What is strategic staffing?

Strategic staffing means you plan ahead for recruiting new employees based on your business goals and the direction your company is going. It helps you maintain an appropriate number of employees now and in the future as your staffing needs change.

It might sound similar to traditional recruitment, but the difference is in the forward-thinking approach. Traditionally, you don’t create a new position until your business needs it, and you wait until a position is open before you hire someone. It’s a reactive approach to what’s already happening to your organization.

When you create a forward-thinking staffing strategy, you anticipate changes to your staffing needs before they happen. This can give you time to find candidates who can fill those roles successfully.

Benefits of strategic staffing

Developing proactive staffing strategies benefits your human resources department and the entire organization. Some reasons to consider this approach include:

• Fewer staffing shortages: When you know how your workload will change, you have more time to avoid staffing shortages. The result is consistent productivity and higher employee morale.
• Shorter hiring time: The proactive approach gives you a pipeline of talent you can tap into when needed. Because you already nurtured relationships with prospects, you may be able to get them hired and working faster.
• Consistency in HR’s workload: Your HR team handles several crucial duties, including recruiting and employee onboarding. With the proactive approach, they can plan ahead for increased recruiting and spread out the workload. This helps lower stress and improves their ability to manage their duties.
• Improved hire quality: Part of strategic staffing is being aware of the skills and knowledge you’ll need in future employees. By sourcing prospects with those qualifications early, you have a larger pool that meets your needs. Knowing what you’ll need also gives you more time to review the qualifications of potential employees since you won’t feel rushed to fill a surprise vacancy.
• Better employee retention: Consistent staffing eases the workload for your current team members. It helps reduce the need for overtime or increased responsibilities, which typically keeps employees happier and improves staff retention.
• Increased internal opportunities: As you anticipate future skill and staffing needs, you also uncover opportunities to upskill your current staff. Providing relevant training options gives employees new skills that could lead to advancement opportunities.
• Growth and improved performance: Knowing potential areas for improvement positions your company for growth. You can expand on talent, which could help you stay competitive in the field and give you improved results.

How to use strategic staffing

Follow these steps to develop a proactive staffing strategy.

1. Evaluate your current staffing situation

A detailed analysis of your current staffing situation lets you develop effective staffing strategies for the future. Look at how well your current team covers the daily activities that keep your company successful. Payroll records and timesheets help you identify large amounts of overtime, which could indicate the need for more employees.

Another area to assess is the workload of each employee and changes in those expectations over time. Estimate the time it should take to complete each position’s duties to ensure it fits within a traditional 40-hour workweek. Check for gradual increases in a role’s responsibilities without a corresponding increase in compensation. These issues could be a sign that you need to adjust your staffing.

2. Perform a skills gap analysis

A skills gap analysis looks for skills and knowledge you can add to improve your company. Learning about areas for improvement gives you a framework for your hiring criteria when you add to the team. It also provides you with training topics for your current staff members. The information you gain helps inform your staffing strategy for internal and external candidates.

3. Review your company goals

The direction your company is heading also impacts your staffing plans. For example, if you plan to open a new location within the next two years, you’ll need additional staff to plan and handle the transition and staff the new location.

Plans for a new service or product might require a new area of expertise that you gain through a new hire. You might not be ready to hire for your goals yet, but knowing where you’re going prepares you for future hires to support achieving those aspirations.

4. Grow your talent pool

With traditional recruiting methods, you typically wait until a position becomes vacant or an employee gives their resignation notice to accept applications. Strategic staffing encourages you to build a talent pool before you’re ready to hire. One way to do this is by having a general application form on your website that allows job seekers to express interest in your company.

5. Implement a training program

An employee training and development program helps you prepare for future staffing needs. When you need to hire for those skills, you have an internal candidate who can transition into the new role quickly. Investing in your current team helps improve the work culture and encourages team members to stay with the company.

Tips for using strategic staffing

The following tips can help make your proactive staffing strategies more effective:

• Use technology options: Applicant tracking systems let you organize information for prospective employees in one place and automate recruiting processes. Using chatbots and other automation tools allows you to keep job seekers connected even when you can’t talk to them personally. Use various recruiting sources to improve your efforts.
• Revisit your staffing strategy regularly: Strategic staffing is an ongoing activity that you need to work on consistently. Your current staffing plan works based on the information you have now, but that can change tomorrow. Making adjustments as you get new information increases the effectiveness of your strategy.
• Focus on retention efforts: It’s important to retain the staff you already have. Working on retention efforts creates consistency among your staff and reduces the need to recruit outside candidates.
• Measure the results: Collecting employee satisfaction and retention data helps you evaluate how your staffing impacts your current team. You can also gather recruiting information, such as where you source employees and how long new employees stay, to assess your strategy.
• Explore various staffing models: As you plan how to handle changes in the workload, consider a mix of staffing solutions. Full-time positions are common, but you can also fill gaps with part-time employees, seasonal staff and outsourced work.

FAQs about staffing strategies

What’s the difference between strategic staffing and staff augmentation?

Strategic hiring is your plan for maintaining your internal staff properly. Staff augmentation refers to using temporary outside workers when you need help with a short-term workload increase. This might include using temp employees from a staffing agency, outsourcing work or hiring freelance workers for a specific period. Staff augmentation could be one of your staffing strategies if your workload fluctuates and is difficult to predict. It allows you to handle essential tasks without a long delay.

What are the challenges of using strategic staffing?

Using this proactive approach requires a shift in thinking about recruitment. Your HR staff and executive team might need time to accept the idea. It may take time and require training to become efficient at strategic staffing. Even when you anticipate vacancies, you may need to work harder to fill certain positions, such as highly technical or specialized roles. It’s also not possible to anticipate every situation that may affect staffing.