4 Signs Indicating Your Team Needs an Extra Hand

It's ok to have a challenging workload for each individual on your team. It's ok to have busy days. And, it's ok to feel overwhelmed at times.

But that shouldn’t be the norm. As your organization grows, there needs to be more hands on deck, more teammates and possibly additional managers to help carry the workload. You may have a small, medium or large business, regardless, the rules still apply and it’s important to take action before it’s too late.

Here are four signs that indicate that it might be high time to take action and hire a new team member so your team doesn’t end up overworked or burnt out.

You AND your Employees are ending up losing those valuable hours in a day working on nonessential tasks. Agenda-less meetings and more meetings with no actionable outcomes, filing, messaging and data entry... all essential for running a business; however, if your team is having to take on tedious tasks that are un-related to their day to day objectives, they probably aren’t giving anything their best effort.

Customer service is taking a hit. One person, is ONLY one person and emotions rise when stress is involved - impacting delivery! Communication may not be on point if your employees are expected to do multiple, time wasting duties that get in the way of their focused role… wearing many hats is not a skill every employee is gifted with. In fact, multi-tasking is about as productive as having 8 arms, 6 feet and 3 heads on one body! Ultimately, less effort and time is spent on quality customer relations - which will have a major impact on the business.

Your staff are depleted and exhausted. You look at John, and John is not looking as eager, fresh and ready-to-go-after-it compared to a couple of years ago when he first started. The rings under his eyes are reminding you of the raccoon you saw rummaging in the trash last week, his skin is looking grey with a tinge of yellow and that memory... wow, the poor guy forgets what he even ate for breakfast. Looking at John makes you feel as though you're in an episode of The Walking Dead. This isn’t John, he's simply exhausted and while he’s doing his best, he’s struggling while trying to keep up. (Maybe you’re actually John?)

Roadmap goals aren’t being met. Business units are always interlinked so what happens in one department likely impacts another. If one team is short staffed, your major initiatives might not be progressing as productively as you'd like them to. In fact, everything upstream and downstream can be impacted. Delivery goals aren’t met, SLAs aren’t met, revenue numbers aren’t met…. and stakeholders are unhappy.

How do you avoid having to call in the massive life raft to save your struggling team?

First and foremost, double check your budget. Can you afford an admin, a support rep, or even another highly skilled employee? If so, make a plan and hire someone quickly. There is a lot of talent on the market right now. If budget for another salary isn’t an option, then a business restructuring of tasks is needed. Take a hard look at priorities and put those that fall out of rank in a future project/ backlog category. A third option is to outsource a contractor to support your teams through this challenging period. Scaling your staff up and down often helps businesses overcome temporary obstacles without taking on the full time commitment of a new hire.

If your team is needing an extra hand on deck, we can help.

ITEOM Digital Technology Talent Partners is a trusted partner when it comes to finding great talent. We work with hiring managers to help them identify, interview, assess and onboard great talent. Equally, we work with candidates to help them align their purpose and passion with top employers. #SBA Certified #EDWOSB

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