How To Manage A Staffing Shortage

In our current business landscape, the effects that staffing shortages can have on business processes and operations are now more significant than ever before. In recent years, the lasting effects of the ‘The Great Resignation;’ an economic trend in which employees have simultaneously resigned from their jobs, have become almost unavoidable. Employee turnover rates are now higher than ever before, with 41% of employees stating that they would leave their current jobs for a 5% wage increase. Therefore, your business must prioritize increasing employee engagement and satisfaction levels. Although staffing shortages can be extremely taxing on scarce organizational resources, they can also be extremely stressful and exhausting for employees that choose to stay with your organization. Accordingly, it is crucial for your business to avoid staffing shortages as well as manage staffing shortages as effectively as possible.

How Your Business Can Manage A Staffing Shortage

1. Promote Work-Life Balance

Staffing shortages can not only affect your business’s productivity but can also leave employees feeling overworked and stressed, which may ultimately lead to mental and physical burnout. High turnover can place undue levels of stress on remaining employees, hence bringing down overall morale and engagement. Therefore, promoting a healthy work-life balance can help reduce employee stress levels during a staffing shortage as well as significantly reduce employee dissatisfaction that may contribute to a staffing shortage in the first place. Recent studies indicate that 72% of potential employees consider work-life balance when job-searching. Your business can promote a healthy work-life balance by providing employees with the option of choosing their own hours, allowing employees to work from home through remote models and introducing compressed work weeks.

2. Improve Company Culture

Improving company culture is one of the most effective methods of improving employee morale and engagement during a staffing shortage. When your business’s organizational culture aligns with the values, beliefs and goals of employees, they are much more likely to feel valued, supported and secure. You can significantly improve your business’s workplace culture by prioritizing transparency, clearly outlining plans for achieving short-term and long-term organizational goals, encouraging and rewarding valuable employee contributions and providing employees with opportunities to interact with each other inside and outside of the workplace.

3. Hire Short-Term Employees

A short-term employee is defined as an employee that is contracted to temporarily work for your business for a specified period or the duration of a specific project. Although you may be tempted to permanently fill vacancies as soon as possible during a staffing shortage, hiring short-term employees may be more effective for your business in the long-run. Hiring short-term employees can not only help your business benefit from faster hiring decision-making processes and reduced commitment but can also help your business save financial resources by hiring short-term employees on an hourly or project-wise basis.

4. Respond To Employee Feedback

Employee feedback can be one of the most valuable resources for your business during a staffing shortage. Encouraging employees to provide feedback at regular intervals can help you understand their current mindset and attitudes toward your business. High levels of employee productivity and engagement are directly linked to consistent and relevant employee feedback. Highly engaged organizational teams have been shown to indicate 21% more profitability than teams with low levels of engagement. Furthermore, management should have regular one-on-one meetings with employees to provide them with a clear understanding of organizational goals and objectives, celebrate employee achievements and strengthen working relationships. Therefore, responding to employee feedback and increasing engagement levels can not only help avoid future staffing shortages but can also help your business prepare for inevitable future employee turnover.

Function Point – Manage and Prevent Staffing Shortages

With higher levels of employee turnover than ever before, staffing shortages can seem almost inevitable. Furthermore, staffing shortages can be extremely difficult to manage due to the levels of undue stress placed on remaining employees. However, Function Point’s powerful and centralized team collaboration, project management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), business reporting and resource management software can help your business manage and prevent staffing shortages much more easily than ever before. Function Point’s all-in-one platform can also help your business utilize scarce financial and human resources more efficiently, increase cross-departmental collaboration and much more. Book a demo now that your business can take advantage of Function Point’s solutions to gain valuable insights into organizational profitability, productivity and engagement.