Labour shortages remain one of the main problems many organizations face that directly influences their performance and output. With a shortage of specialists in a particular field, HR workers can independently carry out recruitment, attracting candidates with various advantages, such as a high salary rate, bonus payments, a favorable social package and other working conditions. If necessary, retraining or advanced training of new employees may be required.
Another widely used method to fight off shortages is restructuration within the team. This method does not require the hiring new staff or the search for new specialists. The employer may try to redistribute working hours and responsibilities among the company’s specialists. In this case, an the workload of employees is likely to increase, which may lead to conflicts, dissatisfaction of subordinates, and errors in the redistribution of wages (Michaeli, D. T. & Michaeli, T., 2022). In addition, the employer is likely to incur large costs for retraining and training of its employees.
The two methods that allow cities, counties, schools, and other organizations work together on this issue of labor shortages are outsourcing and outstaffing. Outsourcing involves delegating certain tasks or parts of functions to a third-party contractor who assumes responsibility for the work done. When outsourcing, the company can evaluate only the result of the service itself, but not the process of activity of the contractor’s employees. In fact, these are ordinary civil law relations between two legal entities.
Outstaffing of personnel is another way to solve the problem with personnel shortages. When outstaffing under the contract, it is not the personnel that is transferred, but the functions that were previously carried out by the internal divisions of the customer, or business processes. Outsourcing and outstaffing allow companies to free up financial, human and organizational resources in order to concentrate on the implementation of the core activities of the organization.
Reference
Michaeli, D. T., & Michaeli, T. The healthcare labour shortage: Practice, theory, evidence, and ways forward. Theory, Evidence, and Ways Forward (2022).