We made it — we’ve officially survived 2020 and are ready to conquer 2021! Navigating the trajectory of our startups over the past year was arduous, but after several months of mishaps, pivots, and even failures, we’ve proven resilient.

Let’s make 2021 our year to reach, expand, and cultivate the startups we’ve dreamed of. Here’s 3 things your startup should focus on this year to set up your company for success.

Nurture A Good Workplace Environment

This year, startups should focus on sustaining a healthy, positive, and community-centric workplace. While 2020 is behind us, it’s important for us to take the lessons we learned last year and implement them in 2021.

For one, sustaining open and honest channels of communication with our co-workers and supervisors are needed. Startups should nurture a workplace environment that is mindful and understanding of people’s circumstances as it builds trust and community, even after this pandemic is over. Second, establishing workplace boundaries is a must as many are still working from home. It’s no secret that startups don’t follow the regular 9–5 hours however, startups should establish a formal or informal understanding for when it’s time to put away work for the night. By creating startup-wide boundaries, everyone can stay engaged and productive during peak hours and prevent burnout. Finally, keep those virtual happy hours and game nights going! Cultivating community and memories with your co-workers outside of work hours keeps people personally connected and fuels a community-centered workplace that can aid in meeting and surpassing your goals for 2021.

Prioritize Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI)

The summer of 2020 will go down as one of the largest social justice movements in history, and as the first time several major corporations and startups took a public stance on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. However, standing behind social movements and DEI doesn’t end at a social media post, it needs to be prioritized, consistent, and transparent. Startups should focus on the best ways to implement DEI that goes deeper than monthly trainings and mission statements, which can include:

• Assessing employee demographics: this includes looking into demographics by position, department, salary, etc.
• Assessing your product/service: analyzing how inclusive or accessible your product and/or service is to certain demographics

And it shouldn’t stop there. Startups should both analyze how DEI can be implemented within facets of their company and build a system of accountability and transparency that prioritizes DEI on a consistent basis.

Cultivate Effective Communication

As we still work from home and continue to push through this pandemic, the importance of effectively communicating online is essential to hitting your 2021 goals. Look at the tools you used in 2020 and evaluate which one is the most effective. Consider a weekly or monthly company-wide email blast that streamlines important events that occurred within the company. Or even, issue an anonymous company-wide survey for suggestions to better internal communications. Overall, find what communication keeps everyone informed, engaged, and productive within your company. Once you fine-tune your communication internally, you’ll be able to prioritize important goals and tasks at hand.

With these three points in mind, you’ll be able to make 2021 your year of success.