Are you feeling or experiencing the struggles of being short-staffed within your business? We completely understand and have a couple of strategies that we have used to help us get through this time. We know that staffing during this season can be very tough, especially after the 2020 pandemic.

In today’s episode, we are sharing some quick easy tips for finding staff and freelancers, and help with your events! We have some solutions for you that have tremendously helped us get through this insanely busy season.

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What Being Short Staffed Actually Means

Let us paint this picture for you. When you are short-staffed, this not only affects the actual department or area you are short in, but it flows over into other areas and departments of your business. You may be in one department, but you may have to step into other areas or another role and help in that area. Not only does being short-staffed affect the area you need help in, but this can certainly affect the ability to show up to work and be your best self in your own area as well. When your workload is higher and is something that demands a large team to execute, but your current team is carrying the load of it all, this can lead to burnout and gaps for errors. Corners will start to be cut and this leads to a domino effect of errors on every logistic that goes into your event. This compounds to your sales team, they may feel like they cannot book more events due to not having enough help. In return, this carries on into your cash flow because you are unable to continue booking events and serving your clients well. 

When we step into this area of not having enough help, not booking as many events, or your employees branching into other departments to help carry the workload, it can create even more problems that you may have not been experiencing previously within your company. If your cash flow is suffering, how will you continue to improve the quality of products and maintain keeping your rentals in good shape? If your marketing team is suffering, how will you continue to get your brand and name in front of your ideal clients? This creates a fundamental compound of issues within your business and we want and need to avoid this at all costs. 

Staffing Solution | Qwick Staffing App

A great strategy we have used is the Qwick App. It’s a mobile app that you can list job postings on for things you need help with along with all of the details. This is basically like a staffing agency and it helps get the word out that you need help. Our leader Cam posted shifts on a Friday for shifts that needed to be filled that following Monday – Thursday. The return on this was fantastic — we had 3-5 people per shift we needed to get filled! Some of the help overlapped with the same staff, but it was so nice to get this help during a time of being short-staffed. When we began using Qwick, we knew that we would be able to find help, but also able to use this as a working interview so to speak. We saw how each staff member worked and came through and through this convenient app, we are able to build up a roster of part-time help by finding great matches for our company. We saw a great opportunity to reach out to a few people that worked well on the tasks assigned and have been able to lean on them for help during this stressful time. 

We were able to overcome being short-staffed and build a list of contacts we know and trust. Now while this may not be the case the first time you try to use this app, we encourage you to give it a few chances to find great people to help you! We also love that in this app, you can rate the help you had on a 5-star basis so it shows the next employer or company the quality level each person on this app can provide. This can be helpful when looking for help and a great back-pocket tool to have when you need some extra hands. 

Revisit + Check Your SOP | Standard Operating Procedure

While having this staffing app accessible is helpful, you also need to ensure you have a part-time or a full-time staff as well. You cannot rely solely on a staffing agency to help get jobs and events done in your business. This is where your SOP comes in! If you are not familiar with what an SOP is, it is a Standard Operating Procedure and how you do what you do. The step-by-step way you complete a task, a role, or whatever job you have on hand. Do a ‘check in’ and make sure that these still align with your company. In past podcasts such as Episode 12 of The Render Podcast, Installation + Retrieval vs. Delivery + Pick-Up, and Episode 23 of The Render Podcast, An Inside Look Into Event Setup with Reggie Whitfield, we talked about deliveries, what goes into an event setup, and we encourage you to go listen to these as an extension of what we are talking about here. 

Alongside these past episodes, inside our exclusive course Rental Biz Academy, you will find thorough teaching on how to really learn how to hire and set your team up for great success. If you are unable to gain access to our course right now, another great resource is Episode 55 of The Render Podcast which talks about hiring quality team members. 

Market That You Are Hiring

Another solution to help you gain a great staff is to make sure you are marketing what you are hiring for. You have to market yourself in the right areas where your ideal candidate will be looking for a job. If you are looking for someone in a creative role, Instagram and other social platforms may be great options for job postings. For labor roles, sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter or Qwick are great tools to post your listing to find those candidates. Posting solely on your Instagram stories or feed posts is not always in your favor. When your marketing aligns with your brand and your brand aligns with who you want to attract, that is a great way to attract those ideal candidates. 

We hope that today’s episode all about Staffing Solutions has been super helpful and guides you to success when looking for ways to problem-solve during a staff shortage. At Render, we strive to produce quality content that always serves you and what you may need during this time in a busy season of business and events. Have you checked out The Render Podcast on Apple Podcasts? If not, will you take a few minutes to check it out, and while you are there, leave us a review! We would appreciate this so much!

Homework For You

Can you think of 3 people in your life that are business owners and friends in the industry who are also experiencing a difficult time with staffing issues? Share this episode with them. We want to encourage them and make them feel supported and show that they are not alone. As always, thank you for being here and we will see you next week!

Joyfully,

Raven Scott | Podcast Manager