Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
By Henry Brown
One of the most difficult things about running a company is identifying how many staff members you really need. It’s more than just a case of counting how many desk spaces you have and hiring that number of people. Some small business employees might be pulling far more hours than they should be, and some larger businesses might have staff members that really aren’t doing much. It’s hard to balance the right number of employees, so how can you tell if you need to hire more?
In this helpful post, we’re going to be covering two signs that show you need to hire more employees into your workplace.
Your employees are constantly facing stressful situations
Having more employees means that the stress of working in your business can be split between everyone. However, if you and your team are under a constant state of stress, then it usually means that you’re facing way too many responsibilities. If this is the case, then you may want to consider speaking to a staffing agency to hire a few extra people. However, it can be difficult to determine just how many people you need to hire. As such, you’ll want to slowly hire one person at a time if possible so that you don’t end up over-hiring.
It’s actually fairly normal for some companies to enter crunch-time situations. For example, if you’re close to the completion of a project, then you may expect your employees to work harder for a few days. Alternatively, you may get periods where there’s just more activity in the industry. Holiday seasons are especially busy times for certain kinds of businesses.
As such, you’ll need to determine if it’s just swings in your business that really make it hard to work and stay on top of all of your responsibilities. If you do get seasonal shifts like this, then it may be best to hire a few extra employees but fill in the gaps with outsourced assistance to ensure you’re not hiring more employees than you need.
Your business is starting to grow
Growth pains are usually very easy to identify. If you have staff performing multiple roles and failing to keep to their schedules, then it’s a good sign that you really need to hire a few more people. Your employees may tell you that they need help, they might be asking you to cut their hours, and they might even contemplate leaving.
Business growth is extremely hard to accommodate when it comes to employment. As such, you’ll want to make sure that you’re listening to your employees to see where you can hire more assistance and if you need more staff members. If you notice that your business is getting more business and making more profit, then it makes total sense to hire an extra employee or two to accommodate that level of growth. Failing to do so could cause your business to deliver a poor customer experience due to the stress that your employees are facing.
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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.
