Do you think you’ll need to hire specialized talent this year? Or do you know you will? Is your company making big plans for growth? If so, do you know where to find skilled candidates?

Because hiring is crucial to your company reaching its goals, you need to plan ahead. You’ll want to identify staffing gaps and determine exactly which positions you need to fill and which you want to fill in the coming year. Here are some tips for creating a year-long staffing strategy for your organization (that will also help you lay the groundwork for future hiring)!

1. Look at the big picture. Start creating your staffing roadmap based on your organization’s business plan and align it with your company’s short-term and long-term goals. When you look at the overall goals—growing your business, expanding into new industries or launching new products—you’ll begin to see where you’ll need to create new or fill existing roles.
2. Keep an eye on the details. For each open position, create a document that lists all pertinent information, such as the hours, skills, and experience required, as well as the salaries you’ll need to include in your budget. You may want to do a little research into benefits costs, income statements, seasonal employment, and turnover rates.
3. Consider your current staff. You’ll want to evaluate your current staff, looking at known factors such as upcoming retirements and maternity leaves, as well as considering succession planning and promotions, terminations or employees possibly quitting. When you see the patterns created by known and unknown changes, you can start taking steps to address potential gaps and add staff as needed—whether temporary or full time.
4. Take good notes! You’ll want to review your plan every year, because successful organizations are constantly changing. When you set aside time each year to review both your business plan and staffing strategy, you’ll be able to incorporate any changes necessary to stay on track.

Developing a staffing strategy will serve you both this year and down the road. By managing your workforce wisely, with foresight, you’ll spend less time—and money!—reacting to staffing emergencies and bad hires. We can save you a lot of time, hassle, and money in the near future. Take the time to plan for your staffing needs, and you’ll find you spend less time reacting to staffing emergencies, and more time successfully managing your workforce. And if you’d like to find out more about how Staffers can help you plan for this year’s staffing needs, contact us today!