2016: New Year, New Staffing Goals That Are SMART for Your Business

The holidays have come to an end, the Times Square New Year's Eve ball has been dropped, and the wait is finally over - 2016 is officially here and with the new year comes new resolutions and goals. Setting goals specific to staffing and staffing needs is just as important for your business as goals related to growth. If you're SMART about your goals, you’ll have plenty to show for it this time next year.



"SMART Goals" is a phrase used to help people set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound - SMART. Here are 6 SMART Goals you can incorporate with your 2016 staffing goals:

1. First thing is first - if you haven't already, identify your company's culture. Company culture - it may be revealed on a company's website, often on the About Us page. It encompasses the company's vision, values, norms, symbols, language, assumptions, beliefs, and habits as a whole. Being able to identify your company's culture becomes important as you try to find and hire the right type of people that are a good fit with the company's vision and goals. It's also important that potential hires fit in with your other staff. How can a goal like this be measured? Something you can look at is turnover rate - if you're hiring the right people that fit your company's culture, the turnover rate should decrease over the next year.

2. Make sure that your staffing goals are aligned with the growth of the business. Each aspect of your business should have goals of their own that help achieve the "big picture" goals. If a "big picture" goal is to increase business by a certain percentage, the number of employees hired should also increase accordingly. If your staff doesn't grow as your business grows, you may end up with overworked, bitter people who are unhappy and eventually leave. Creating a comfortable workload for employees makes for healthy and happy employees which in turn makes them and your business more productive.

3. Continuous improvement of the interview and hiring process. It's going to happen - if you have been carrying out a process for a long period of time, your view of that process can get stale and eventually, you’re just going through the motions. Getting a fresh perspective can not only help you improve staffing processes, it can also help you get excited and even energize you for the new year. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from staff/coworkers and even job seekers that went through the process in the past to find out ways to improve your interview and hiring processes. You can also look at your goals and company culture to help improve these processes as well.

4. Providing valuable training for your staff. It's never done once a person accepts a job offer - there's always room for continuous improvement. To keep your staff up with the times and educated, provide training on relevant topics for your business. Identify what those relevant topics are by looking at business trends and asking your staff, then ensure that all staff are aware of the training.

5. Keep it fun! When you hire the right people, you want to ensure that they are not just robots coming to work, working, and leaving like drones every day. Creativity and innovation can come from a friendly and fun environment. Throw company-wide parties and team bonding trips and watch your staff flourish.

6. Get hiring help when needed. If you find that your company is struggling to find the right people to add to your team, it's time to enlist some help. We like to say that staffing success begins with us, and we've been helping our clients find the right people for their businesses since 1972. Our experts will guide you through the entire process from recruiting to offer acceptance. We specialize in office, industrial, technical, and professional staffing services.


How can you achieve all of these goals and more?
The key is simply to start. Don’t allow yourself to get overwhelmed or try to make your goals perfect. By taking a step back from the task at hand and developing a staffing strategy today, you can achieve all of these SMART goals, and even more.

If you need help with #6 above, contact J & J Staffing today to get started finding the right people for your company.