The Project Introduction
In today’s digitized world, technological advances have introduced several matters into the field of medicine and health care. One such innovation is the creation of various applications designed to help the individual with orientation in diseases, medications, contacts of nearby medical professionals, and other assistance. However, not enough attention is currently paid to the problems of mental and psychological health (Ng et al., 2019). Therefore, it is proposed to create an organization that will specialize in the development, modification, and maintenance of an application for people with psychological needs and their relatives.
Organization Type
The initial form factor of the application is conditionally free (Shareware).
Profits are planned to be generated by providing additional paid services in a one-time purchase or regular subscription format with access to additional features. Thus, the optimal payback of the project will be achieved. In the process, it is planned to reach the level of stable income by the second year of operation and the level of partial income much earlier. Thus, the task of generating profits and further financing the organization will be solved, which will allow further development of the application to help people with special needs. Moreover, the app can be used by relatives of such people for the purposes mentioned above.
Organizational Structure Creation
During the initial creation of the organization, it is planned to create an organizational structure in the format:
- General Director (CEO);
- Deputy Director and HR specialist;
- Marketing and Sales;
- Accountant;
- Developers;
- Support.
It is possible to expand the structure by forming an internal department of employees with psychological education for surface diagnosis and counseling clients remotely in the future. However, the creation of full-fledged assistance will require additional licensing and accreditation, which is not considered relevant at the time of the development of the original structure.
Organizational Structure Parts
Assumes a division into three main departments to maximize efficiency: Management, which includes a director, HR recruiter, and financial specialist. Sales Department including a marketing-only specialist. Development and Support Department. With the different dynamics of the progress of the project, the redistribution of employees is possible, for this kind of change is the responsibility of the human resources specialist by the decision of the director.
Human Resources
Hiring
For management personnel, work experience and relevance to job duties, economics or management, and marketing profile are required. For developers – special technical education, including knowledge of programming languages and the ability to perform assigned tasks, work experience is not required. For support and sales department specialists – work experience and specialized education are optional since the positions are among the most subordinate. An HR specialist and a dedicated supervisor will train new employees. Furthermore, it is imperative that all personnel candidates demonstrate motivation and trainability while sharing the company’s vision of the importance of such an application to the health of the nation.
The number of workers at the beginning of the project should not be overestimated in order to reduce potential expenses and losses (Boon et al., 2019).
- Finance and HR department – 1 employee, the initial combination is possible;
- Development and support department – 3 employees in the beginning;
- Sales Department – 2 employees.
Management
With the support of financial and human resources specialists, the director performs the central management. As the staff grows, the primarily responsible employee in each department should be allocated, and a maximum of 5 employees for the support and sales departments should be reached. Further staff expansion is unproductive and is only possible with a significant expansion of the business, the creation of parallel applications, or a change of focus (Boon et al., 2019). Feedback is given to employees on a monthly basis, motivation and work skills are checked, and opinions are taken for processing. If an employee exceeds established averages, they are encouraged and rewarded. In the case of malicious violation of company rules, penalties are applied – fines or dismissal according to the contract.
Onboarding
Onboarding is required for all new hires: Applicants for management positions are interviewed by the director and department heads. Candidates for rank-and-file positions are interviewed by a recruiter and receive position-specific training. Internal competition is prioritized among employees in good standing for any promoted position (Boon et al., 2019). The importance of such a competition is to familiarize the staff with the overall work of the company and their willingness to show the best results for the sake of promotion. Outside specialists are required only in exceptional cases when existing forces cannot cover a new task or direction. Moreover, adding a new, unfamiliar figure to a well-established team is not always optimal. In addition, the higher the requirements for an employee, the harder it is for the recruiter to make the right decision and not to make a mistake when choosing a candidate from the outside. It is likewise very important for onboarding to voice the rules, regulations, goals, and vision of the company, and it should be mandatory for every interview.
Team Development
Each employee, especially at the beginning of the organization, must clearly see his or her place in the company and understand his or her tasks. In the course of their work, the qualifications of each one of those involved increase, and it is not easy to achieve this without an appropriate level of trust and communication. A full-fledged symbiosis of all departments is possible, provided that moral and ethical standards are respected, especially because of the scope of the work. Equally important are regular team-building meetings and the manager’s active participation in the life of the company. As the company develops, meetings in public places for the purpose of entertainment can possibly strengthen the connection.
Long-Term Strategy
Long-Term Strategy involves planning the development of the company for the next few years:
- First year: The attainment of full recoupment and profit, the staff is increased by no more than two times from the start. It is possible to rent an office to reduce the proportion of remote work and increase communication.
- Second Year: Expansion by adding specialists in telephone psychological counseling. Possible expansion of support staff and addition of financial specialists.
- Third Year: Create a new application or modify an existing one in order to receive requests for advertising of own services from psychologists and practicing psychiatrists in the region. If possible, modify the structure of the organization as needed to increase efficiency and versatility. An adequate level of earnings while considering decent salaries for all employees and a high level of investment in the business should be further ensured.
Stages of Creation Summary
The stages of formation and interaction between employees and the company should be as follows:
The determination of goals and specific tasks and selecting the correct and effective performers for these tasks. Alpha-test completion and further deployment if the application is in appropriate resources for beta testing. Additional efforts should also be made in the form of networking and marketing. The database filling should continue persistently. Moreover, the development and integration of psychological tests based on licensed literature and other sources before and after full implementation of the application while putting developers into debugging, support, and refinement mode is crucial.
References
Boon, C., Den Hartog, D. N., & Lepak, D. P. (2019). A systematic review of human resource management systems and their measurement. Journal of Management, 45(6), 2498–2537. Web.
Ng, M. M., Firth, J., Minen, M., & Torous, J. (2019). User engagement in mental health apps: A review of measurement, reporting, and validity. Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.), 70(7), 538–544. Web.
Torous, J., Andersson, G., Bertagnoli, A., Christensen, H., Cuijpers, P., Firth, J., Haim, A., Hsin, H., Hollis, C., Lewis, S., Mohr, D. C., Pratap, A., Roux, S., Sherrill, J., & Arean, P. A. (2019). Towards a consensus around standards for smartphone apps and digital mental health. World Psychiatry: Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 18(1), 97–98. Web.