Stop me if you’ve heard this one:

• The labor market is tight.
• Experienced leaders, managers, and technically skilled workers are even scarcer.
• Just-in-time hiring for key positions doesn’t work anymore.

Sorry…that wasn’t even a bad joke.

If you are an employer, the chances are high that you can’t find the staff you need when you want them. If you’re like many employers, you have your own stories of feeling like you needed to:

• Overpay underqualified hires
• Promote prematurely
• Pass on opportunities simply because you couldn’t staff for them.

I’ve written elsewhere about why this is happening. The short version is that demographics have changed. There are more jobs available than qualified people to fill them.

In this article, I’d like to introduce Strategic Staffing. This is the tool you need to ensure you have the team you want and need – when you want and need them. Use it, along with the principles for building a Magnetic Organization, and you’ll have a formidable competitive advantage.

The Need for Strategic Staffing

Most positions take more time to fill. This ‘time-to-fill‘ number increases with the level of experience and skill needed. Many positions that, just five or six years ago, would have quickly drawn multiple qualified applicants might now take over a year to fill.

Despite this, all of my best clients are growing, staffing up, and succeeding. It is because they are Strategic Staffing. This allows them to:

• Anticipate staffing needs up to a year or more in advance
• Understand the time required for recruitment, hiring, and onboarding
• Build your Strategic Staffing plan that will support the success of your larger goals.

Implementing a Strategic Staffing Approach

1. Develop a Comprehensive Strategic Plan:

Outline your priorities and objectives. Identify the major strategies and approaches you want to take to accomplish them.

2. Create a Future-Focused Organizational Chart:

Imagine you developed a five-year strategy. Draft out the new positions and roles you’ll need to support this new growth comfortably.

Draft this in a ‘future you’ organizational chart. Don’t put staff names in this chart – only identify roles and responsibilities.

Adjust this chart to ensure no position is maxed out. Every position should have enough responsibility for the company to run well, but enough margin to support growth. Include both existing and potential new roles.

Briefly note the experience or skills needed in each of these roles. Please pay attention to existing roles where the titles may not change but the requirements to be successful in them may have.

3. Assess Current Workforce:

Ensure your current organizational chart is mapped out and includes your current positions and staff. (If you have a larger organization, focus on management and key technical positions.)

Evaluate the skills and potential of existing staff to move into the ‘future you’ chart:

• Potential fit: Which positions might be a good fit for them in the future?
• Ability: What is their ability to be successful in that future role? (If they don’t have the ability – can this be overcome with training, mentoring, or experience?)
• Ambition: What is their level of drive or desire for that future role? (If they don’t have the drive or ambition – what role is the best fit for them?)

What positions do the ‘future you’ chart have that you know you don’t currently have the staff to fill? What would be the characteristics of an ideal hire for those positions?

4. Design Internal Development Programs:

Identify the training, mentoring, or experience needed by current staff to grow into their potential future roles.

Create training and mentorship opportunities. Actively prepare current employees for future positions.

5. Plan for Succession and Backfilling:

Develop strategies for smooth transitions as employees move up. Create realistic timelines for this (it often takes longer than anticipated).

Identify potential gaps created by internal promotions.

Remember that time, growth, and change all generate some level of turnover as well – avoid over-depending on one or a few employees.

6. External Recruitment Strategy:

For the positions that you don’t currently have staff for, determine which positions require external hiring.

Estimate the typical time to recruit, hire, and onboard someone. Plan for when you’ll begin this process so you’ll have them when you need them.

Develop long-term recruitment partnerships and pipelines. The best strategy is to develop relationships within your pools of future talent, often within professional associations, university programs, or vocational programs.

• Build an internship program.
• Sponsor and participate in professional student organizations.
• Sponsor and participate in vocational programs.

Applying for a job is intimidating for many people. Be the company they already know, like, and trust. Their most obvious choice.

7. Become a People Builder:

Experienced people are out there. However, many of your new hires will likely have less experience and credentialing than you might have expected in the past.

Accept it, plan for it, and prepare to excel at building people.

Be sure to follow the principles of being a Magnetic Organization so that you will retain them after you’ve built them.

Benefits of Strategic Staffing

This Strategic Staffing approach takes a little bit of thought and effort, but the results are significant:

• Ensures readiness for growth opportunities
• Reduces hiring delays and project setbacks
• Improves employee retention through clear career paths
• Supports budgeting and cash flow management
• Enhances the company’s ability to compete for top talent

Conclusion: Staying Ahead in a Competitive Market

It’s easy to say, “People are our most valuable resource.” Strategic Staffing tests how serious you are about this. You don’t get the people you want when you want them by accident. It will take preparation and effort. Put in that preparation and effort.

Cultivate your most valuable resource – your people. The chances are very high that your competition isn’t.

Take good care,

Christian