In the realm of seasonal work, scaling up your workforce as you hit peak season is a given. However it’s difficult to assess the right way to find the balance between the skills and output you need, and the wages and overheads that come with each addition to staff.
So, how do you minimise your risk of bloated overheads and high turnover while maximising the capability of your team?
Do You Really Need To Scale Up?
Adding people to your team is not always the answer to your demand and productivity challenges. There are some steps to assessing whether or not a new team member is what you need.
Does Your Team Need To Scale Up Permanently?
If you’ve spent time assessing your human resourcing and still believe you need to scale your team, then you need to decide on the best ways to add them. Just because you know you need help, doesn’t mean you need to hire someone permanently.
To determine your options you should ask yourselves these questions:
1) Is demand growing or seasonal?
Is the additional pressure, or skills need your team is dealing with due to an increase in long-term business or does your business have seasonal peaks and troughs that you are dealing with?
If demand is seasonal, it might be worthwhile adding casual or flexible staff to the team, so that you’re not paying staff when they’re not actually required.
2) Will the person you need add the right amount of value for what their salary will cost?
Are you sure of the seniority of the person you need?
Could you up-skill existing staff and make room in their day by assigning their simpler tasks to a junior?
Do the tasks you need completing require an eight hour/five day work week or could you bring in contingent workers on a flexible basis?
Contingent Workers Can Minimise Risk
If you’ve determined:
– Demand on your existing team is seasonal, or temporary
– You can bring in help at the entry level
– You only need someone a few days a week
Then there is no need to risk adding a permanent full-time wage to your overheads. There exists a large base of contingent workers, ready, willing and able to join your team on a temporary or regular basis to help your business achieve what it needs to.
By bringing in temporary or flexible workers you can pay hourly for the work you need. When you no longer need the extra staff you’re not forced to carry the burden of the full-time wage or legitimise a redundancy. In this way, you can test the scalability of your business and work out whether increasing demand justifies bringing in someone permanently.
When your source such staff through a temporary staffing platform, you don’t have to worry about payroll admin, leave or super. The necessary paperwork and payments are taken care of by the third party, making scaling up simpler.
You also get the opportunity to “try-before-you-buy” and extend any eventual permanent role to a temporary staffer whose work has already impressed you.