Marcia's Leadership Q and As: How to Fix Short-Staffing

Q.  Our department has more than 100 employees, but we always seem short- staffed! How do we fix this ongoing problem?

A. There are organizations and situations where being short staffed is a reality. But I’ve also seen hundreds of examples in the past year or two, where being short-staffed is not the cause of the problem. I encourage large organizations and departments, especially, to take a closer look at this.

What exists is not a staff shortage. The causes are deeper—and not difficult to solve. One significant issue is that the people hired are not trained. With a lack of training every employee works hard and puts in their best efforts, but there is tremendous variation in the way the work gets done. People needed to be onboarded and trained. There needs to be two-way communication about the purpose, the goals, the expectations, and the delivery date. When a new employee puts in little effort, it’s management’s job to assess the training and communication needed. Does the employee have the resources needed?

Second, the employees are working their process in a larger system. All employees need to work together to continually improve the efficiency of the flow. The work, communication, and information all need to flow! When there are barriers, the work doesn’t flow, and results are sub-optimal. Workers, management, and customers get exasperated and eventually disengage. It’s time to improve the work efficiency.

Recently, I had a personal experience at the Department of Motor Vehicles. I had to go to the office seven times! I observed the waste and complexity! It could have been reduced by at least 80%! On my seventh visit to the DMV, a manager said, “Oh, we don’t need to do that!” How much waste and complexity is in your organization? Imagine doubling your revenues and profits! It’s time to draw a direct line from your product or service to your customer, improve your work processes, and reduce the waste. Then you may have plenty of staff!