How do your employees feel about working at your company? If your business is understaffed, you probably don’t want to know the answer.
Most business owners understand the dangers of overstaffing — higher overhead costs, lowered productivity, employees looking bored in front of customers. The other end of the spectrum, understaffing, can be just as dangerous, despite the myth that it saves businesses money.
High turnover, low-quality work, and recurrent business expenses are just a few ways that understaffing affects profits and productivity. Keep reading for an in-depth exploration on recognizing and rectifying understaffing from the experienced recruiting professionals at Sabio Systems.
Is your company understaffed?
The latest industry data shows a remarkable 261,000 new jobs listed on the market in October of 2022. Significantly higher than the predicted 200,000, this boost is due in part to modern companies working to undo understaffing.
Although…not every business is working with a staffing professional or learning from The Great Resignation of 2021. Remember when 47 million workers quit their jobs in search of, most often, better work-life balance and healthier company cultures? In order to save money and stay competitive, employers must be able to acknowledge the signs of understaffing.
Here are some telltale signs that your company is short staffed:
Can understaffing cause high turnover rates?
The number one reason employees changed jobs in 2022 was for a career opportunity. Employees of understaffed companies are typically only able to meet bare minimum work quotas during their shifts. Not allowing any room for innovation and expansion within an employee’s role increases turnover rates, which then increases business costs.
High turnover rates can negatively affect a number of things throughout your company:
Having a high turnover rate leads to a whole host of additional business expenses, starting with interviewing. While you can streamline the process by working with a recruiter at Sabio Systems and learning about writing job descriptions, it still takes time and resources.
Even with entry level roles, your regular staff will also need to train new hires to get them started. Translation: more time onboarding, less productivity.
If your company needs temporary hires, this process repeats frequently, so working with a professional recruiting company is vital. Experienced staffing agencies like Sabio Systems can help mitigate costs associated with temporary employees and keep your business running smoothly.
On the other hand, if you’re hiring because your company is critically understaffed, you’re not only racking up expenses, but are most likely hiring reactively, too.
Reactive hiring: filling immediate hiring needs due to a critical vacancy, which leads to rushed interviews and hires that aren’t the best fit.
Can understaffing lower work quality?
In short, yes. Understaffing lowers work quality; lowered work quality creates additional business expenses and leads to revenue loss.
How? First, unforeseen costs crop up when mistakes must be rectified by employees that are new, undertrained, or being overworked. Secondly, low-quality service can damage credibility at best, and prevent you from finding new hires, business partners, and customers at worst.
Further, your business will be susceptible to negative reviews from former employees and customers if you’re not meeting industry standards. Who wants to partner with or work for a business that doesn’t pride itself on top-notch quality and performance?
According to recent data, 75% of individuals wouldn’t work with a company that has a bad reputation — so not very many people! At Sabio Systems, our team has experienced firsthand the power of positive reviews that reflect the quality and value of our work.
Sabio Systems is everything they promise. The honesty and integrity of the company along with people that work there make all the difference. Not only did they find me an amazing company to work for, but everything I love to do.
Annette, local reviewer
The potential short-term savings you’ll get from understaffing aren’t worth losing your loyal customers or getting negative reviews. Work with an experienced recruitment professional from Sabio Systems instead to keep your company properly staffed and thriving.
Can understaffing damage employee morale?
Thankfully, the correlation between understaffing and employee dissatisfaction is pretty well documented. Employees working in understaffed companies are nearly twice as likely to consider quitting, and are less satisfied than employees of properly staffed companies.
Having dissatisfied employees can increase your turnover rate and lower your work quality, too — that’s the vicious cycle of understaffing.
If you notice the following, your employees might be struggling to stay motivated in your understaffed company:
Yes, it’s true. Employees that are overworked, whether due to understaffing or poor management, can have lowered immune system functioning and higher inflammation, according to recent research.
Management isn’t immune to the stress of understaffing either though, pun intended. For decision makers, this means more time-off requests and more employees calling in sick with little to no notice. Abrupt schedule changes can wreak havoc on your company’s workflows and production processes, compounding the already-present stress of being understaffed.
Business owners miss out on incredible job candidates when their employees are unhappy as well. Recent data shows companies can expand their talent pool 10x by hiring within employee’s networks, saving invaluable company time.
Not to mention, your customers want to work with employees who are excited to share their knowledge about your company. Don’t cut corners — improve profits and client retention by treating your employees with respect and ensuring your company is effectively staffed.
If your company needs help from a verified hiring professional to reach your target employment goal, you’re not alone. Without satisfied employees, no business can function properly, let alone be competitive or take advantage of new industries and technologies.
Schedule a consultation with an expert recruiter from Sabio Systems to help your company flourish in the coming year.