Making The Case For More Personnel

Dear Import/Export Compliance Manager,

Our import/export compliance department needs help badly.  We are understaffed and we’re still managing so many important tasks using Excel spreadsheets.  Asking my manager for additional headcount feels like asking Superman if he has any kryptonite.  If you were in this situation, what would you do?

Short-Staffed in Siloam Springs

Dear Short-Staffed,

First off, nice imagery though the Import/Export Compliance Manager thinks that Superman would make an absolutely terrible import/export compliance manager.  Secondly, you didn’t specify why your manager would have the reaction he or she would.  Is it because your company has dictated that there will be no new hires for the foreseeable future?  Is it because your manager is of the mindset that asking for new headcount is a sign of weakness?  Or is it because, although she thinks your request has merit, your manager thinks that lobbying for headcount for you would make HER look bad to her manager?  Your actions would also depend upon how strong of a personality you have and how confident you are in the validity of your question.  Let’s walk through what the Import/Export Compliance Manager would do and see how it might be made applicable to all three management reactions.

To start, there is absolutely no downside to preparing to make the case for one or more new hires.  Your manager does not have to know that you are doing it and, if you already have good documentation regarding the employees in your department, what their tasks and responsibilities are, what level of employee can tackle those tasks and responsibilities (analyst, specialist or manager), what your largest risk areas are and where your department’s largest shortcomings are, the analysis shouldn’t take an inordinate amount of time to draft together (and you can always finalize it when you are preparing to make a pitch).  Also, as the saying goes, ‘the only thing that is constant is change.’  You absolutely never know when you will get a new and more sympathetic (or persuadable) manager, when your budget may allow for new hires or when something horrible happens which means you need to bring in someone new in a hurry. 

Obviously, you will need to make a strong case for the new employee to someone or multiple people who may be quite skeptical.  In making the case, above all you need to show the decision-makers that you have done all of the necessary analysis and that you are extremely certain that you absolutely need a new person.  Show how the current situation is inadequate, particularly through increased risk or hemorrhaging money.  Back up your assertion with hard numbers (duty savings, export license application times, etc.) if you can.  Paint a picture of what your department would look like with a new person on-board including what their job responsibilities will be, how current employees’ job responsibilities will change and what will happen once this person is on-board to justify cost of having them. 

Once you have your documentation together, you then must decide if you want to risk bringing it forward to your manager.  Unless your manager is the type who will view such a request as a sign that you are incapable of doing your job, the Import/Export Compliance Manager highly recommends having a conversation about it.  First of all, it shows that you genuinely care about doing a good job.  If you didn’t care that much and were more worried about currying favor, you would keep your profile low and not ask for headcount at all (too much risk of failure).  Secondly, you never know, your manager might support you and say ‘yes’.  Thirdly, should something particularly nasty happen that brings the spotlight of the U.S. government upon your company, it is better for you as an individual to show that you were actively trying to effect change (i.e. that you, despite the failing that happened under your watch, were not asleep at the wheel but rather trying to create the conditions to prevent such problems from ever occurring).  This can be a message both to the U.S. government and to your bosses (who may be wondering just how good you really are).   

As an aside, the Import/Export Compliance Manager also recommends having other documentation to show the overall health of the Import/Export Compliance Department including a risk assessment (complete with Risk x Impact x Mitigation and red/yellow/green coloring) to show the overall health of your company’s import/export compliance program.  It is not required but goes a long way toward raising awareness and concern for the potential issues facing your company due to various factors including inadequate resources for the Import/Export Compliance Department. 

As you go through this process, you need to decide whether the environment you are working in, with whatever negative consequences you perceive as being due to having inadequate resources, are such that you need to think about jumping ship to another company.  Maybe your situation is tolerable or at least within normal limits (like most other companies).  If your situation is so bad that your life is negatively affected or you can imagine the agent from the Office of Export Enforcement giving you a raised eyebrow and a look of why did you allow yourself to become mixed up with an environment that so obviously doesn’t think compliance is a priority, it’s time to update that resumé and make tracks.  Going through an investigation might be great career experience but it’s certainly not going to help you live longer.  Good luck!