Staff shortages can cause problems in any sort of company. Whether you are running a factory or a cafe: without staff your company cannot provide its products or services and might disappoint or even lose its customers. Besides the negative effect that understaffing has on your customers, it also has a great impact on your staff. People might feel overworked and undervalued, which in time increases sick leave and decreases staff performance. Learn how to avoid staff shortages and keep your business healthy, with this article.

Use an online work rota

Making a work rota online is essential for smooth and easy staff planning. An online rota is available everywhere, making it easy for staff to access their schedule at all times. Through online planners, applying for sick leave of holidays becomes easy and less frustrating for the staff. Availability of the staff is easily accessible and the system will be able to divide this availability equally and fairly over the available hours, keeping the staff happy.

An online work rota planner streamlines the scheduling process, which is beneficial for the HR staff of your company. The program will give a notification when understaffing or overstaffing occurs, keeping in mind peak hours and availability of full-time and part-time workers.

Avoid extra costs

A big benefit of streamlined planning is that extra costs are avoided. If you make your planning by hand, and overstaffed a shift, you have to pay the costs of the extra personnel. On the other hand, if you’ve understaffed a shift it might cost you money. Understaffing in a production facility might mean that production is lower, or impossible if people with the needed skills are not scheduled. Eliminate unnecessary expenses and make sure that you plan in a cost effective way.

Collect and act on staff feedback

Giving your staff a voice in the company makes them feel more heard and valued. It is therefore very important to give your staff the opportunity to provide feedback about their working environment. Listening to your staff can give morale a big boost and help to avoid excessive sick leave.

Involving your staff in the company can help to prevent understaffing. If, for example, staff members indicate that it is hard to work specific hours, because they cannot find a babysitter, there are multiple things you could do. Starting an in-house daycare to increase staff happiness, or scheduling around school drop off and pick up times, to help alleviate staff from having to rush are some examples. Both of these options prevent staff from not showing up or being late, decreasing understaffing.

Offer attractive benefits

Workers who do the same thing over and over again, might feel bored after a while. Benefits such as free training and education helps to give staff the opportunity to do something else, while developing themselves. Well trained staff is a great addition to your company and is more valuable than bored staff that might quit more easily if they get bored or feel undervalued. Besides, benefits such as performance bonuses, extra free days, remote working and extra curricular activities stimulate good behavior and increase work ethics.

Hire short term workers

Short term workers can fill the gaps between the availability of the regular staff. They are usually available to fill in when another employee is not able to work or gets sick. Short term workers can be paid by the hour, which is beneficial because you don’t have to pay more than the hours that are actually paid. Furthermore, short term workers can work short term because most of them have another activity, for example if they’re a stay at home parent or have another part-time job.