How to Manage Absenteeism and Urgent Hiring Without Disrupting Your Business
Absenteeism rates vary significantly across Europe. A 2015 study found that 71% of employees in France considered themselves “always present” at work, compared to 84% in the UK and just 41% in Italy. While occasional absences are inevitable, persistent absenteeism can create serious challenges for businesses. Factor in global disruptions such as the pandemic, labour shortages, and evolving workforce expectations, and the impact on operations can be critical.
Managers can often handle sporadic absences without major difficulty, but when they become frequent or widespread, urgent recruitment becomes a strategic necessity. Finding replacements quickly, maintaining operational efficiency, and minimising disruptions are key concerns for any organisation.
The Complexities of Urgent Hiring
Despite a highly dynamic job market, recruiting remains a time-consuming and complex process. Research shows that nearly half of organisations must manage urgent hiring situations multiple times per week due to unexpected staff shortages, seasonal peaks, or sudden job openings.
The challenge is exacerbated by long recruitment cycles—83% of HR professionals underestimate the time required to secure a replacement, even though the average hiring process takes five weeks. Additionally, 64% of HR professionals lack the necessary tools to automate critical hiring tasks, leading to inefficiencies and operational strain. As a result, businesses in sectors such as logistics, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and education face increasing difficulties in maintaining service levels.
The Challenges of Urgent Recruitment
For companies, urgent hiring is about more than just filling vacancies quickly. It requires balancing speed, cost, and administrative burden while ensuring business continuity. Many organisations still rely on outdated, manual processes that make urgent recruitment slow and unreliable:
- HR teams reach out to their known temporary workers first.
- They then contact colleagues at other locations to check for available staff.
- If no solution is found, they try to fill shifts by offering additional hours to part-time employees.
This reactive approach is inefficient, time-consuming, and does not guarantee the right person will be available at the right time. Poorly managed urgent hiring can negatively impact revenue, employee wellbeing, and customer experience. Conversely, a well-executed approach ensures seamless operations and minimises disruption to clients and internal teams.
Best Practices for Effective Urgent Hiring
To successfully manage urgent hiring, businesses must implement proactive strategies and digital solutions that improve agility and efficiency. Here are some key best practices:
- Strengthen collaboration between HR and operational teams – A coordinated approach helps anticipate absences and react more efficiently.
- Maintain an up-to-date talent pool – Digital workforce platforms allow businesses to track worker availability, skill sets, and past performance for rapid redeployment.
- Expand recruitment channels – Leveraging digital tools for multi-channel job posting increases the reach and speed of urgent hiring efforts.
How Digital Solutions Support Urgent Hiring
According to industry research, 72% of managers believe a digital solution that provides a real-time view of available workers would significantly improve urgent recruitment. Technology can play a crucial role in automating and streamlining this process.
How Pixid VMS Can Help
A professional digital platform like Pixid VMS transforms traditional urgent hiring by offering a centralised, automated solution. It enables businesses to:
- Quickly identify and engage pre-vetted workers from a managed talent pool.
- Streamline recruitment processes by reducing manual effort and increasing visibility.
- Efficiently request pre-qualified candidates from your preferred suppliers, to rapidly source suitable workers through a secure and streamlined digital channel.
- Maintain operational continuity by ensuring the right people are in place at the right time.
Urgent hiring doesn’t have to be a reactive and costly challenge. With the right digital tools in place, businesses can build resilience, maintain service quality, and ensure that absenteeism doesn’t disrupt productivity.
Discover how Pixid VMS can help your organisation manage urgent recruitment more effectively. Contact us today to learn more.
