6 Things You Need to Include in Your Small Business Staffing Plan
December 24, 2018 | Staffing Blog
Business owners within every industry are constantly facing the challenge of maintaining an efficient staff. This is why it is imperative that you approach staffing your company with a well thought out plan.
Winging the staffing process can put you in a number of different difficult situations, such as overstaffing or overworking the few good employees you have. The result will cause your productivity to dwindle and you will only be helping your competitors win over your customers.
Save yourself the time, money and stress by using the following six steps to create a staffing plan for your small business.
How to Ensure You Are Always Staffed Appropriately
Here are some ways to approach your staffing plan to ensure that you have the employees you need to be productive during the busy times and not shoot you in the foot when business slows down.
1. Define The Positions Necessary In Order To Run The Business Effectively
Make a list of each and every type of employee you need and how many will be necessary for each department. You can determine these numbers by considering the projects that they will be doing, what roles each person will play, and how much they should be able to accomplish in one day.
2. Know What Questions You Will Ask And The Answers You Hope To Hear In Interviews
Having a set guideline for your interviews will help you to streamline the process and ensure that each person is being evaluated in a similar way. It will also help you to come to final decisions if you have multiple candidates with hirable potential. Knowing what criteria each individual needs to fill will allow you to assess who your strongest candidates truly are.
3. Always Conduct Background Checks
Too often, employers make the mistake of jumping the gun and hiring people who seem to fit the bill before conducting a background check. You may be in a crunch and need someone immediately, but if that person turns out to have embellished their resume and does not actually have the skills they claim to have, you will have to start back at square one.
If you are working with a staffing agency, they may take care of this for you. Allegiance’s hiring process includes a three-step evaluation to ensure that our staff is not only qualified but that they’re the best people to fill open jobs.
4. Consider The Rest Of Your Team When Hiring New People
Obviously, skill and experience will contribute to a candidate’s eligibility, but it is also important that they will be able to work well with the team you have already built. It is even a good idea to ask your employees if they have any input when it comes to the people you bring on. After all, they are the ones working in the environment every day and they know what would help them to be more productive. Including them in these decisions will let them know that you appreciate them and care about their experience working for you.
5. Define Business Expectations And Training Guidelines
New employees should be informed about your business adequately right from the beginning. Having a handbook with the company rules will ensure that each individual is fully aware of their role within the business and what everyone is aiming to do. Furthermore, coming up with strategic training guidelines will help to create a cohesive team because everyone has been taught to approach their jobs through your lens.
6. Determine How Many Workers You Will Need During Your Busy Season
Every company has a busy season. Staffing for this time can be challenging, especially if you’re just establishing when your peaks and slow times are. Hiring temporary employees for these times is a reasonable solution, as you will only need the help for a portion of the time.
Partnering up with a staffing agency will give you the ability to find the staff you need when those spikes occur. Hiring temporary employees this way also introduces you to potential permanent employees for the future.
In Conclusion
It is all about knowing what you need to get the job done right. Temporary staffing allows you to keep a steady flow of production when business ramps up and not be damaged by labor costs when the slow dips occur. For more information on how a staffing agency can optimize your small business staffing plans, you can reach us here.