Whether you’re starting a new business or have been operating a startup for some time, one of the biggest considerations to keep in mind is the size of your team. As much as we’d love to give you some kind of formula to work out how many staff members you need on your team, we all know that it’s not that easy to determine. Instead, we need to take a closer look at our business and how it operates in order to figure out what the optimal number of staff is.
Unfortunately, this is going to require a lot of trial and error.
Optimizing employee efficiency is difficult and we usually err on the side of caution by hiring more than we actually need. However, there are a couple of ways to ensure that we’re not overhiring and there are a few signs that we should look out for when it comes to choosing the right team size.
It’s Normal to Face Overtime Now and Then
Working overtime should be considered to be somewhat normal. This is because companies tend to have swings in their activity. For example, some businesses may experience more activity during holiday seasons, and some companies might go through periods of crunch times due to the work they do.
If you find that you’re facing more overtime than regular work time, then that’s often a good sign that you need to hire more people. Luckily, that’s fairly easy if you work with a reputable staffing agency that can help you recruit new members. This is one of the easiest ways to ensure that nobody on your team is being overworked, and it guarantees that nobody will feel extremely stressed during these busy periods.
Using Outsourcing to Help Offset Busy Periods
Instead of hiring more people, you may want to consider outsourcing some of your responsibilities in order to cut down the stress that you’re facing. This is typical of larger businesses that occasionally need specialists to help them overcome certain challenges.
For example, if you’re close to releasing a new product, then you may want to hire a logistics experts who is more qualified than you and your team at planning out shipping routes and other similar responsibilities. If you ever feel like you’re not qualified to do something, then it’s worth delegating the task to someone who is more experienced with it. This is especially true if you only need to carry out these tasks a few times each year. Instead of hiring a new member of staff, you may want to just rely on outsourcing to fill in the employment gaps for now.
There’s really no set-in-stone rule for the number of people that you should have on your team. Some people prefer having extras even if they aren’t doing much. Others might prefer to have a tight team that occasionally has to work overtime. It really depends on your style of leadership and how your team likes to function. However, by following some of the advice in this post, you’re far more likely to keep your team happy and your business running optimally.
