As a green industry business owner, it is important to manage your overhead costs in relation to the revenue you receive from customers. Managing your workforce, and the expenses that come with it, is a big piece of your overhead costs. Your workforce, whether staffed correctly, too high or too low, can impact employee and customer satisfaction, and ultimately, revenue and profits.
Knowing when to add a new employee is key to keeping your business running smoothly as you add or lose customers, or if your business spikes at certain times throughout the year.
4 Techniques That Can Help Determine If It’s Time To Hire Next Employee
Track hours worked
Do you know how long it takes your employees to complete a job? Based on how many jobs you have in any given, week, month or season, you can determine if you have enough employees based on part-time or full-time hours. If your employees have to travel to get from job to job, don’t forget to add travel time into your equation. If you expect to add a certain number of new customers in a given timeframe, you can add that into your formula to see when you need to add another employee. Continue to monitor this equation throughout the year to see if you are adding more or less customers than you anticipated so you can adjust your hiring strategy accordingly. This technique works well for employees that are job-based versus back-end office employees.
Is overtime an option?
If your peak times are sporadic, are your current employees willing to put in overtime in order to get the additional work done in a timely manner? As a business owner, you need to clearly understand how much overtime your employees are willing to pick up as well as the cost associated with overtime pay. Workers need periodic time off or else they will burn out. That burn out might cause diminished productivity, absenteeism or loss of employees. If employees are already putting in as much overtime as they can handle, or it simply isn’t an option, it may be time to add a new employee.
Additional Efficiencies
Could your processes be more efficient? Are your employees following company procedures? Have they suggested changes to those procedures to make their job faster, easier, or more efficient? For example, a job currently takes 30 minutes with 15 minutes between jobs. If, through efficiencies, your employees can save even 5 minutes per job, an extra hour is gained in just one day.
Suddenly your employees can accomplish more in the same amount of time without having to work overtime. Listen to your employees as they are on the front lines. Just because something has been done the same way for a long time doesn’t mean it is the only (or best) way to do it. Here are 6 more procedures that will help improve the efficiency of your operation today.
This is also true for your back-end office workers. It is possible that by adding new technology you could reduce the amount of time spent on any given task and make them more efficient. A little cost upfront could save you money in the long run.
New products or services
Is your business expanding into new products or services? Are your existing employees capable of growing into the new offerings or do you need to add new employees who have the skills or knowledge to manage that business? Before you expand into those offerings, you want to understand what additional overhead you will need to invest to make sure that it is right for your business. Learn more about diversifying your green-industry business here.
How Spring-Green Can Help
Knowing when to bring in new employees can be a challenge for business owners. You don’t want to bring them in too soon and have them idle, but you don’t want to wait and have customer experience decline because of delays. When you become a strategic partner with Spring-Green, you will have a team of experts help you with business planning and forecasting so you staffing is thought out and planned.
According to Spring-Green Franchise Owner, Chris Casselberry, “One of the nice things about Spring-Green, you get all the numbers to know if your business is going in the right direction.”
“We help our franchise owners recruit and hire the right people to work in their business. We also discuss issues such as employee retention, payment options and training employees.” says Gary Brown, one of Spring-Green’s business consultants.
Spring-Green can help you grow and diversify with our 40 years of experience and our proven expertise in operations, marketing, and technology. Learn more about how Spring-Green can expand your lawn care services. Call 1-800-777-8608 or visit us at www.growmygreenindustrybusiness.com.
