Understaffing can be a significant hurdle for companies of all sizes. When a team is stretched thin, employee’s well-being and morale can suffer along with workloads.
In these circumstances, business leaders face the dual challenge of maintaining operations while also supporting their teams. Below, Forbes HR Council members share 20 ideas to improve team morale and streamline decision-making during times of understaffing.
1. Avoid Burnout By Deciding What Tasks Are Necessary
Working with an understaffed team has its pros and cons. Fewer people mean less red tape, faster decisions and more flexibility. However, it can also reduce motivation and overwhelm the team. Here’s the key: Turn lack of motivation around with ruthless prioritization. Discuss and identify crucial tasks as a team. When everyone values their work, the outcomes can be outstanding. – Kaitlyn Knopp, Pequity
2. Listen To Employees To Understand Their Needs
Be authentic. Listen and empathize. Acknowledge your staff’s concerns and ask them what they need at that moment. It’s important to understand what they need and do not assume. Help them prioritize. Ask open-ended questions that allow you both to problem solve to remove potential roadblocks and obstacles. Go after low-hanging fruit and small wins to help them feel they are accomplishing something. – Debra Bruneau, Nitto Avecia
3. Address The Elephant In The Room
It is essential to acknowledge that the team is understaffed. Managers who avoid stating the obvious can create a culture of denial which can slow the existing team down. Validating the situation also helps align the team on the importance of what can and cannot be done. Sometimes, saying “no” is the best response, or at the very least, saying “not now.” Being able to say no is a skill. – Carrie Berg, Teladoc Health
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4. Understand What Is Critical And What Is Not
While addressing our staffing challenges, it’s vital to prioritize mission-critical tasks and ensure our existing team feels supported, valued and empowered. This approach not only fosters resilience and boosts morale but also ensures consistent, high-quality service delivery to our clients. – William Stonehouse, Crawford Thomas Recruiting
5. Empower Employees To Make Decisions
At our company, we focus on employee empowerment during staffing shortages. By cross-training employees, enabling decision-making and fostering a culture of trust, leaders maximize available talent and inspire loyalty and resilience. In times of lean staffing, leverage your team’s multifaceted skills and trust their expertise. Your investment in empowerment will pay dividends in productivity and morale. – Joseph Soares, IBPROM Corp.
6. Express Gratitude To Increase Morale
Promote open communication. Encourage your team to share their concerns, issues and suggestions. This will help in understanding their current workload and distribute tasks accordingly to prevent overworking. Also, acknowledge their hard work and appreciate their contributions. This will boost their morale and productivity during challenging times. – Jonathan Romley, Lundi
7. Reward Your Team’s Hard Work
When an employee is overwhelmed they feel insecure and also end up with higher expectations. So, some ways to meet the expectations could be: 1. Reward them with special incentives, 2. Provide more growth opportunities or, 3. Arrange a lunch or dinner with the CEO. These strategies can make them feel special in recognition of their extra work. For the long term, the critical positions should be backfilled. – Prakash Raichur, Taghleef Industries
8. Reduce Pressure With Prioritization
Prioritization is paramount when understaffed. Beyond rolling up their sleeves, leaders have an opportunity to provide focus for the organization and teams. When priorities are communicated, team members can concentrate on the elements that will successfully move the business forward while understaffed. – Niki Jorgensen, Insperity
9. Leaders Can Jump In To Support Their Team
First, prioritize tasks that must be completed immediately rather than those that can be placed on hold. Hire consultants or temp staff to fill in the gaps where possible. Communicate transparently regarding efforts being made to onboard staff timely. Most importantly, as a manager, roll up your sleeves and help your team, don’t expect them to do something you would not. – JacLyn Pagnotta, Rose Associates Inc.
10. Change Your Approach To Meet Your Team’s Needs
Get creative with how the work will get done. Consider an agile scrum approach or stretch opportunities for employees who sit on other teams. Consider creating an internal talent marketplace and post short-term “gigs.” Who’s looking for a development opportunity or specific skill to build a few hours a week? If leveraged well, these situations can often be great opportunities. – Tracy Dodd
11. Guide Your Team In Prioritizing Tasks
For understaffed companies, managers can support their team by helping to prioritize. If the team is stretched thin, it’s essential to know what work must be completed first, and managers can provide guidance. Second, they should always show appreciation. Understaffed companies’ employees may feel overworked, and those who don’t feel appreciated risk becoming disengaged and suffering from burnout. – John Feldmann, Insperity
12. Collaborate With Your Team To Build Trust
Stay connected, present and involved. Give them time and space and create an environment where they can share their wins and challenges. Be the filter for them to help rebalance the workload, shift priorities and help reprioritize when necessary. If you have your team’s back, they will have each other’s and yours. Look for ways to work smarter, not harder together and improve processes. – Oksana Lukash, Avid Bioservices
13. Extend Thanks And Time To Recover
Respecting work-life balance, allowing a safe mental space to decompress and empathy for the extra work duties go a long way. The two powerful words “Thank you” and recognition of the effort motivate the team to be the best corporate citizens. I use the concept of “Recharge Days” which allow extra time off, for example, around a long weekend to achieve that balance. – Vineet Gambhir, DataLink Software
14. Make A Plan To Hire More Staff
Create a plan to staff up! It’s important to create a plan and build momentum to hire and fill open positions. Showcasing and proving to your employees that you are aware of the situation and are actively moving to alleviate the bottleneck will give them hope that the added workload will be relieved in the near future. That’s one way to help your team when your company is understaffed. – Omar Alhadi, Adobe Population Health
15. Help Employees Decide What Doesn’t Get Done
Acknowledge the shortage of resources and help the team prioritize. Some things are not going to get done; so you helping them select what to drop would be best for the organization and your team for ongoing success in a resource-constrained environment. – Dinesh Sheth, Green Circle Life
16. Communication Becomes A Top Priority
The key priority is structured communication and the manager’s ability to plan and organize the workload of their teams. Managers must understand the strengths of each team member and how they relate to the learning opportunities available to them. Assist your staff in identifying and filling skill gaps, consider their suggestions and pay attention to their input through training needs analysis. – Dr. Nara Ringrose, Cyclife Aquila Nuclear
17. Support Team Members While Managing Shareholder Expectations
When a team is understaffed, it is critical to show concern and appreciation, providing them with the flexibility to assist during this time. Be honest and communicate prioritization upward, resetting stakeholder expectations that focus on producing high-quality deliverables. Requesting additional staff while working on delegating externally will help in managing the current and future state. – Julie Hankins, NNIT
18. Find Opportunities To Make Workloads Manageable
Leaders can reexamine work processes to create sustainable workloads. This includes identifying and solving for inefficiencies as well as reducing the volume or complexity of work-related tasks and processes. This could involve such tactics as gathering feedback from employees, rotating challenging tasks and increasing the time available to focus by reducing meeting duration or frequency. – Jennifer Rozon, McLean & Company
19. Stay Focused On The Big Picture
It is simple: we support our team by having a caring mindset and effective communication tactics. It is learning to prioritize deliverables and operate from a project management mindset where you create action items and embrace delegation. Moreover, it is understanding what impact you seek to have with your responsibilities and not getting stuck in the minutia of tasks. – Chandran Fernando, Matrix360 Inc.
20. Determine Which Procedures Are Necessary
Periods of understaffing provide an important opportunity to evaluate processes, procedures and resources. Find and eliminate any areas of inefficiency or redundancy, and take a look at your tech resources to see if you can make updates for greater productivity. – Lisa Shuster, iHire
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