Knowing when to expand your IT team can be difficult. You do not want to spend time and money on hiring if it is not absolutely necessary.
However, waiting too long to expand your team can adversely impact your employees. They may become burnt out from the long, stressful days and heavy workloads. This affects employee engagement, productivity, and retention.
As a result, recognizing signs that your team needs to expand reduces the impact on your employees.
The following signs indicate it may be time to expand your IT team.
Lack of Work-Life Balance
You and your team may be coming in early and staying late. You also could be bringing home work and finishing tasks on the weekend.
These are signs your team’s professional lives are taking time away from their personal lives. This means they need help with the workload.
Pay attention to how consistently your team members send emails outside of work hours. Also, focus on whether your employees mention the heavy workload or show fatigue.
Talk with your team about how they feel about their workloads. Also, focus on the behaviors you model for them.
Set realistic performance expectations for your team. Let them know you value work-life balance. Also, stop sending emails outside of work hours. Otherwise, your team will believe this is what you expect of them.
Focus on expanding your team. Redistributing the workload will make things easier for your employees.
Declining Productivity
Lacking the motivation to work and repeatedly missing deadlines are causes for concern. Your team likely is taking on more tasks than they can handle.
Talk with your team about their work duties and responsibilities. Find out which tasks are holding them back from reaching their goals.
Let your team know you will hire another employee. Then, begin the hiring process as soon as possible.
Increasing Absenteeism
Prolonged exposure to stress takes a toll on your team. Exhaustion and an inability to focus may cause your employees to take additional sick leave or paid time off.
Although your team may be taking breaks from work, they also could be looking elsewhere for employment. Your employees might be attending job fairs or participating in interviews.
When you see signs of disengagement, it’s time to expand your team. Alleviating the workload encourages your employees to remain with your organization.
Burnout
When your team members’ job demands exceed their resources, your team starts to break down. Your employees may push back on typical requests and make excuses not to fulfill them. They also might agree to handle something and not follow through. This could result in conflict when asked about the issue.
Prioritize expanding your team. Having another employee take on some of the workload helps prevent burnout.
Turn to an Expert Staffing Firm
DVA Technology can provide the IT candidates you need to expand your team. Learn more today.
