Staffing shortages can occur out of the blue and at the time, it can seem like a disaster. 

Your receptionist has called in sick and your other receptionist is on annual leave. Your office is low on staff because of a sickness bug which is doing the rounds, and there’s a big meeting taking place later that week that you need to prepare for. 

Everything seems to happen at once!

These types of situations far more common than you might realise; it only takes one winter sickness bug to whip around your office desks and you’re short on staff before you know it. Of course, minimising sickness in the office is a good starting point, but nobody can eradicate the chances of sickness completely. 

In this case, it’s vital to have a plan B in case of a staff emergency. 

What’s your plan B?

What is Cross Cover?

Cross cover basically means that you have several members of staff who are trained in each other’s roles to a certain degree and are able to cover each other if needs be. Of course, this isn’t a common occurrence and it is something which simply happens if an emergency happens. 

For instance, if your receptionist calls in sick, you would have another member of staff sat at their office chair who is able to provide a certain amount of cross cover, be it a few hours in a day, split between their role and the reception, or covering completely, will someone else backfilling their role. 

In order to provide cross cover in the event of a staffing problem, those members of staff need to have regular catch-ups with those they’re supposed to be covering. This is because roles can often change from time to time, with slight differences to procedures. It’s important to stay up to date with the biggest issues in this case, so cover can be smooth in the event of a problem.

It’s normal to become a little short-staffed during the summer months or when the Christmas period arrives, because these are times when staff traditionally want a certain amount of time off to spend with loved ones. In this case, you can plan ahead of time and ensure productivity remains high and necessary roles can be covered or absorbed into the hours of other members of staff. This is a temporary measure and should be managed carefully to ensure nobody is struggling under the weight of too much work. 

Identifying Your Cover Needs

Whilst all job roles are important for the smooth running of the business, some require cross cover more urgently than others. For instance, the receptionist role is certainly one which requires cover. 

It’s a good idea to sit down at your funky meeting tables and identify the roes which require urgent cover in the event of sickness or a problem, and those which can be absorbed by others on a very short-term basis, e.g. only the specific tasks which need be done. By doing this, you can create a ‘just in case’ plan. Then, if a drastic staffing emergency does happen, you’re not going to be panicking, and everything should continue to run smoothly until the member of staff in question returns. 

Cross cover also cuts down on the need to recruit too many staff. The recruitment process is long and costly, and employing too many staff, just in case there is a problem, will pull money from other areas. It’s a far better suggestion to have enough members of staff to get the job done without stress, and to ensure cross cover in emergencies. 

It could be that your particular business doesn’t need two receptionists, i.e. one main receptionist and a junior receptionist who would step up to the main role in the event a problem. Instead, you could have one receptionist and a member of staff from the main office who stands in if there is a problem.