15 Tips For Streamlining Agency Operations When Understaffed

Keeping operations streamlined when understaffed is difficult for any business, but for agencies, meeting this challenge can be trickier than it is in other industries. Agencies often face high rates of turnover, with newcomers entering and exiting quickly to build their careers elsewhere or find new lines of work when the pace and volume become overwhelming. Moreover, the specialized tasks different agency departments handle aren’t always easy to delegate to a different team or an outside freelancer.

So, in addition to sometimes struggling to maintain proper staffing levels, agencies may also have fewer inherent redundancies and less cross-training between work groups than other types of service companies. To learn how to make agency operations more efficient when teams are short-handed, read on for tips from members of Forbes Agency Council, who have plenty of hard-won experience leading their agencies back to steady growth through times of scarcity.

1. Focus On Process And Prioritization

The keys are process and prioritization. We have several website maintenance clients, and we used to tackle everything on a first-come, first-served basis. It was very distracting. We now evaluate each request based on its urgency and the effort involved. Urgent requests go first, and then we shift to the smaller tasks so we can clear the field and focus on the big ones. Our turnaround time has been halved. – Rafael Romis, Weberous Web Design

2. Look For Ways To Automate Tasks

One tip for making operations more efficient when your team is understaffed is to look for ways to automate or simplify tasks. Using tools or software to automate repetitive or time-consuming tasks will help free up time and resources. – George Arabian, NVISION

3. Smartly Divide And Conquer

In smaller teams, sometimes it takes some unconventional caring to keep things afloat. Identify critical tasks early in the game, and work together to delegate ownership of them in a way that aligns with each employee’s regular workflow. It might be a bit of a tango until the right recruit arrives, but this will ensure the burden doesn’t fall on just one or two people. – Samantha Reynolds, ECHO Storytelling Agency

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4. Trim The Fat Surrounding Processes

When crunch times get real, you need to use the 80/20 method to see which checks and balances, checklist manifestos, and standing meetings are really necessary. You need to trust your team to deliver, even if this might mean breaking some of your standard rules. You can fill in the process gaps later, but you need to free up time for your team to succeed. – Bernard May, National Positions

5. Have Managers Prioritize Projects

Good management can help with temporary difficulties caused by team understaffing. Managers can prioritize projects effectively and keep the team focused. In some cases, you’ll need to defer projects and turn client work down so that you do not overstretch your team’s abilities. – Dmitrii Kustov, Regex SEO

6. Understand Resources, Strengths And Priorities

Understand your resources, team strengths and project priorities, especially when understaffed. Ensure your teams share burdens and tap each other. You can save hours of work when you play to team strengths. Finally, team transparency becomes crucial. One team hitting a roadblock can set projects back. It’s critical to have full visibility into project progress with daily status updates. – Monica Alvarez-Mitchell, Pulse Creative, LLC

7. Prioritize Tasks That Cannot Be Compromised

One tip would be to focus on the tasks that cannot be compromised and make those priorities. Evaluate the current staff and tap into all of their resources and skill sets that you may have not known existed before. You will see team members answering the challenge and becoming more empowered during these times. – Mario Mirabella, MSM Digital

8. Use The Tools Available To You To Your Advantage

Automating repetitive tasks can be a great way to make your operations more efficient and avoid overwhelming the people you have. Also, make sure to implement strategies that let employees take much-needed breaks and focus on their mental health while they divvy up the tasks by order of importance. – Nataliya Andreychuk, Viseven

9. Focus On Ensuring Quality Over Quantity

Identify your team’s strengths and the tasks taking up the most time, and then automate as much as you can. The idea is to keep your focus on ensuring quality work over quantity; let technology enable quantitative tasks instead so that your small team can stay focused on doing their best work. This includes team meetings for updates to clients and internal progress reports. – Vanhishikha Bhargava, Contensify

10. Establish Clear Processes And Procedures Up Front

Encourage communication between teams to optimize workflows. Put in the work up front to create smooth, efficient processes, and be sure to regularly check in to make sure those processes are still working. Establishing clear, concise procedures will save you immeasurable amounts of time and energy, especially when your team is stretched thin. – Evan Nison, NisonCo

11. Keep A Roster Of Trusted Contractors

We have a roster of trusted contractors who add to our bench strength. We’ve built these relationships over many years, and we consider these folks to be extensions of our team (without the full-time headcount). Knowing we have individuals who can step in quickly and seamlessly is a huge help not only when we have a lot of work, but also when we need specific expertise. – Carol Levine, energi PR Inc

12. Assign Groups Of Team Members To Work In Shifts

One thing that you can do is divide up your staff to make sure you have some people working on one shift and others working on another shift, maximizing your productivity. When you have a very strict deadline, one of the best things that you can do is break up the number of people who are working on each task. – Jon James, Ignited Results

13. Look At Alignment

Are your team members in roles suited to their strengths? Are they thriving, or are they drowning? When you love what you do, being busy doesn’t lead to burnout. When you’re busy with tasks that drain or frustrate you, or you feel unappreciated, unrecognized or disconnected, that’s when burnout sets in. Take the time to talk with your team members to ensure they’re in roles they love. – Mary Ann O’Brien, OBI Creative

14. Accurately Understand Sales And Recruiting Pipelines

Everyone wants to sign that next contract, but too often agencies put too much on their employees’ plates. We maintain an accurate understanding of our sales and recruiting pipelines. Doing this ensures we do not burden our team with a workload they can’t handle, nor do we sacrifice the quality of our service by stretching our team too thin. That’s how you keep clients and employees long-term. – Tellef Lundevall, Accelerated Digital Media

15. Stress The Importance Of Teamwork

You’re all in this together, and it’s important to remind team members that they can turn to their co-workers for help when needed. No one should be drowning on their own; cross-training lets others pick up work when someone is struggling to keep up. – Hannah Trivette, NUVEW Web Solutions