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An Unprecedented Nation-Wide Challenge
Unsurprisingly, “The Great Resignation” is a popular topic right now. The nation has watched in amazement as millions of employees quit their jobs during the pandemic, and the result has been a severe staffing shortage for businesses in every industry.
A recent Fortune article on the mass exodus notes, “This December [2021], for the sixth month in a row, over 4 million Americans quit their jobs. It’s forcing businesses to throw more and more money at trying to entice workers to join or even stay at their companies.”
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) should carefully consider where their money is going. A 2017 study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that it’s more cost effective for SMBs to retain employees than to recruit new ones. The study found that “employers will need to spend the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary in order to find and train their replacement.” Another study suggested replacing an employee costs approximately 21% of that employee’s salary.
Deciding to focus on retaining employees is one thing but succeeding is another. Here are a few strategies that may help SMBs retain their employees:
- Offer flexible workspace options
- Nurture an engaging company culture
- Build strength through diversity
And here’s one more strategy: optimize current teams and resources with modern technology, like ERP systems.
Optimizing Current Teams and Resources
Optimizing is making the best of something. For SMBs, that means investing in their “human capital.”
According to Investopedia, human capital “refers to the economic value of a worker’s experience and skills…the more investment a company makes in its employees, the chances of its productivity and success becomes higher.”
Instead of searching for people to fill the staffing shortage, SMBs need to invest in the people—and the resources—they already have. Additional training, flexible schedules, and management support are great ways to help team members handle their responsibilities and ensure continuity as gaps in the workforce occur with the mass exodus.
Additionally, SMBs should consider implementing ERP systems.
How ERP Systems Can Help
ERP systems are comprehensive business management solutions that gather and sync data from every department into a centralized database. They help streamline workflows, automate business processes, and integrate disparate systems. If the system is cloud-based, team members can access the system from anywhere and at any time.
With ERP systems, people, processes, and records are brought together under one umbrella. Employees don’t have to switch from one system to another, saving them time and effort. Managers have a 360-degree-view of the business, including the workload and resourcing of their teams, which provides insight into where and why pain points exist.
Working smarter with fewer people is a reality when SMBs implement the right ERP system.
Which ERP Systems Are Best
When researching ERP systems, it’s crucial to find one that is designed to meet the needs of specific industries. Systems created by industry experts provide generic ERP capabilities as well as specialized features tailored to meet each industries’ unique operational needs.
In addition to being industry-specific, the best ERP system should answer “yes” to the following questions:
- Can it be customized?
- Are there cross-module workflows?
- Does it provide real-time insights?
- Is there low-code/no-code development functionality?
- Is the solution affordable?
- Does it integrate with critical third-party applications?
- Can the system scale as the business scales?
- Is the ERP vendor trustworthy?
Ultimately, SMBs should evaluate their ERP options thoroughly before deciding.
What’s Ahead and How Acumatica Can Help
The staffing shortage crisis is not expected to ease any time soon. A new SMB Group Infographic states that two thirds of SMBs worry about the talent shortage, but they’re also confident that they’ll meet their hiring goals in the coming year. Their confidence is based on taking specific actions to alleviate the concern, including using technology to automate tasks and replace human labor.
“SMBs are…putting automation to work to automate tasks and replace human labor—enabling their employees to spend more time on higher value, more engaging work,” the Infographic notes. “Larger SMBs are leading the charge, but this trend will accelerate and trickle down to smaller companies as the benefits become more self-evident, and as technology solution vendors add new capabilities into their offerings.”
Acumatica’s award-winning cloud ERP software is built for the cloud, helping businesses thrive even in disruptive circumstances. Acumatica provides businesses, such as ToughBuilt, a company that creates, manufactures, and distributes products for the construction industry, with a full suite of integrated business applications on top of a future-proof platform.
“With Acumatica, you are going to save money. You are going to save time. You’re not going to need to hire people. You’re going to be cloud-based, efficient,” says Controller and acting CFO Martin Galstyan. “Your business can be run on your phone using the mobile app. Acumatica being cloud-based makes everything reliable and easy.”
To learn more about how Acumatica can help alleviate staffing shortage concerns (and so much more), contact our team today.
