Not all businesses have the funds to spare to hire new employees as and when they need them. For SMEs, much more consideration is needed before taking the plunge to hire new staff. Putting off hiring a new team member could be detrimental to your business in the long run.
Read our 7 signs to help you identify when you need to hire new employees.Â
1. Your employees are overworked
If you and your team are having to work at a super-fast pace just to keep up with the flow of work, you could all be at risk of burning out. While it’s great to keep encouraging your team to give 100% on a daily basis, it’s not ideal if the reason for doing this is to try and keep an even keel.
Your employees could start to become more tired or stressed than usual, which can lead to mistakes being made that can affect your business and team morale. Perhaps orders are being sent out late, your kitchen staff can’t keep up with customer demand or the quality of service has dropped? If this is the case then it could be time to hire a new team member. This will not only take the pressure off your existing employees but will also ensure that all tasks are completed to a high standard and in a timely manner.
2. You’re missing out on opportunities
Is being short-staffed causing you to turn down new business opportunities? Maybe you work in hospitality and have had to turn down an event due to not having enough team members, or you work in manufacturing and have had to turn down a big order because you won’t be able to complete it on time with the staff you have.
If this sounds like you then it could be time to bring on a pair of extra hands. Hiring temporary employees means you can cover peak seasonal periods like Christmas and not have the risk of being overstaffed if things go quiet.
Being short-staffed and turning down opportunities will prevent you from growing your business, but hiring additional employees can help you take advantage of new opportunities and drive additional revenue.
3. You need someone with specific skills
As your business grows so does its demand for leadership and expansion. You might be at the point where you aren’t always at the business premises because you’re out at meetings or planning new projects, in which case you’ll need someone to manage your team when you’re tied up with more pressing matters. There may not be anyone in your team with the right skills to be able to step up to that level of responsibility and you don’t have the time or resources to invest in training them.
Hiring a new manager or supervisor will ensure that everything runs smoothly and that your business can continue to thrive and grow. Alternatively, there may be a part of your business that you’re trying to run but that could be done better by someone with more experience in that area. Perhaps you own a pub or a restaurant and are currently cooking in the kitchen but you should be out front being the face of the business. Hiring someone who not only has the experience but qualifications to back up their skills could really help push your business to the next level.
4. High-value employees are doing low-value work
You may have employees that are far more experienced and talented than the role they are currently working in but you can’t move them on to more important tasks because there’s no one to do the more basic roles they’re currently fulfilling. If this is the case it may be worth bringing on someone else to help support them. By supporting your existing and hardworking employees in their career development you’re also investing in your company’s growth.
Hiring a new employee who is potentially at the start of their career and is eager to work means you can let existing team members flourish into other areas of the business. For example, you have a kitchen assistant who’s ready to become a chef, a waiter who has the skills to become a hostess or a picker and packer that wants to take on more responsibility as a warehouse operative. Hiring someone new who can fulfil the more menial tasks will take the pressure off your more advanced employees, allowing them and your business to grow.
5. Customer service is slipping
Signs that you need more staff may not just be evident internally it may also be obvious to your customers too. This is especially true if you’ve seen an increase in complaints or bad reviews about waiting times and quality of service. Low staff levels can be a detriment to customer service. Spread your team too thin and they’ll struggle to serve everyone with the outstanding customer service that they’re capable of.
Customers will begin to feel frustrated if no one is free to answer the phone, meals are taking longer than expected to be served or your bar is severely understaffed. This will lead to your customers taking their business somewhere else. Adding new team members can help make sure that each customer is given the time and quality of service that you’d expect. Happy customers generally mean more good reviews and positive feedback as well as potentially increasing sales.
6. Overtime is becoming the norm
Regularly relying on the same few people to cover additional shifts and paying overtime rates could be costing you more than hiring someone new. Overtime can be costly and is not a great long term strategy, especially if those reliable employees end up leaving to find a better work-life balance elsewhere. The last thing you need is to lose team members, even more so if you’re in the middle of the peak season.
It could be you and not your employees that are doing all the extra overtime. While all good managers know when to get stuck in, you could be doing yourself a disservice by covering all those extra hours. Working yourself to the bone 7 days a week will eventually wear you down and you won’t be much use to anyone if you become ill or burnt out. Hiring a new employee or whole team can really take some of the pressure off you and your existing employees. Christmas temps are a great stop-gap for busy periods as they can cover extra shifts hassle-free.
7. You can’t grow your business
Not only could being understaffed mean you’re having to go into overdrive to keep up but it could also be holding your business back. Hiring new staff isn’t just about filling empty positions and better managing the existing workload, it’s about growing your business and creating new opportunities. It’s difficult to grow if you don’t have the support or resources there to take on additional work.
A new hire could enable you to not only reach your company targets but surpass them and reach higher achievements. New team members can also bring new skills and experience that the business could be lacking in. In addition, it’s really hard to grow your enterprise with a team that’s already understaffed.
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