More and more media are identifying that the pressure is being put on employees when management and business owners have decided to reduce staff through redundancies or not replacing people when they leave. Something I have noticed a lot of while visiting clients or at networking events, is the flow-on effect that this can have on the remaining staff.
Stress, extra workload, overtime, re-training and up-skilling of staff seem to be common ground and in the short term employees don’t seem to mind, but if this occurs for a long period people seem to feel unvalued and this approach can cause a gradual slowing of workload and limited tasks completed.
Whilst the media are quick at using the ‘recession’ as a reason for why this is happening, it would seem that this has been occurring for quite some time prior as people would resign from the role to seek the gratification and recognition of workload elsewhere, and although at present those people are still employed, they are reluctant to leave unless they have a secure position to go to as their salary is so important.
While delegating additional responsibility to others can be seen as a way to advance an employee into another position, the more additional tasks they undertake, the lower the quality of work will be achieved as they try and spread themselves too thin, this can and does have a dramatic effect on the business as a whole.
Whilst employee retention and redundancies can’t be avoided, what are some solutions to try and balance the employee’s workload?
ü Try identifying the right candidate for the right role, when an employee resigns and you are not replacing that position, think about who can do those important tasks competently, and then consider what tasks they can then shift to another person doing similar duties. Only focus on the important tasks as these are the ones that will ensure the business continues to run smoothly while there is an absence in that role.
ü Recognise employees for the extra work they are undertaking, there are plenty of non-monetary rewards available to ensure they feel valued.
ü Give employees assurances that this is for the short term and keep your word, too many broken ‘promises’ just lead to disorder and confusion.
ü Consider combining all the small tasks several employees are completing and combining it into a temporary, part time or casual position, this will ensure that these continue to remain up to date. The skill set of the candidate may not necessary need to be at the same level as previous and handover or training will only require minimum attention.
ü Finally, consider contracting work out to businesses such as AdminCorp to complete those day to day tasks. The difference between us and a temping agency is that you have to guarantee a minimum workload, with us it is minute by minute for only what needs to be done. The other major advantage to using businesses like ours is that you only have to train us once, not try and get the same temp as last time etc.
Call AdminCorp today on 0800 ADMINC to see how we can help your business today. This is what we do best!
Tara McGowan
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