How to achieve staffing flexibility

BY BOB NEALON

Businesses have learned many valuable, albeit difficult, lessons from the recession. Perhaps the most important is that they need to be more strategic and flexible in their approach to staffing.

Given the prevailing economic uncertainty, many businesses remain understandably cautious about hiring. But as companies begin to see a gradual increase in customer demand, reinforcing employee teams with interim professionals as needs dictate can be accomplished far more quickly and less expensively than hiring only full-time employees. By using a fluid mix of full-time staff and temporary professionals, your company can effectively adjust to all types of economic conditions.

KNOW YOUR NEEDS
The first step in achieving a more flexible staffing strategy is to make a distinction between immediate and longer-term requirements – as well as those you are unsure about. For some positions, hiring full-time employees is the best solution. For others, there may be alternative approaches.

At the first sign of a need for additional staff, decide whether this situation will clearly be ongoing, temporary or if you are uncertain. To help you, consider upcoming new projects and also how past trends in workload peaks and valleys might look now – and in the future. This will allow you to better determine the mix of full-time and temporary staff that will address all of your needs, yet allow you staffing flexibility were these needs to change.

CLARIFY YOUR REQUIREMENTS
Next determine the skills and experience prospective candidates should have and how long you’ll you need the assistance. For example, if you’re looking to hire someone on a temporary basis to cover for a specific employee on disability leave, it’s important to have a time frame in mind so you can select a candidate who not only has the required skills, but who also can commit for the duration of the assignment.

Another essential step is to create a comprehensive, detailed job description that clearly defines the scope, responsibilities and requirements of the position. If you’re not creating a new position but simply filling a vacancy, you should still revisit the job description and update it as needed.

You can also engage interim employees as a first step toward making a full-time commitment. This approach is ideal because it allows you to evaluate an individual’s job performance firsthand. You can then transition the most promising candidate to full-time status. This arrangement is a good way to assess the employee’s fit with the specific position and the firm’s culture before extending a job offer.

A “staffing cushion” is essential if companies want to avoid repeating the mistakes that left so many businesses unprepared for the downturn. ■

Bob Nealon is a branch manager for Robert Half International and oversees the company’s Braintree office. For more information, call (781) 848-9800 or visit rhi.com.


Published in Cape & Plymouth Business April 2010