How to Hire a Well Oiled Machine of Workers

From skill gaps to job hopping, companies across the country face a plethora of challenges in hiring and creating that well-oiled workforce. While the problems will vary from one company to the next, there are a few challenges that businesses of all sizes face. How they overcome them, will mean the difference between a successful organization and one that has to contend with high turnover and low morale. “In this current workplace environment with so much diversity of service, information, product, etc., staying vital and successful is a major challenge even for large, established corporations,” says Patricia Sweeney, human resource manager at Old Colony Hospice and Palliative Care. “If you want to keep a stable workforce, good hires, engagement and nurturing your workforce is vital.” With that in mind, here’s a look at four major employee  hurdles and what your company can do to overcome them. Internal Skill Gaps In this ever changing world companies have to be nimble and ready to change direction on the fly. Their employees have to be able to change with the company, which means they have to keep their skills fresh. While some of that falls on the part of the employees, companies have to do everything possible to equip their workforce with the necessary skills not only to stay ahead but also to create a loyal and dynamic workforce. According to Sweeney addressing skill gaps and needs should start way before the employee is even hired. She says hiring managers have to know what skills are needed and provide a clear and precise job description when doing the hiring. “If the candidate is a good fit, but needs some skills training, provide it,” says Sweeney.  “A good fit is often worth more than finding the ‘perfect’ candidate.” Sweeney says companies should provide ongoing training as a standard and encourage their employees to take advantage of it. After all the companies that are the most successful are the ones that have employees with up-to-date skills. Lagging Productivity Whether your employees are spending too many hours in useless meetings, are surfing the Web instead of working or have to contend with countless interruptions, lagging productivity can cost a business a lot of money. But the lack of productivity doesn’t only hurt the amount of work getting done. It can lead to low morale and eventually the employee looking elsewhere for employment. “If morale goes down they (employees) start looking at other jobs or start turning to self-help books,” says Richard Whitehead, senior director of marketing at AtTask, the maker of work management software.  According to Whitehead, one of the biggest productivity issues comes from the slew of unexpected interruptions that can happen in the office throughout the day. Those interruptions can be work related or personal but either way they are making workforces around the country less productive. Whitebread says a way to counter those distractions is to create a central place where all work requests come in whether it’s on the company Intranet or through a service like AtTask. By having a central location where communications takes place can cut down on some of those interruptions such as the resending of an email ten times because your co-worker keeps missing it. Time Wasting Habits Every company no matter the size holds meetings from time but for many companies its meetings all the time, which can waste precious work hours, which equals lost money. According to Pulp Marketing and Public Relations, on average a worker spends 5.6 hours a week in meetings. The cost for one in-person meeting where airplane travel is required costs $5,197, while an audio conference costs $1,700 and video conference comes in at $689. What’s more, a Salary.com survey in 2012 found that 47% of people said meetings were the biggest waste of time in the office.  If meetings are a necessity for your company, experts say a way to make them more valuable is to have them less frequently and rely on software, email or instant messenger for those daily updates  instead of calling a meeting. Using video conferencing software instead of traveling to different sites will not only curb costs, but it will boost productivity and potentially even morale if employees don’t have to be away from their friends or family because of business travel. Under Equipping Employees with the Right Tools or Direction Nothing can be more frustrating to employees then a management team that gives little or ever changing directions. Companies that don’t provide clear directives and keep employees up to date with the mission of the firm will have a tough time retaining employees that they likely worked hard to recruit. On the flip side, companies who arm their employees with everything they need to do their job from the proper tools to the correct information will have a loyal, happy team of workers. In order to prevent a lack of communication from hurting your organization Sweeney says companies have to have a clear mission statement with the goals clearly defined and communicate that mission regularly. Companies have to be “proactive rather than reactive,” says Sweeney. “Don’t just handle issues as they arise, plan for contingencies and have solid policies and procedures in place to address any potential problem.”