In the current environment, staffing is a big concern for business owners. Here are three ways to handle staffing concerns:

1. Hire New Employees.

Almost every business owner is short-staffed and fighting to hire quality personnel to help grow and maintain their business this year. Here are a few tips that can help you in your search:

  • The best candidate is a referral from an existing employee. Make sure you offer a referral bonus to your employees and incentivize them to do the recruiting for you. They will be motivated financially as well as want to bring on the right person for your workplace
  • If you’re unable to fill a full-time position, try hiring 1 or 2 part-time employees. Many older generation employees would rather work 20 hours a week. One of our clients, who has a fleet of dump trucks, can use 4 semi-retired/experienced drivers to fill his weekly deliveries.
  • Look at your biggest local competition’s employees. Not only do they have the skills you need, hiring just one of your competition’s employees can give you a competitive edge. If both you both attend the same trade shows, it’s a great opportunity to check out their sales associates in action.

2. Evaluate current staff efficiency.

When dealing with staffing concerns, it’s important to evaluate whether your business is as efficient as it can be for the current employees you have on staff. Freeing up time for one of your employees enables you to give them additional responsibilities to help workflow. Here are a few things to consider:

  • Is there equipment that can free up labor? For example, if you have a person answering the phone, consider a voice mail system with an automatic directory.  This can free up hours for that employee to handle other crucial/more productive office tasks. Many of our clients have their office phone automatically forwarded to their cell phone which helps them in maintaining connectivity with their clients/employees.
  • Can you outsource any HR/Accounting tasks? In today’s marketplace streamlining is key and having separate accounts receivable, accounts payable, and payroll people involve salary costs, space requirements and additional overhead.  Can you outsource any of these functions?
  • Evaluate changing technology. Consider if an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system could help streamline labor intensive data tasks.

3. Employee morale.

And last, but not least, make sure your employees want to work for you and aren’t in danger of leaving for a different position.

  • Does your staff have common complaints that can be addressed/amended to create positive morale? An anonymous suggestion box can be a great way to find out what your employees are concerned about.
  • Evaluate your current office amenities. Do your employees take pride in your office atmosphere or are there small changes you can do to enhance their work environment and maintain positive morale. This can be as simple as providing free coffee or a quarterly office lunch to review/reward a successful quarter.

Reviewing and putting any of these into practice can help you address your staffing concerns.