When consulting with clients I am often asked “do I have the right number of employees?” I wish that there was a simple answer to this question, but it really depends on what the business is trying to accomplish and if they have the personnel to do it.
There are a few areas that a business owner or manager needs to evaluate in order to determine if there are enough employees or if an additional “right” employee would move the business forward to take it to the next level.
First you need to look at what tasks that the business owner or manager are doing that is taking a lot of their time that could be given to an employee to complete so they could either attend to more important business tasks that are being overlooked or other tasks that they could be doing such as marketing that would bring in more customers or clients.
The business owner and manger need to ask the question, “What is my time worth?” Can the business make more money by doing things that the supervisory positions cannot get to because they are doing things that a staff member could be doing and at a lower wage?
Often times business owners will be doing things like cleaning, filing, sending notes, billing, ordering supplies or other tasks that could easily be taught to a trusted employee to do that would free up the business owner/manager to work on projects or marketing that would make the business more money.
It is a tight line between having enough employees and needing another employee. A good look at the business numbers and what growth possibilities are available need to be reviewed to determine what is the right move to make.
Below is a link to a good article that might shed some light if you are asking this question.
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