Can Technology Help With Staffing Shortages?
Learn the staffing shortage companies are facing, understaffing consequences, and how technology can be used to address the challenge.
Organizations across industry sectors are facing labor shortages for various reasons, leading to several problems. Here, Will Plummer, a military veteran and chief security officer, RaySecur, discusses in detail the staffing shortage companies are facing, understaffing consequences, and how technology can be used to address the challenge.
Many government institutions and companies in the United States are struggling with a lack of personnel. According to the American Hospital Association, 20% of hospitals have reported serious staffing shortages in the last year. Correctional facilities, like prisons and jails, have been reporting staffing shortages since 2017. What’s worse, thanks to the Great Resignation, around half of the current public sector employees are on their way out the door, according to MissionSquare Research Institute.
Clear consequences and challenges arise due to reduced staff. Some of these are reduced productivity, safety and security, and in areas that are not so obvious, like the mailroom. Most employers do not think about how the organization’s safety is impacted because of reduced staffing in the mailroom.
Yet mail screening and mail security operations are areas where HR may want to pay close attention since postal mail is an easy means to distribute threats of all kinds — cyber, powder, liquids and more. While not all mail-based threats are physically dangerous, even hoaxes can cause major business disruptions, cause fear of bodily harm and damage morale.
Regardless of why your business is experiencing a staffing shortage, there are effective ways that modern technology can assist and improve employee safety. Let us start by looking at what many companies are experiencing and why it matters, and then give some examples of what you can do to address the problem better.
Why Are Staffing Shortages So Rampant?
There are two main reasons for the current staffing shortages: employees are quitting at an alarming rate, and companies are laying off workers for various reasons.
Many industries have performed comprehensive studies to get to the bottom of why so many workers are quitting. According to Pew Research Center, low pay and no advancement opportunities were factors in 63% of 2021 resignations. But feeling disrespected or uncared for in the workplace was the third most common factor.
Companies have tried to reverse the trend by increasing benefits, improving the work environment, and showing increasing concern for their employees’ wellbeing since retention is much higher when workers feel cared for. Unfortunately, the problem persists.
As for layoffs, companies may have various reasons, like economic difficulties and rising labor costs, over-hiring during a period of sudden growth, etc. Regardless of the reason, layoffs and resignations have come with consequences, and those consequences are becoming more problematic daily.
See More: How Automation Helps Small Businesses Offset Labor Shortage Challenges
Consequences of Understaffing
Most HR managers are all too familiar with the consequences of understaffing. For example, you can expect ill will from those who end up without a job and burnout for those who remain. Short staffing can also cause safety issues leading to more resignations and lowered morale. Some other issues that may result include service delays and expensive overtime pay.
Most companies have experienced the downside of shortages in the form of burnt-out, disgruntled employees and resentful ex-employees. Unfortunately, both of these have the potential to become insider threats.
For example, just this year, an ex-employee tampered with industrial control systems through his old login credentials that had yet to expire and caused delays and missed deadlines for paper manufacturer Georgia-Pacific. However, threats can also take the form of a physical safety issue or a phygital attack, meaning an attack that involves both physical and digital entry points.
With the trends toward hybrid and remote work, many companies allow employees to take equipment, like extra laptops or tablets, to work at home. That means that ex-employees need to send back equipment during layoffs or terminations when they are most upset and most likely to be a threat to the company. Is there a plan to screen these upon return, or is your mailroom staff simply opening the packages, which may contain a safety threat like a toxic white powder substance or a phygital threat like a hacking device?
Not to mention, understaffing in the mailroom can result in piles of unopened mail. Any of these packages could contain a hacking device that, when left undetected, could easily access your network and collect sensitive information. The goal should be to find a quick, easy method to scan packages.
Another consequence of understaffing is delayed service for clients, many of whom get understandably dissatisfied with delays due to short staffing. Plus, customer service suffers when employees are burnt out and overwhelmed.
The final consequence is the increased labor cost due to overtime pay for those who remain. When trying to make up for labor shortages by having employees work longer hours, you often end up paying a lot of overtime. Working too many hours is another top reason employees resign, so using overtime to try to fix labor shortages causes a vicious cycle.
Making a Change
If you are going to solve hiring shortages and especially mitigate the consequences of understaffing, you need to get creative. You can start by prioritizing your employees’ safety and morale to encourage workers to stay. For example, you can prioritize safety through mail screening and also eliminate suspicious package hoaxes that could otherwise damage your team’s morale.
Additionally, more companies are turning to automation, especially for data entry and other administrative tasks. This frees up employees to work on more useful tasks and experience improved morale as a result.
The second thing you can do is streamline workflows to reduce delays by developing standard operating procedures for everything from how you handle mail screening to security checks. In addition, you should have standard operating procedures for handling emergencies and evacuations in case a potential threat is discovered.
Third, you can reduce costs and resignations by relying less on overtime and more on outsourcing to experts and remote personnel. This can save money while also relieving the burden on employees who are likely already burnt out and overextended. You can also apply automation and new technologies to both ease staffing shortages and mitigate potential delays and inconveniences to customers. In the absence of full-time, on-site employees, technology can help you regain much of the same functionality, often at a fraction of the cost.
HR departments are overloaded right now with the burden of trying to boost retention and morale and hire new workers during a time when labor shortages are the norm. That is why finding ways to ease the strain is all the more important.
How are you leveraging technology to address the staffing shortage? Share with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
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