Adams & Garth Blog

Determining the right amount of staff for a fluctuating workflow can be difficult. You don’t want to hire too many employees and not have enough work for everyone. Nor do you want to hamper productivity by having too few employees on staff.

So how do you know when it’s time to hire again? Here are some questions to ask yourself:

• Are employees calling in sick more and more?
If there’s been a recent rise in sick time at your company, it may be caused be an overworked workforce. Your employees may be doing too much with too little.

• Are employees taking advantage of vacation time?
On the flip side, when employees are not taking the time off they’re due, this could also be a sign of an overworked staff. They may feel like there’s simply too much to do, so they can’t take time off.

• How many times over the past couple of months have you missed deadlines?
If deadlines are missed on a daily or weekly basis, then that may be a sign you’re understaffed.

• Are overtime costs consistently on the rise?
If your overtime costs are going up on a regular basis, then you may be understaffed. You simply do not have a large enough workforce to meet the needs of your workflow.

• Have you turned down new opportunities because you don’t have enough people?
You’ll lose your competitive edge without the right people with the right skills in place.

• Are you using temporary or contract workers a lot?
If you’re using temporary employers in the same departments to perform the same tasks over and over, it may be a sign you need to hire a full-time employee to fill that role.

• Are you following your business plan?
You created a business plan for a reason. But if you’re not following through with it, it may be due to lack of time and resources.

Now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, you should have a better idea about whether or not to hire. If you have questions – or are looking to hire additional full-time or temporary staff – please contact Adams & Garth. As one of Staunton’s leading employment agencies, we can source, screen, and hire, so you can focus on other priorities, like running your company.

Laying off employees is never a welcome proposition. Not only does it mean that things are not going well at your company, but you also have to actually sit down face-to-face with your employees and let them go – no easy task.

So is there any way to avoid laying off employees? Here are some tips you may want to consider first:

Reduce the number of hours worked.
Consider creating four-day work weeks in order to reduce hours and salary, or ask your employees to trade in some of their pay for additional time off.

Institute a temporary pay cut.
Though most employees will protest, if it’s between a pay cut and a job loss, most will take the cut.

Allow attrition.
When an employee quits or retires from the company, don’t fill their position. Instead, assign their job duties to remaining employees at your company.

Encourage leaves of absence.
Allow employees to take leaves of absence with full benefits for a specified time period. However, make sure you promise them that they will have a job when they return, though it may not be the same position with the same salary.

Put a cap on overtime.
Put a limit on the amount of overtime employees are allowed to work. If you need employees to work a lot of overtime, consider bringing in some temporary employees instead. It may cost you less in the long run.

Offer an early retirement package.
Create and offer a retirement package to those employees who qualify.

Place a freeze on hiring.
Even if you’re going through a temporary increase in demand, don’t hire more staff until your company’s situation has truly stabilized. If you need extra help for a period of time, then consider bringing in some temporary employees.

Offer a shared ownership package.
Offer your employees the ability to trade pay for company stock.

Encourage job sharing.
Let some of your full-time employees convert to part-time employees and share certain job roles.

Use temporary staffing.
Meet a rise in demand without hiring more core staff or paying overtime by using temporary staffing.

At Adams & Garth, we’ve helped many companies throughout Charlottesville and Central Virginia to avoid laying off full-time employees through the use of strategic, temporary staffing. If your company is currently in a position where lay offs seem imminent, please contact us. We may be able to help.

While your employees are your greatest asset, they are also your biggest expense. So, logic follows, the more proactive you are about managing the cost of your employees, the more money you’ll be able to save.

However, with that said, effectively managing your staffing function isn’t all about saving money or cutting costs. Instead, it’s about increasing your company’s flexibility so that you can take on new opportunities and overcome obstacles.

Here are some tips you can use to better manage your business through effective staffing:

Eliminate those bottlenecks.
When it comes to running a company, one of the biggest challenges for growth is the shortage of skilled people. In order to overcome this issue, you have a few options:

• Hire additional permanent staff
• Train your existing core staff to work more efficiently
• Hire contingent or temporary workers
• Outsource parts of your process to a firm that can get those tasks done faster or cheaper

Be on the lookout for new opportunities.
You’ve probably had a lot of great ideas for new business ventures; however, you may not have the resources to implement those plans. But with temporary or contract workers, you can tap into the resources you need, when you need them, in order to take on new opportunities and grow your business – whether that means hiring a contract IT guru to build an e-commerce function for your website, or taking on several new temporary workers to complete administrative tasks so your core staff can focus on the new initiative.

Hire skilled talent.
Instead of taking the time to learn a new skill on your own, or spending hours trying to train your staff, bring in an experienced contract employee who can offer you the knowledge and capabilities you need on a temporary basis. There’s no learning curve and once the project is finished, you don’t have to worry about the cost of a full-time employee.

Generate revenue with temporary workers.
Temporary workers can be used for a variety of revenue-generating tasks, including:

• To collect data
• To conduct market research.
• To create marketing materials.
• To manage a seasonal surge in business.
• To fill employment gaps when an employee is on vacation, or on maternity or sick leave.

Focus your employees on what they do best.
Your top sales person shouldn’t be doing low-level administrative tasks. He or she should be focused on selling and making money for your business. Hire a full-time administrative assistant or bring in a team of temporary employees to manage less important duties while your full-time staff focuses on priorities.

Outsource certain activities.
You may want to consider outsourcing certain functions, like IT, staffing, or payroll, to a firm that specializes in these kinds of tasks. Chances are, they’ll be able to get the job done more efficiently – and effectively – than you can.

If you’re ready to use staffing to better manage your business in 2010, then please contact Adams & Garth. As one of Lynchburg’s top staffing firms, we can help you plan for future staffing needs, as well as determine the best way to get the work done, improve revenues, and reduce costs.