What to do when you need more staff fast

It’s normal to feel like you want to wait until the last possible minute to hire more staff. You won’t want to have to deal with the extra costs of training somebody up, especially if you’re not 100% sure this is necessary. That being said, you also don’t want to overwork the employees that you do have.

Look out for the following signs that your employees are overworked and you need an extra set of hands:

• Employees are working late nights, early mornings, and on weekends
• Team members are missing personal and social commitments in order to work
• People are more emotional and sensitive in the workplace
• The quality of work is decreasing
• Turnover increases

Even if you haven’t noticed all of the signs above yet, if your team are telling you that you need to hire more staff, it’s only a matter of time. Below, you’ll find some advice for what to do when you need more staff fast:

Look For Talent In The Right Place

You can find talent by looking at things like LinkedIn’s talent pool reports and industry reports to find both the best geographical places to search if you want to hire recent graduates.

Find Low Cost Help

Maybe it’ll be more beneficial for you to hire low cost help in the form of a PA or independent contractor. You can usually pay these workers less than your time’s value to handle some of your time sensitive tasks, so they'll be worth the investment. You can also look at places like BlueForce who can help you to find the ideal staff member when you really need one.

Use Technology

There’s actually technology out there that will scan through candidate’s profiles to help you identify strong people - and this will help you to save so much time. You can then reduce applicants you have to a more manageable amount.

Make Sure Your Interviewing Process Is Structure

It goes without saying that structured interviews, with a structured way to assess a candidate, are better for screening candidates. For the first round of interviews, you could have your recruiters ask the same eight questions to each candidate on a phone interview, with instructions on what to look for. A structured process like this will save so much time.

Ask Your New Hires For Referrals

Employees are most likely to refer a candidate within the first six months of the job. If you know you need more staff fast or you have a feeling that you might in future, it can be a good idea to ask for referrals the minute you hire someone. Research shows that referrals are among the quickest and best ways to hire, so make it a part of the employee onboarding process. You’ll save yourself so much hassle in the future.

If you need more staff fast, make sure you look for talent in the right place, consider taking on a temporary or freelance hire for less of a commitment, use technology, and ensure the interview process is structured. Then, when hiring somebody new, make asking for referrals a part of the process to save time in future!