Staff shortages and replacements. How to effectively manage absenteeism?
Each year, companies face a seasonal increase in demand for employees, resulting from both periodic seasonal work and an increased number of vacations of the permanent workforce, turnover or absenteeism due to an increase in illness. Sudden staff shortages can significantly hamper companies’ operations, especially when they do not have adequate personnel resources. This problem intensifies as the requirements for competence and specialization of the employees to be replaced increase.
How to deal with staff shortages?
Staff shortages are not unique – they are part of the reality of many companies small and large. What is important, however, is how we respond to them. When faced with a seasonal increase in staffing needs, companies typically have three options for action: seeking temporary workers on their own, rotating replacements within the existing team, or using employee outsourcing, which is working with a specialized employment agency.
Independent search for employees
This solution involves the internal HR department to the greatest extent, both in terms of time spent and effort put in. In this option, we have to rely on our own recruiters to act quickly and efficiently. However, regardless of their experience and skills, if recruiting in the standard way is not an easy task, then finding suitable candidates for a sudden replacement – willing to take temporary work, with specific qualifications and, in addition, available “on the spot” – is only a real challenge. It’s also worth noting that the rapid and sudden search for workers comes at a high cost to employers – directly, due to overtime, but also indirectly, such as delaying other ongoing projects.
Rotational internal replacements
In smaller companies, it is popular to move employees within the company. This is most evident in the case of absenteeism of front desk staff, which essentially cannot operate without service continuity. Unfortunately, this solution has its drawbacks, because a person, for example, from the sales department, transferred temporarily, uprooted from his work mode, is not prepared to take over new responsibilities. It usually performs less well than a fully qualified but absent employee, plus it costs the company more. There is also a noticeable decrease in the motivation of such an employee, especially when he is assigned to perform less prestigious tasks than in his own position, whether this is an objective or merely subjective assessment.
Outsourcing of employees
Searching for an employee with the right qualifications, available “immediately” and ready to work only as a replacement is not a simple task. For an experienced employment agency, however, this is the daily bread. Therefore, the optimal solution seems to be employee replacements – employee outsourcing- used by more and more companies.
Outsourcing of employees and seasonal replacements is now standard, especially among companies that want to maintain operational continuity and efficiency without committing additional internal resources. Ongoing cooperation allows us to precisely respond to the organization’s specific needs and develop candidate bases tailored to its individual requirements. As a result, the efficiency and quality of work increase, benefiting all parties to the cooperation.” – comments Anna Kurczewska-Formela, Executive Director of White Collar Outsourcing at LeasingTeam Professional.
Outsourcing enables companies to effectively manage seasonal staffing increases and absences due to vacations or multiple days of L4. A professional employment agency is able to offer replacement candidates in as little as 2-3 business days, and even faster with permanent, longer-term cooperation. As a result, the client will avoid losses from shifting in-house employees to positions that do not match their knowledge, experience and salary. In addition, the entire recruitment process, full management and billing of the outsourced employee lie with the outsourcing company, so there is no need to overextend internal HR or payroll departments, which would generate further costs.
It is worthwhile to work with the chosen agency on a long-term basis. This is because, over time, the agency’s professionals will become increasingly familiar with the specifics of working in a given organization, which will enable them to regularly expand their candidate base with people who meet the company’s requirements. The level of employee matching will then increase significantly, and the time for delivery will shorten. Employees, in turn, will become more proficient in their new duties and better acclimatized to the company. As a result, all three parties will benefit.
Find out how LeasingTeam Group successfully implemented a telephone inventory project on behalf of a client at 175 points of sale located throughout Poland.
