this wall that we\u2019re slowly painting where people can put up a drawing of what their home is like or say hello in their home language.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt gives you a sense of belonging; it\u2019s your artwork appearing on the wall.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Get the right level of competition<\/b><\/h2>\n

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There is competition in the Takor office, Farhand says, but it\u2019s mostly over guessing what ingredients going into the smoothies and who can make the best Simpsons<\/i> reference. More serious competition in the workplace can be poisonous to a startup\u2019s culture, he says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou\u2019ve got to make sure that there is no rivalry or office politics, that\u2019s crucial,\u201d Farhand says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe teams are working with each other not in an overlapping way. We don\u2019t effectively have a manager, there\u2019s no \u2018boss\u2019 if you like saying \u2018do this, do that\u2019.<\/p>\n

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Create a culture that fosters creative thinking<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Employees should be encouraged to work on their own creative projects and bring them to the team, Farhand says. This can help build a safe and inclusive community that is focused on entrepreneurial thinking.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI let them build their own products as well. We\u2019ve got an incubator if you like as part of our workflow. Every once a month you can update us on your own gig \u2013 it could be growing vineyards or a beauty blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Stick to your principles if while you\u2019re expanding<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Startups often find themselves rapidly growing and expanding their workforce, but it\u2019s important that everyone still feels like they\u2019re part of a tight-knit community, Farhand says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you keep growing, how are you going to keep that culture? If we hit key milestones we go on a holiday. Our next milestone is either a week in New Zealand or five days in Bali.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe pick an event that we all like, and then we try to implement that into the growth goals of the company.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Farhand knows that he can\u2019t keep this perfect record forever.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople will leave, there\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d he says<\/p>\n

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But for now he\u2019s working to create the perfect startup office environment, filled with smoothies, Simpsons<\/i> references and beach getaways, to keep people on board.<\/p>\n

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Raising your <\/i>first round of capital<\/i><\/a>? Starting a <\/i>crowdfunding campaign<\/i><\/a>? Want to grow your business <\/i>with Instagram?<\/i><\/a> StartupSmart School can help.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian geospatial startup Takor has been operating for nearly seven years now and CEO Amir Farhand says he\u2019s yet to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,8,9,28,24,21,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}