Time flies when you’re trying to fill workforce gaps in a period of high staff turnover. We can help. Read our tips on time management, plus information on the new Randstad at Work app that puts hiring in the palm of your hand.
The Great Resignation rumbles on. New research from Gartner suggests annual voluntary turnover could jump nearly 20% this year from the pre-pandemic average. For managers, that means more time spent filling gaps in their workforce and less time analyzing the production line or assessing technology upgrades.
Or does it? By sharpening your time management skills, you may find you can take on additional hiring tasks without dropping the ball in other areas. Consider these tips.
start a time log
The first step towards improving your time management is to measure and document the number of hours you are devoting to specific tasks on specific days. Just by itself, this information can help you become more productive.
Suppose your time log shows you spend one hour on Monday mornings and one hour on Friday afternoons reviewing resumes. Then, digging deeper, you find that you review double the number of resumes in the former timeslot. Perhaps you would be better served reviewing more resumes on Monday and taking a screen break on Friday?
update your job descriptions regularly
Updating job descriptions eats up time during the hiring process — so why wait until then? Take advantage of any quiet periods to make sure your job descriptions describe the current requirements and responsibilities of the various roles in your team. Otherwise, you’ll be scrambling whenever an employee leaves, updating their job description while also trying to manage a shorthanded team.
quit multitasking
There are times when you can’t avoid it, but multitasking is generally the enemy of good time management. Habitual multitaskers confuse busyness with progress and often make little or no headway towards their daily goals.
Instead of attacking everything on your to-list at once, block out stretches of time for key tasks. This should include a period for “deep work” where you shut out all distractions and work towards your main goal of the week or month. It should also include a short period where you embrace distractions (social media updates, phone messages, etc.), making it easier to ignore them for the rest of the day.
install a distraction buster
How many hours do you waste online? We’re not talking about checking the sports scores here. Online trade publications are also just a click away. and it’s all too easy to confuse these kinds of work-adjacent distractions with your core responsibilities. There’s no shame in imposing healthy work habits on yourself, which you can do with the help of a focus app. These user-friendly tools block websites and apps chosen by you and are reassuringly hard to disable.
delegate interesting tasks
To help them focus on the big picture, managers often delegate low-priority, routine tasks. That’s fine, but you should also give your reports stretch assignments. This will help your time management in the same way but with the added bonus of keeping your top talent engaged and motivated (and therefore less likely to leave and add to your turnover woes).
use recruiter apps
Recruiter apps make posting job ads a breeze, but the best of these tools can save you time throughout the recruitment lifecycle. For example, you can use them to parse resume content or pre-screen applicants with automated questions tailored to the role you want to fill.
Currently in development, the Randstad at Work app is a self-service digital staffing option that allows you to build and manage your workforce from your device. The service is rapidly expanding across the U.S. Download it today via Google Play or the App Store.