Is Your Workforce Prepared for 2019?

January 7, 2019

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Odds are high that your strategic organizational goals for 2019 have already been created – or they are in the process of being developed. But is your workforce ready to carry out those goals? Every strategic plan needs to address your workforce and staffing needs because achieving your goals depends on having the right people in place, exactly when they are needed.

Follow these steps to prepare your workforce for 2019.

Look Back at 2018

The first step in preparing your workforce is to take a look back over the last year and assess the situation. What went well with recruiting, hiring and retention? Where did teams struggle or experience talent gaps? To get a good sense of the landscape, ask:

• How much overtime was paid out?

• Where and when did you see spikes in work volume?

• Which roles were the most difficult to recruit for?

• How many permanent employees did you lose?

• How many bad hires did you make?

Analyzing your strengths and weaknesses from the last year will help you better prepare for 2019.

Assess Your Immediate Needs

Next, you’ll want to assess your immediate staffing needs. Locate current vacancies as well as existing skill gaps and consider the impact they’re having on productivity today. Prioritize those needs and develop a plan to close those holes immediately.

Identify Training Requirements

Hiring new people in 2019 is important for goal achievement, but it is also important to ensure the people you have in place are well-trained. Often, it is possible to cross-train existing staff to cover areas where you are experiencing gaps. This is also an excellent time to identify employees who have expressed an interest in moving up, and creating a plan for their development. Assess Long-Term Needs Once you have assessed last year, identified immediate needs and put a plan in place for your existing staff, it’s time to think about future needs. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your sales and growth goals?

• Will those goals require a ramp-up in staff?

• Will you need to access people with specialized skills?

• Will new roles need to be created? • Will you require temporary help to cover periods of high demand?

• Which roles will be difficult to recruit for?

Compare your goals and the answers to these questions against your current staff to determine your most important needs for the upcoming year.

Partner With a Strategic Staffing Expert

Staying fully staffed with skilled, reliable workers is a challenge for any organization, and recruiting can take time away from focusing on strategic organizational goals. Partnering with a staffing expert can keep you and your team free to focus on mission-critical initiatives.

The right staffing and recruiting partner will:

• Get to know your organization, its culture, and your work volume cycles.

• Analyze your immediate, short-term and long-term staffing needs.

• Help you understand your local talent market.

• Develop a comprehensive yet flexible strategic staffing plan for 2019.

If you are ready to develop your strategic staffing plan for the new year, contact the experts at PrideStaff today.