Planning for the Unplannable
I recently read an article about Workforce Planning and how it can be simple to be proactive instead of reactive when it comes to staffing. However, I’m not sure that’s entirely realistic. Of course, sometimes people are away from work for a planned reason, such as vacation, surgery, or training; however, a lot of the time, staffing shortages are unplanned. Things like illness, bereavement, mental health issues, or even losing an employee to a new job opportunity are tough to see coming.
Planned shortages can be easily prepared for through cross-training, load sharing, or extra prep time from the person who is going to be away. It’s the unplanned vacancies that can be difficult to anticipate and hard to cover for. These challenging situations can have an employer feeling desperate to ‘just get the spot filled’, and that can result in making desperate hiring decisions. This kind of reactionary approach is something that we caution employers against. While you may not always have the time and resources to be completely proactive with your hiring, don’t allow yourself to skip steps in the hiring process that result in a worse situation. Most of us know the negative impact of a ‘bad hire’: lack of productivity, loss of team morale, and customer dissatisfaction, to name a few. It’s important to maintain consistent hiring practices, regardless of the situation, to safeguard yourself, your employees, and your clients/customers from these negative effects.
If any of this resonated with you, but your first reaction to hearing this is ‘UGHHH’: I don’t have time for that!’ know that you aren’t alone and there is support for these situations. There are companies, like ours, that offer staffing services to help with the whole (or part) of a recruitment, as well as temporary staffing services to have someone come in immediately to provide support for some of the more basic job tasks.
While it’s difficult to always anticipate the unexpected staffing shortages, there are some steps you can take to lessen the impact:
Have crossover in client contact and knowledge so someone can step in with minimal impact on the customer/client if a staff member is away.
Cross-training and information sharing also help to make sure there isn’t one person who holds the secret on how ‘xyz’ is done.
Procedure manuals with clear directions for tasks should be up-to-date and easy to follow.
If you find yourself in an unexpected staffing situation and aren’t sure how to proceed, don’t hesitate to reach out to our team to see if we can offer guidance or support.