One of the major impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic is skills and labour shortage. It has become difficult to find the right people to be a part of your team and work towards the growth of your business. There are several reasons for skills and labour shortages:
- Several people have changed their industries or careers while looking for jobs during the pandemic.
- Some people have moved away to their native towns and taken smaller jobs over there to live a comfortable life.
- There is a lesser inflow of people from other towns, cities, states, and countries.
- Many people have started their own small businesses, allowing them to navigate their careers and personal life.
And many more such reasons have resulted in skills and labour shortage for several businesses. Is your business also struggling with labour or skill shortage?
Here are 5 ways to tackle labour or skills shortages for your business.
Determine your business staffing needs
To handle skills or labour shortages for your business, you first need to determine your staffing needs. Do you really need extra people working on your team, or can you manage with your existing team?
If you need extra people to work on your team, do you need to hire them full-time, or can they work part-time (depending on the scope of the job role)? If you hire extra people, can they work in shifts on some days of the week?
Can you outsource some of your business requirements to another firm? For example, instead of hiring an accounting staff, you can outsource your accounting needs to an accounting firm in your region. This can help you fulfill the skill shortage while saving money and time.
Similarly, you can hire a virtual assistant to get some help with business administration.
Work to achieve success
Your aim must be to work and plan for establishing a successful business in the long run. Now, you might think of hiring new staff to fulfill your future business plans. But before you hire new people, consider your requirements.
- Do you want to open new offices in new locations?
- Do you want to expand your products and services?
- Do you want to keep your office open for extended hours?
And more such business needs will determine whether you need to hire people to achieve success in your future business plans.
For example, if you are running a café and want to start serving at dinner time too, you need to determine whether you can hire extra staff for these extended hours or not. If not, don’t advertise to your customers.
Instead of serving at dinnertime, you can attract more lunchtime customers or work on providing an extended breakfast menu. This way, you can still use your existing staff and get more customers to earn more profit and grow.
You might also want to look at financial programs run by the government, such as Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program. In this program, you can get financial subsidiaries when you work as an employer by hiring apprentices or trainees.
Support and motivate your existing team
One of the ways you can tackle labour and skill shortage is by retaining your existing team. And to do that, you need to support and motivate them.
Now, you don’t have to make grand gestures to support and motivate your team. Smaller acts of appreciation and gratitude towards the work they do can make all the difference. For example, before you start every meeting, try to sum up the wins of the team while giving the due credit to the employees. Or you can also start smaller traditions such as celebrating the birthdays of your employees.
To show your faith in your employees, you can also share the struggle of finding the right skills and labour. You might be surprised by how many existing employees would be glad to work extra shifts to cover the shortage.
Hire the right people
If you know you need to hire more staff for your business, make sure your hire the right people. And you can achieve this by providing an extensive yet accurate job description for the role. For example, you must tell what the job entails, including the work hours and any other perks they might enjoy.
Once you know the exact requirements of the job role, you can now hire people from different cultural backgrounds, skills, age, gender, people with disabilities, or seniors. You can also use different online platforms to post your job specifications to attract the right people.
You can also read our previous blog about attracting and retaining your staff, along with our blog on inclusion and diversity.
Turn to your network of people
If you need to hire people for the job role, you can turn to your network people, including your existing team, customers, vendors, contractors, or your social media followers.
When you want to hire people, you must inform your network of people. This will work out in two ways: either they themselves would work for your team or know someone who can fill the role.
For example, if you send a weekly newsletter to your customers, you can mention the job opening along with the link to find more information.
Wrap it Up
Skills or labour shortages can drastically affect your business operations. But with careful planning, you can handle the shortage effectively while creating a healthy and motivating work environment.
If you need more assistance or training on hiring the right people for your business, you can get in touch with us at Keystone Executive Coaching. Our business training programs are specially curated to tackle issues with hiring and retaining people, finances, marketing, sales, and more.
