Business growth is great! However, a larger client base and more work requires more resources. Attracting and onboarding quality people with the right skills and experience who will work effectively within your team takes time, consideration and good planning.
Time, however, is the thing small business owners find is in short supply. Especially in periods of growth. So what should trigger the investment in the time it takes to resource your business?
Volume.
When you realise you’re working a lot more than you want to be working, you can’t meet client demands or that you are not working on the right things (i.e. tasks that don’t generate income) then you need to consider how the work is divided among you and your employees, plus how will this volume increase in the coming year.
So how do you maximise your resource capacity to meet growing need, without unnecessary spending? There are several approaches to consider.
Invest in your people
It may seem counter-intuitive to add to your workload, but investing in employee training to upskill your staff to meet current and future resource needs often yields fantastic results.
Similarly, leadership coaching and manager training can help senior staff better engage their teams. Plus a more motivated team works harder, and works smarter. If this is the approach for you, we at Small Business Society can help you with all your training needs.
Only hire what you need
In times of resourcing need, hiring administrative staff is often the default option. It can however cause more issues than it solves, as staff need to take time to manage and train the new administrative person. This time drain can often suck up all the time you were looking to get back by having someone else do your administration.
Instead, hire someone who will complete specific tasks that generate money: whether that is somebody who can cover the lower-level professional work or somebody who focuses on one specific admin task, such as invoicing, which brings money in and requires little oversight.
Experiment
When the volume of work is high or you identify a particular skills gap in your existing employees, you may just need to hire another person who does what your existing staff do to cover the workload. Hiring an extra person as a contractor or on a casual basis, to see how it goes, is a great way to test and measure whether you have outsourced the right work, while mitigating the risk of taking on another person.
Whichever way you choose to go, by investing time and consideration in your recruitment planning, you will make the decision that is right for you.
To find out how we can help you with your hiring and planning needs, contact us at Small Business Society.
The information provided in this document is for your guidance only and is general in nature. It does not constitute as legal advice. It is the responsibility of the individual to seek legal advice where required.
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About Kate Tongue
Kate Tongue is the founding Director of Small Business Society.
She is a qualified and experienced Human Resources professional with more than 10 years of experience across the private and public sectors.
Her particular interest and experience is in managing the employee life cycle, delivering process improvements, and Human Resource strategy.
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