Staffing issues are par for the course in talent acquisition, but some of the most common ones are solvable. Learn ways to do just that in our article.
3 common staffing issues and how to solve them
Back to TopRecruitment is a challenge at the best of times, but there are specific areas that can drag businesses down quicker than others.
In this article, we'll discuss some of the big ones that might be hurting your bottom line, along with ideas for fixing them.
1. Being short-staffed
For whatever reason, you don't have enough bodies at desks, in-person or virtually. This is a regular issue in most industries. No problem. There are several simple answers.1
Cross-training–People have the capacity to do more, and they'll be willing to give it their all if it means possible advancement. Build capacity and ladders upward and plan to backfill. Your team will be grateful, and your company will be more effective.
Becoming task-driven–Instead of worrying about everything, focus on priority tasks you can feasibly check off, while you continue to staff up. This method will not only clarify what matters, but will also make areas you need to hire for in the future more obvious.
Exploring outsourcing–If you can't achieve everything in-house, figure out what work you can send to contractors. This can be a temporary measure, or you can allocate a budget to always have contract talent in the mix.
If you're not familiar with staff augmentation, you can consider bringing in a talent partner.
Automating–Instead of getting mired in the mundane, take time to think about what can be automated, freeing up your team to do more important work. Automation is great to employ for data, and many companies have plenty of data-centric needs. Just make sure to create human quality checkpoints for whatever work it completes.
2. Turnover
"70% of preventable leavers reported actions more directly related to how they are managed daily such as creating more positive personal interactions with their manager (21%), addressing frustrating organizational issues (13%), creating opportunities for career advancement (11%) or improving staffing or workload concerns (9%)."
There are some industries where turnover is inevitable. For example, seasonal ones where the same talent simply isn't available after one season ends, or part-time-only roles that are routinely quit in favor of full-time options. But most industries can lower that metric. Here are our recommendations.
Conducting "stay interviews"–Talk to your team and see what would make them happier. You can do this through "stay interviews" or less formally. Did you know that "Nearly half (45%) of voluntary leavers report that neither a manager nor another leader proactively discussed their job satisfaction, performance or future with the organization with them in the three months before leaving"3? You just need to show your investment in them as people, so you can head off issues.
Even if you don't go the most direct route with stay interviews, you can do a lot to understand your current and former team members. Try these activities to get started.
- Interviewing past employees to ask them why they left. The results can be illuminating.
- Observing people when they exit to see if you can deduce patterns in their behavior.
- Building bonds with your employees3 so that they want to invest long-term.
- Creating company paths for career advancement3 that allow your team to stay with you.
- Regularly reviewing compensation to ensure it's competitive.3
- Taking care of your team (their mental and physical health, etc.) by giving them access to benefits and programs, and being open to their concerns.
3. Skills gaps
Skills gaps exist in every industry, and a simple Boolean search will reveal that the number of candidates needed to close them is not small. Solutions4 to them include:
- Championing professional development via both reskilling and upskilling.
- Promoting your existing team over outsiders to show loyalty and increase morale.
- Fostering mentoring in the workplace to keep people growing professionally.
- Integrating the concept of learning new skills into assessments so they prove more valuable.
- Hiring for social or soft skills instead of pure hard or technical skills.
Would you like to learn more about those skills? We wrote another entire article on closing skills gaps.
Have you tried our solutions with mixed results? That's okay. It sounds like you need to team up with a partner who can fill your pipeline with talent that works and stays. We've got you covered!
Sources and inspiration
