When the BBC announced that Chris Evans would take the wheel of its flagship motor show it was perhaps inevitable there would have to be auditions for a new team. Evans confirmed that the BBC would be auditioning anyone passionate about cars and passionate about Top Gear. With the drive to create a new Top Gear dream team, we list our five top tips to keep your team on track.

Create a Positive Culture

At HRonline we’ve spent a lot of time focussed on creating the right kind of culture and it’s hugely paying off. As we’re in the process of developing our HR software product it’s really important that we have the right kind of culture.

We believe in the ethos of work hard, play hard, and if you come to the HRonline office Cloud9, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to see 50 grown men and women engaged in a pretty intensive Nerf gun battle.

And remember you can’t just invent a culture, it takes work and effort to really develop something that’s not superficial through recognition, reinforcement, rewards and a culture in which problems are shared and dealt with collaboratively.

We’re committed to creating a friendly place to work in which future focussed creativity is encouraged, where doors are always open and where success can be achieved by every member of the team. The focus on culture is having a hugely positive impact on the direction we’re taking things.

Define people’s roles

Probably one of the worst positions to be in as an employee is not understanding the scope of your role. It’s essential that every member of the team understands and can articulate what they’re in the business to do.

When people find it hard to define their role they can often be left feeling frustrated and working in silo rather than as part of the team.

Likewise if you can’t define the roles of the people in the business, the company won’t be able to hold them to account which will potentially put the employee in conflict with the management.

Value Performance

As we’ve seen it’s important that team members’ roles are defined, it’s also importance that their performance is assessed.

When people can demonstrate what they’ve done for the business and are rewarded for their efforts they will naturally attempt to better their achievements in the future.

Likewise it’s important to be able to have tough conversations in which workloads are reviewed and where solutions to issues are found.

These conversations should take place regularly, be specific and be documented (without being too formal).

Value your team’s differences

Everyone’s different and has different skillsets. That’s a good thing. If they didn’t you’d have a team of people all trying to do the same thing. Successful teams understand these differences and value them.

You should encourage your team to challenge your viewpoint as this will shape your understanding and enhance the decision making process, innovation and solutions within the business.

Whilst encouraging diversity within the team, your focus on the company’s culture will keep the team focussed on the same vision and direction.

Don’t make all the decisions

There’s not a lot of point in employing people if you’re not going to let them make decisions. If you encourage people to make decision about the business you will also be encouraging them to take responsibility for the future direction of the business.

By encouraging democratic decision making you’re securing the stability of the business ensuring it becomes greater than the sum of its parts.