How to Justify Hiring Additional Staff

Introduction

Simply said, hiring new staff is costly. Onboarding, training, equipping — all these mean cost and it’s important for any business to be able to justify this cost. The ROI won’t come immediately, so you need to be able to project this down the line. To do this, you need to articulate the benefits of having more manpower, whether it be higher efficiency, faster production or improved overall wellbeing. Here are some tips on how to go about it.

Start with the budget.

The first step is to figure out how much you can afford to spend on hiring. Start by looking at your budget and seeing what percentage of it goes toward employee wages. From there, look at what types of hires you want to make. Do they require more money? Are they short-term or long-term? Once you've determined how much money has been allocated for new hires, it's time for some real math!

Once you know how much money is available in your budget (and assuming it's even enough), you'll need some basic information about the job market so we can define "value" in terms of what kind of worker will be worth their salary requirements. For example: if your competitors are offering $10/hour and paying their staff 33% more than yours does, then perhaps hiring someone who makes $15/hour will make up for lost profits due to lower productivity from less experienced workers. You should also consider whether any benefits come with higher salaries like health insurance premiums or retirement accounts; this may help justify higher compensation packages because those expenses will be offset by lower turnover rates among senior employees who receive better care when they retire later down the road.

Look for areas where you're wasting resources.

You need to know what you're wasting if you want to reduce the waste. If your team is having trouble getting work done, it's likely because there are too many steps involved in completing a task. Maybe there are too many people in the loop on an issue, or maybe some processes aren't being followed correctly.

If someone has to make multiple phone calls to get an answer, they'll probably just give up or put off solving the problem until later — and then it becomes a bigger deal when they finally get around to fixing it. This is one way that wasted resources can creep into your business: by making employees feel overwhelmed and frustrated with their workloads, which leads them to procrastinate instead of dropping everything else they have going on so they can address whatever problem is at hand.

You might also find that you're spending more time managing tasks than actually doing them yourself. This happens especially if you run a small business and have no choice but to follow through with every little thing yourself since there isn't any "overhead" staff around who can take some of this burden off your shoulders (aside from perhaps interns or volunteers).

Be clear about your business goals.

Before you can justify hiring additional staff, you need to be crystal clear about your business goals. If a goal is not specific, measurable and achievable, it’s not worth having. Your company’s mission should inform these goals — and if they don't, perhaps you need to ask yourself why you're in business at all.

Goals should be realistic and time-bound. A good guide is to make them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely.

Search for solutions to improve efficiency.

When you clearly understand your business goals, you can search for solutions to improve efficiency. Look at processes and procedures that may need to be improved. Are there steps that can be delegated? Can technology help streamline certain tasks?

Delegate current work.

It may seem counterintuitive, but the most effective way to justify adding new staff is not to do more work yourself. Instead, focus on delegating current responsibilities. This can be tricky if there are other people who could help you out and take some of the load off your shoulders — but perhaps they're just not available right now. Another option is to hire someone who isn't currently working for you as part of another team or department at your company.

If all else fails, consider taking on a few interns. They'll likely be happy with a little extra cash in their pocket and will jump at any chance they have to gain more experience.

High quality, efficient work can save time and money.

High-quality, efficient work can save you money and time. The more efficiently a business is run, the less time and money it takes to complete tasks. Having more staff on hand can help achieve this, and this is one way to justify new hires. If you have a high-quality product or service that is well-received by your customers, it means more business for your company. More hands means less stress during the process of making it happen — and that’s good news all around.

Conclusion

So, are you ready to hire more staff? We hope these tips have helped you make the decision easier. Remember that hiring new employees is not a quick process and requires a lot of planning and forethought. But if done correctly, it can be very rewarding for your business.