What to do when your team is short-staffed but in high demand

Imagine that your team excels and performs beyond what is expected. Your team gets recognised and praised for this, and you are grateful. Because of this, managers are adding extra workload for everybody and asking your team to do more. Unfortunately, there is a problem: your team is short-staffed.

Another overwhelming scenario is where your organisation is short-staffed because of the Great Resignation or the massive layoffs during the pandemic. Simply put, your organisation has more work than employees to handle it all. It shows that there is a talent shortage in certain industries.

The ironic thing about here is that with a looming recession, companies are looking to tighten up their financial statements. They are not eager to recruit more people in an uncertain economic climate, but they still need to get work done.

It’s also hard to find more members of a short-staffed team if it operates in niche areas that require highly specialised and hard-to-find personnel. When the organisation is in a remote area that tend to be less attractive to current employees and prospective jobseekers, there is a higher chance that the team will be short-staffed. Lastly, a negative and toxic work culture can also repel talent.

The longer your current team must take on additional tasks, the higher the likelihood for burnout and exhaustion. The team’s morale will also probably decrease. These employees might reach a breaking a point and resign.

Signs that your team is short-staffed

1. Are projects not getting finished because there are not enough people? Even if your team performs well, are there instances when projects are not finished on time because there are not enough members? This could eventually affect your team’s performance because projects will not be set into motion at the right time.

2. Are all your employees already at maximum capacity? When your team is short-staffed, the division of labour can only be given at a maximum capacity for each team member. They will feel overwhelmed with the number of tasks assigned to them because they don’t know how to balance everything at once.

3. Does your team deal with overtime frequently? Working overtime isn’t bad, but when employees do it frequently, it might mean that their job is consuming their life. Do you keep track of how frequent your team members go on overtime?

What to do when your team is short-staffed but in high demand

In article written for Harvard Business Review, Elizabeth Grace Saunders explained that the best way to deal with project management when your team is short-staffed but in high demand involves the following:

1. Be honest. Even with the best project management strategies, Saunders says a short-staffed department won’t get anything done. When a team leader is honest about that, they can make proactive decisions to adjust instead of making reactive decisions once things start to fall apart.

2. Prioritise what you will and won’t do. Saunders says you can choose where your team can reduce their time spent. You can review the services and projects within your department and align it with annual goals. Team members will have to reconsider how to balance the most important priorities as well as the most important add-on activities.

3. Communicate with your boss. You will need to communicate both with your team members and with your boss. Introduce the topic of overload by starting the conversation from a clear and decisive point of view. Saunders says you must list your priorities because without this, your boss may have different expectations of your objectives. Being upfront prevents misunderstandings.

4. Delegate, delegate, delegate. According to Saunders, another pressure release valve is to delegate tasks to individuals outside your team. Some of these departments could be travel, event coordination, design, deck prep, or communications. Try to also check if there is budget to bring in outside contractors.

5. Reset expectations with stakeholders. When you’ve decided to create changes to your priorities, you must also communicate this with your internal and external stakeholders. Update these people and explain the impact of the changes to them.  

6. Request more staff. Lastly, if your team’s workload continues to be overloaded, Saunders says you must ask for more staff. She says it’s unfair for team members to constantly feel behind, as if they can’t keep up. Make a case as early as now and when budget allows it, you might just get what you’ve been requesting.