Cost-cutting measures are often top of mind for employers. One area frequently targeted for savings is payroll; understaffing is a common tactic for achieving this. However, understaffing usually costs your company more in the long run.
How Understaffing Impacts Your Bottom Line
1. Reduced Productivity
When you have fewer employees, your staff is often stretched thin and forced to take on additional responsibilities. This can lead to burnout, poor morale, decreased output, and lower productivity. This can result in missed deadlines, incomplete projects, and reduced revenue.
Understaffing can negatively impact the quality and quantity of your organization’s work. With increased workloads and no additional time to complete projects, it’s only natural that your clients will receive a poorer end product.
2. Increased Overtime Costs
With workloads spread across fewer employees, your team must work longer hours to ensure they complete projects on time. And in some cases, this will mean paying overtime.
Many employers mistakenly believe paying overtime is less expensive than hiring new employees. But while overtime is an acceptable fix for extraordinary circumstances, it’s not sustainable as a long-term solution to understaffing. Overtime expenses can add up quickly, leading to higher payroll costs than if you’d hired additional staff.
3. Decreased Employee Satisfaction and Retention
As we discussed above, consistent understaffing can lead to higher stress and burnout for your employees. And the longer this continues, the higher the likelihood that your employees will leave.
This can be enormously expensive for your company. Not only will you be trying to accomplish your workload with an even smaller staff, but you’ll need to pay the costs of recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees, as well as the other expenses associated with high turnover rates.
4. Missed Goals and Opportunities
When your company is understaffed, your employees may not have the capacity or expertise to pursue new goals or projects that could drive growth and revenue. For example, your sales and marketing team may not have the resources to pursue a new market or launch a new product.
In addition, understaffing can cause you to miss out on taking advantage of market trends or changes in your industry. If a new competitor enters the landscape and you don’t have the resources to respond quickly, you may lose market share and revenue.
5. Damage to Your Company’s Reputation
When your company is consistently understaffed, it can hurt your brand and lead to a negative reputation in the marketplace. Previously loyal customers and clients may view your company as unreliable or unable to meet their needs. These disgruntled clients will likely share their experiences with others, causing you to lose out on new business.
The employees you lose to chronic stress from understaffing may discourage other candidates from applying to your company. This can make it nearly impossible to attract top talent, further exacerbating your staffing woes.
Keep Your Business Strategically Staffed with Augustine Talent Group
A simple way to avoid the costly pitfalls of understaffing is to partner with an executive recruiting firm. The expert recruiters at Augustine Talent Group can ensure your company is staffed appropriately while saving you additional money on hiring costs. Contact our team today to learn more.