As your business expands, it’s important to both reinforce the teams you currently have as their workloads increase and to diversify your operations. Both require new employees, but how do you decide where to focus your recruitment spend? Here are some great tips on how best to plan your workforce.
Identify current problem areas Is there a particular department that has an unusually high turnover? Or perhaps a continually underperforming team that may need some reinforcement? In either case, it may be worth discussing why that may be, whether that be a problem manager, frustrations with the operations or cultural issues, and make decisions accordingly. Shoring up any holes in your current operations should always be your first priority before attempting to expand your workforce, so be sure to make sure all current employees are content and performing well. Create a positive working culture for your new recruits to enter so that you can retain them down the line.
Focus on your core If you have grown your business to the point where you need to outsource some things, then you’re doing something right! By outsourcing, you’re freeing up your own and your core team’s time to keep doing what you do best. The reason why your business has seen some success will likely suffer if you try to stretch yourself too thin, so maintaining and increasing your momentum can be best served by outsourcing and relieving yourself of the pressure.
Assess your projects There’s no point in hiring new staff if you don’t know what to do with them, so start by assessing the projects you have planned over the next year and consider what aspects of them will require new staff, how many and with what skills. If the workforce update is a large enough project in itself, maybe the HR team needs some reinforcement before you even get started. Are you about to begin a rebrand? Then the marketing team will likely need some designers familiar with graphics software to create new communications. Try and drill down as far as possible when considering what skills you will need to add to your team to create effective recruitment adverts that will drive the right people to you.
Retaining people Planning a workforce is about more than just acquiring new recruits, but ensuring you keep talented individuals. Again, talking to employees is absolutely key here. It’s important to understand the deeper reasons your employees work for your business and why they may be put off from staying. Creating incentives and bonuses for high-performing employees is a sure-fire way of encouraging your best and brightest to stay where they are and keep performing well. Creating something with continuity helps as well, such as a board with the current and former ‘employee of the month’ on it, which will help.
Layoffs Sometimes workforce planning can involve trimming any excess staff. This is always a hard time for any business, especially when the employees involved are valued members of a team. It is always worth considering if perhaps your recruitment could be better spent on training current staff to expand their skills and abilities, especially if someone clearly has an aptitude for their current role. However, if worse comes to worst and layoffs are required, ensuring that all due process is followed is essential as an undue dismissal lawsuit can be a real drain on resources needed to implement other changes or projects.
Consistently monitor and evaluate your plan Sudden resignations of key figures can really affect any ongoing projects you have at the moment, leaving them without owners and no direction. It’s important once you’ve gained this insight into your workforce that you maintain and nurture it so as to react to any changes in it or the needs of the company. Be aware of the skills that each employee has so you know what you are missing should they elect to change careers.
Need help with any of the above scenarios? minc people can provide you with the recruitment support you need. Learn more: https://www.mincgroup.co.uk/Pages/minc-people