Many business owners are currently struggling to find good, qualified labor. As their businesses grow and become more successful, they have greater need for qualified labor. I have seen this almost on a daily basis with the clients that I work with.
Last week, I heard a talented speaker and economist, Jeff Thredgold. He commented that, in future decades, the labor pool is projected to grow by only 1% annually. The implication is obvious: the difficulty of finding help for growing businesses is a growing problem.
Whenever they feel short on time, the knee-jerk reaction of many owners and managers is to make a new hire. The good news: when a small business owner thinks they need more employees, they usually are mistaken. There are many steps that a business owner can take prior to making a new hire.
I encourage my clients to follow a system I call “The Order of Offloading”. The Order of Offloading is a system that most any business owner or business manager can use to decide if it's the right time to make a new hire. Before committing yourself to the responsibility of having a greater managerial and payroll burden, consider using this system.
The steps in The Order of Offloading are as follows:
1. Improve Personal Systems - You cannot know how much you are able to accomplish until your personal systems are maxed out or as efficient as possible. By personal systems, I mean the way you handle voicemail, email, faxes, the way that you organize your work space, and the way you budget your time. In my experience, most business executives stand to gain around two hours per day just by improving their personal systems. The personal systems boot camp was designed to help people find those two extra hours per day.
2. Improve Business Systems - Very often there is a great deal of excess labor capacity in a small business. Consider one common example: an employee is hired to fill a position for forty hours per week. However, they soon find that the actual job only requires thirty hours, so the employee finds ways to stretch and slow down work to fill the full time. By building a solid organizational structure and business systems, you get the most out of your most valuable resources: human resources.
3. Utilize the Best Technology - New, amazing technology tools are developed every day. This is one of the reasons I subscribe to the best technology magazines. I want to be a valuable resource for my clients in helping them make the best choice available. Simple technology improvements can be valuable time assets, yielding precious minutes and hours back into your workweek. For instance, if you are using a five-year old computer that slows down every fifteen minutes, a simple upgrade can yield several hours per month to your time budget.
4. Consider Outsourcing Options - Is there an outsource solution that will work for the needs you have? Could you hire a printer broker instead of doing it all yourself? Could a professional graphic designer do a better job on that large project you are working on? There are even little outsourcing options, such as shoeboxed.com, which will scan all your receipts and make them available online for you for a nominal fee. When you consider outsourcing work to a company, make sure that their Company Values match yours. Otherwise, they may end up embarrassing you in front of your customers!
5. Prepare for and Make the Hire - If you have gone through The Order of Offloading and found that each of these steps has not solved the problem, or if you see that you have unfilled business needs that would add up to a part or full-time position, then it may be time to make a new hire. Make sure that you have business systems in place for the individual you hire. This will allow them to make an immediate impact the moment they are hired.
One final comment: in a tight labor market, it may not be the best use of your time to go through the hassle of trying to find the right person. While the services of staffing services are not inexpensive, they are usually a wise investment. Staffing companies can save you valuable time and money and find qualified people to work for your company, especially on a "test" basis. If you do finally decide that the time is right to make a new hire, consider hiring trained professionals to make the process go smoothly.
The Order of Offloading: When to Make a New Hire - To learn more about this author, visit Dave Crenshaw's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 |
Related Articles |
|
 The Order of Offloading: When to Make a New Hire
|
| |
Whenever they feel short on time, the knee-jerk reaction of many owners and managers is to make a new hire. The good news: when a small business owner thinks they need more employees, they usually are mistaken. Th...
|
|
Should I Handle My Own Public Relations Campaign
|
| |
Should you handle your own public relations campaign? No, not if you don’t know the process or truly understand the intracies launching a PR campaign. Can you? Yes, at least to a point.
|
|
Staying in touch with the big picture
|
| |
A good way to stay on track and focus on the important work that has to be achieved is to make sure that your actions are in keeping with your goals and values.
|
|
The Importance of Bookkeeping
|
| |
If you've been running your business for any length of time you understand the importance of bookkeeping and how neglecting it can create havoc!
|
|
Sales Management Training: The Real Cost of a Bad Hire
|
| |
Most companies think of their loses relating to a bad hire as salary and recrutiment fees. Experience shows that the cost of a bad hire needs to take into account opportunity costs, lifetime customer value, referred...
|
 |
Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors |
|
Kim Castle
With nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation.
BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them?
If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|
Vwodek Wojczynski
Business Coach and Consultant Vwodek Wojczynski (pronounced Voy-chin-ski) brings fun, awareness, accountability and fresh perspectives based on his diverse experiences in life and business.
Born in Poland and educated in Greece and Canada, he is trilingual with 8 years experience in business development with clients in Canada, USA, Switzerland and Poland.
His approach is systematic and process-driven. He fuses the know-how of proven business methods with his commitment that entrepreneurs experience satisfaction and joy based on their values, motivations and strengths. He believes that businesses succeed based on their ability to generate value by providing what’s needed and wanted.
Ultimately, he trains executives and true business owners - people who work less, produce more, own businesses that run automatically after a while and make a difference globally.
His current research focus is the development of intelligent business systems and the application of emerging artificial intelligence technologies in business.
He is also an avid traveler, spoken word performer and visual artist. He resides in Toronto, Canada. - Visit Vwodek Wojczynski's Website |
|
George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance.
Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson.
His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more.
George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|
The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.
|
|
|
|
![[Get Copyright Permissions]](http://license.icopyright.net/images/icopy-w.gif){kind=small}
