Staffing your business effectively and efficiently

Staff your business with capable individuals and avoid falling foul of common staffing pitfalls – saturation, cost and turnover.

It’s easy to saturate your business with lower skilled employees because they are cheaper than skilled employees and often easier to come by, but ultimately you will cost yourself your valuable time, resources and money. You will find that your staff turnover of less skilled employees is higher, as they are more likely to flit from one job role to another. Each time you lose a staff member, you spend man hours recruiting and face the inevitable training costs bringing up to the standard that you require.

Be aware, your clients will want to build rapport with your staff, relationships come over time and create trust, but if your staff turnover rate is high, clients faith can be lost.

• Don’t be afraid to play the waiting game for quality over quantity
• Paying a premium for skilled staff will pay dividends in the long run. They will manage their own workload and require less micro managing, freeing you up to get on with running your business
• Remember investment in your team is investment in your business, like any asset

It’s inevitable that staff will move on, whether it’s for personal reasons or employment opportunities. If you hold off from spending money on expensive recruitment campaigns, you may just find that a member of your current team steps up to the plate and relishes the challenge. If you find that this doesn’t happen, you can invest the salary saving in recruitment. This strategy isn’t without risk as our Avanti Networking Recruitment Expert explains;

Michelle Pollard of Spider, the regions Online Job Advertiser & Fixed Fee Recruiter says “Finding good people is harder than ever before so recruit in haste and repent at leisure…On average it takes 56 days to attract and recruit a new employee. With the lowest unemployment figures in 42 years, it’s a competitive market for employers when competing for the best applicants.  For businesses with established employer brands, it’s a slightly easier sell but for SMEs with a low profile and only occasional needs, it can be far harder to attract the best and the brightest.  Gone are the days of simply placing an ad in the trade press or local paper knowing everyone looking for work will see it there.  A multifaceted campaign which incorporates online recruitment advertising, social media and word of mouth is absolutely essential!”  

Particularly if you are in a seasonal industry, consider seasonal staffing to cope with the peaks in your season, it’s unlikely you will need the same staff retention all year round.

Don’t be afraid to recruit for holiday periods only to bolster your numbers when you really need it.

Consider fixed fee recruitment where for a one-off fee, the recruiter will guarantee a minimal campaign across multiple platforms, often producing your advert for you with an understanding of the candidates you are searching for.

We often deal with employers who pay their staff weekly, for a multitude of reasons. Generally, with any money that you need to pay out, set it at the longest possible term, therefore pay staff monthly rather than weekly. In the long term, you are not paying any more but you have paid for less payroll to be run and retained the money within your business for longer.

Avanti offer payroll services, we can help you streamline your payroll, minimise your costs and meet all those pesky statutory deadlines.

Click here for more Suffolk news and events