Staffing

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6. Staffing

INTRODUCTION

This chapter defines staffing, establishes its relationship with human resource management. It describes the process and sources of recruitment, steps of selection process. It highlights the needs of training and development and on-the-job and off-the-job methods of training, induction training, vestibule training, apprenticeship training, and internship training.

Chapter at Glance

MEANING OF STAFFING

(i) Staffing means 'putting people to jobs' or 'finding the right people for the right job'.

(ii) Staffing is that part of the process of management which is concerned with obtaining, utilising and maintaining a satisfactory and satisfied work force.

(iii) In other words, Staffing has been described as the managerial function of filling and keeping filled the positions in the organisation structure.

(iv) Staffing is a continuous process because new jobs may be created and some of the existing employees may leave the organisation.

IMPORTANCE OF STAFFING

(i) Competent Personnel: Staffing Helps in discovering and obtaining competent personnel for various jobs.

(ii) Higher Performance: Staffing improves performance by putting right person on the right job.

(iii) Survival and Growth: Staffing ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise through the succession planning for managers.

(iv) Optimum utilization of Human Resources:

(a) It helps to ensure optimum utilisation of the human resources.

(b) By avoiding over manning, it prevents under-utilisation of personnel and high labour costs.

(v) Improves Job satisfaction and Morale: Staffing improves job satisfaction and morale of employees through fair reward for their contribution.

STAFFING AS A PART OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

(i) Staffing function deals with the human element of management.

(ii) When the manager performs the staffing function, his role is slightly limited.

(iii) He may discharge responsibilities like placing the right person on the right job, introducing new employees to the organisation, training employees improving their performance, developing their abilities, maintaining their morale and protecting their health and physical conditions.

(iv) In small organisations, managers may perform all duties related to employees salaries welfare and working conditions. But as organisations grow and number of persons employed increases, a separate department called the human resource department is formed which has specialists in managing people.

(u) For a very large company, the Human Resources Department itself will contain specialists for each function of this department.

Duties/Functions of Human Resource Personnel/Manager/Department

(a) Recruitment, i.e., search for qualified people.

(b) Analysing jobs, collecting information about jobs to prepare job description.

(d) Training and development of employees for efficient performance and career growth.

(e) Maintaining labour relations and union management relations.

(f) Handling grievances and complaints.

(g) Providing for social security and welfare of employees.

(h) Defending the company in law suits and avoiding legal complications.

STAFFING PROCESS

(i) Estimating the manpower requirements:

(a) Understanding manpower requirements is not just a matter of knowing how many persons we need but also its type.

(b) Type refers to specific qualification, skills or experience to be possessed by the employees.

· Workload Analysis: Workload analysis would enable an assessment of the number and types of human resources necessary for the performance of various jobs and accomplishment of organisational objectives.

· Workforce Analysis: It means analysing existing workforce or employees already occupying the job positions and how many of them are overburdened or under burdened.

(d) This would reveal whether we are understaffed, overstaffed or optimally staffed. Neither over-staffing nor understaffing is a desirable situation.

(ii) Recruitment:

(a) Recruitment may be defined as the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation.

(b) The information generated in the process of writing the job description and the candidate profile may be used for developing the Situations vacant advertisement.

(c) The advertisement may be displayed on the factory/ office gate or else it may be got published in print media or flashed in electronic media.

(d) This step involves locating the potential candidate or determining the sources of potential candidates. Sources may be internal or external.

(iii) Selection:

(a) Selection is the process of choosing from among the pool of the prospective job candidates developed at the stage of recruitment.

(b) Selection serves two important purposes:

· It ensures that the organisation gets the best among the available,

· It enhances the self-esteem and prestige of those selected.

(d) Those who are able to successfully negotiate the test and the interviews are offered an employment contract, a written document containing the offer of employment, the terms and conditions and the date of joining.

(iv) Placement and Orientation/Induction:

(a) Placement refers to the employee occupying the position or post for which the person has been selected.

(b) Orientation refers to introducing the selected employees to other employees and familiarising them with the rules and policies of the organisation.

The employee is given a brief presentation about the company and is introduced to his superiors, subordinates and the colleagues.

He is taken around the workplace and given the charge of the job for which he has been selected.

(v) Training and development:

(a) This step involves improving the job knowledge (by training) and competence of employees (by development) in order to enable them to perform their job efficiently.

(b) Training is a process of improving the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees for doing a particular job.

Note: As we know, in most organisations there is a separate Human resource department, which takes care of staffing function. But in small organisations the line manager is required to perform all the functions of management. The process of staffing will then include three more stages.

(vi) Performance appraisal:

(a) After the employees have undergone a period of training and they have been on the job for some time, there is a need to evaluate their performance.

(b) Performance appraisal means evaluating an employee's current or past performance as against certain predetermined standards.

(c) The employee is expected to know what the standards are and the supervision has is to provide the employee feedback on his/her performance. The performance appraisal process, therefore, will include defining the job, appraising performance and providing feedback.

(vii) Promotion and career planning:

(a) Promotion refers to being placed at higher job position with more pay, job satisfaction and responsibility.

(b) It becomes necessary for all organisations to address career related issues and promotional avenues for their employees. Managers need to design activities to serve employees long-term interests also. They must encourage employees to grow and realise their full potential.

(viii) Compensation:

(a) It refers to all forms of pay or rewards going to employees.

(b) It may be in the form of direct financial payments like wages, salaries, incentives, commissions and bonuses and indirect payments like employer paid insurance and vacations.

· Time Based: A time-based plan means salary and wages are paid either daily weekly or monthly or annually.

· Performance Based: Performance-based plan means salary/wages are paid according to piece-work.

ASPECTS OF STAFFING

The three important aspects of staffing are:

(i) Recruitment: Recruitment is a positive step which aims at attracting number of candidates to apply for the given job. Large number of applicants give higher possibility of getting a suitable employee.

(ii) Selection: Selection is a negative process, which aims at selecting the most suitable person out of the various candidates, who have applied for the job.

(iii) Training: Training is concerned with upgradation of the knowledge and skills of the employees so that their ability to perform can be enhanced.

RECRUITMENT

Recruitment may be defined as the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation.

Process of recruitment include:

(a) Identification of the different sources of labour supply,

(b) Assessment of their validity,

(d) Inviting applications from the prospective candidates, for the vacancies.

SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT

(i) Internal sources of recruitment:

(a) Internal sources of recruitment include personnel already on the payroll of the organisation.

(b) Recruitment out of internal sources refers to the recruitment for jobs from within the organisation.

There are two important sources of internal recruitment, namely, transfers and promotions, which are discussed below:

· Transfers:

(a) It involves shifting of an employee from one job to another, one department to another or from one shift to another. There is however, not much change in the status of employee.

(b) It may lead to changes in duties and responsibilities, working condition etc., but not necessarily salary.

(c) Transfer is a good source of filling the vacancies with employees from over-staffed departments. It is practically a horizontal movement of employees.

(d) Shortage of suitable personnel in one branch may be filled through transfer from other branch or department.

· Promotions:

(a) Promotion leads to shifting an employee to a higher position, carrying higher responsibilities, facilities, status and pay.

(b) Promotion is a vertical shifting of employees. This practice helps to improve the motivation, loyalty and satisfaction level of employees.

(c) It has a great psychological impact over the employees because a promotion at the higher level may lead to a chain of promotions at lower levels in the organisation.

Merits of Internal Sources

(i) Motivation of Employees:

· Employees are motivated to improve their performance.

· A promotion at a higher level may lead to a chain of promotion at lower levels in the organisation.

· This motivates the employees to improve their performance through learning and practice.

(ii) Simplifies Selection:

· Internal recruitment also simplifies the process of selection and placement.

· This is a more reliable way of recruitment since the candidates are already known to the organisation.

(iii) Tool of Training:

· Transfer and Promotion is a tool of training the employees to prepare them for higher jobs.

· Even people recruited from within the organisation do not need induction training.

(iv) Adjustment in workforce: Transfer has the benefit of shifting workforce from the surplus departments to those where there is shortage of staff.

(v) Relatively Cheaper: Filling of jobs internally is cheaper as compared to getting candidates from external sources.

(a) Demerits of Internal Sources

(i) Stops Infusion of New (Young) Blood

· Through internal recruitment, the scope for introduction of fresh talent is reduced.

· It stop 'infusion of new blood' in the organisation.

(ii) Lethargy: The employees may become lethargic if they are sure of time bound promotions.

(iii) Not suitable for a new enterprise A new enterprise cannot use internal sources of recruitment. No organisation can fill all its vacancies from internal sources.

(iv) Reduced Spirit of cooperation: The spirit of competition is hampered among the employees.

(v) Frequent transfer: Frequent transfers of employees may often reduce the productivity of the organisation.

(b) External Sources:

(i) External sources of recruitment means filling vacancies from outside the organisation. All vacancies cannot be filled through internal recruitment.

(ii) Resignation, retirement, death, dismissal of employees, promotions, transfers, expansion programme, change in organisational structure, change in technology, etc. create job.

(iii) External recruitment provides wide choice and brings new blood in the organisation. The major external sources include the following:

· Direct Recruitment:

(a) Under the direct recruitment, a notice is placed on the notice-board of the enterprise specifying the details of the jobs available.

(b) Job-seekers assemble outside the premises of the organisation on the specified date and selection is done on the spot.

(d) Such workers are known as casual or badli workers and they are paid remuneration on daily wage basis.

(e) This method of recruitment is very inexpensive as it does not involve any cost of advertising the vacancies. It is suitable for filling casual vacancies when there is a rush of work or when some permanent workers are absent.

· Casual Callers:

(a) Many reputed business organisations keep a database of unsolicited applicants in their offices. Such job-seekers can be a valuable source of manpower.

(b) A list of such job-seekers can be prepared and can be screened to fill the vacancies as they arise.

(c) The major merit of this source of recruitment is that it reduces the cost of recruiting workforce in comparison to other sources.

· Advertisement:

(a) Advertisement in newspapers or trade and professional journals is generally used when a wider choice is required. Most of the senior positions of industry as well as commerce are filled by this method.

(b) The advantage of advertising vacancies is that more information about the organisation and job can be given in the advertisement. Advertisement gives the management a wider range of candidates from which to choose.

(c) Advertisements may be placed in leading newspapers. Its disadvantage is that it may bring in a flood of response, and many times, from quite unsuitable candidates.

· Employment Exchange:

(a) Employment exchanges run by the Government are regarded as a good source of recruitment for unskilled and skilled operative jobs.

(b) Employment exchanges help to match personnel demand and supply by serving as link between job-seekers and employers.

(c) Unfortunately, the records of employment exchange are often not up to date many of the candidates referred by them may not be found suitable.

· Placement Agencies and Management Consultants:

(a) Placement agencies provide a nationwide service in matching personnel demand and supply.

(b) These agencies compile bio-data of a large number of candidates and recommend suitable names to their clients.

(d) These professional recruiters can attract the needed top executives from other companies by making the right offers.

(e) Management consultancy firms help the organisations to recruit technical, professional and managerial personnel.

(f) They specialise in middle level and top level executive placements.

· Campus Recruitment:

(a) Colleges and institutes of management and technology have become a popular source of recruitment for technical, professional and managerial jobs.

(b) Many big organisations maintain a close liaison with the universities, vocational schools and management institutes to recruit qualified personnel for various jobs.

(c) Recruitment from educational institutions is a well-established practice of businesses. This is referred to as campus recruitment.

· Recommendations of Employees:

(a) Applicants introduced by present employees, or their friends and relatives may prove to be a good source of recruitment.

(b) Such applicants are likely to be good employees because their background is sufficiently known.

· Labour Contractors:

(a) Labour contractors maintain close contacts with labourers and they can provide the required number of unskilled workers at short notice.

(b) Workers are recruited through labour contractors who are themselves employees of the organisation.

(c) The disadvantages of this system are that if the contractor himself decides to leave the organisation, all the workers employed through him will follow suit.

· Advertising on Television:

(a) The practice of telecasting of vacant posts over Television is gaining importance these days.

(b) The detailed requirements of the job and the qualities required to do it are publicised along with the profile of the organisation where vacancy exists.

· Web Publishing:

(a) Internet is becoming a common source of recruitment these days. There are certain websites specifically designed and dedicated for the purpose of providing information about both job seekers and job opening.

(b) In fact, websites such as www.naukri.com, www.jobstreet.com etc., are very commonly visited both by the prospective employees and the organisations searching for suitable people.

Merits of External Sources

(i) Qualified Personnel: By using external sources of recruitment, the management can attract qualified and trained people to apply for vacant jobs in the organisation.

(ii) Wider Choice: When vacancies are advertised widely, a large number of applicants from outside the organisation apply. The management has a wider choice while selecting the people for employment.

(iii) Fresh Talent: The present employees may be insufficient or they may not fulfill the specifications of the jobs to be filled. External recruitment provide wider choice and brings new blood in the organization.

(iv) Competitive Spirit: If a company taps external sources, the existing staff will have to compete with the outsiders. They will work harder to show better performance.

Demerits of External Sources

(i) Dissatisfaction among existing staff: External recruitment may lead to dissatisfaction and frustration among existing employees. They may feel that their chances of promotion are reduced.

(ii) Lengthy process: Recruitment from external sources takes a long time. The business has to notify the vacancies and wait for applications to initiate the selection process.

(iii) Costly process: It is very costly to recruit staff from external sources. A lot of money has to be spent on advertisement and processing of applications.

SELECTION

Selection is the process of identifying and choosing the best person out of a number of prospective candidates for a job. The candidates are required to take a series of employment tests and interviews.

The important steps in the process of selection are as follows:

(i) Preliminary screening:

(a) Preliminary screening helps the Manager eliminate unqualified or unfit job seekers based on the information supplied in the application forms.

(b) Preliminary interviews help reject misfits for reasons, which did not appear in the application forms.

(ii) Selection tests:

(a) An employment test is a mechanism (either a paper and pencil test or an exercise) that attempts to measure certain characteristics of individuals.

(b) These characteristics range from aptitudes, such as manual dexterity, to intelligence to personality.

Important Tests Used for Selection of Employees:

(a) Intelligence tests:

· This is one of the important psychological tests used to measure the level of intelligence quotient of an individual.

· It is an indicator of a person's learning ability or the ability to make decisions and judgments.

(b) Aptitude test:

· It is a measure of individuals potential for learning new skills. It indicates the person's capacity to develop.

· Such tests are good indices of a person's future success score.

· Personality tests provide clues to a person's emotions, her reactions, maturity and value system etc.

· These tests probe the overall personality. Hence, these are difficult to design and implement.

(d) Trade test:

· These tests measure the existing skills of the individual. They measure the level of knowledge and proficiency in the area of professions or technical training.

· The difference between aptitude test and trade test is that the former measures the potential to acquire skills and the later the actual skills possessed.

(e) Interest tests: Every individual has fascination for some job than the other. Interest tests are used to know the pattern of interests or involvement of a person.

(iii) Employment interview:

(a) Interview is a formal, in-depth conversation conducted to evaluate the applicant's suitability for the job.

(b) The role of the interviewer is to seek information and that of the interviewee is to provide the same. Though, in present times, the interviewee also seeks information from interviewer.

(iv) Reference and background checks:

(a) Many employers request names, addresses, and telephone numbers of references for the purpose of verifying information and, gaining additional information on an applicant.

(b) Previous employers, known persons, teachers and university professors can act as references.

(v) Selection decision:

(a) The final decision has to be made from among the candidates who pass the tests, interviews and reference checks.

(b) The views of the concerned manager will be generally considered in the final selection because it is he/she who is responsible for the performance of the new employee.

(vi) Medical examination:

(a) After the selection decision and before the job offer is made, the candidate is required to undergo a medical fitness test.

(b) The job offer is given to the candidate being declared fit after the medical examination.

(vii) Job offer:

(a) The next step in the selection process is job offer to those applicants who have passed all the previous hurdles. Job offer is made through a letter of appointment/confirm his acceptance.

(b) Such a letter generally contains a date by which the appointee must report on duty. The appointee must be given reasonable time for reporting.

(viii) Contract of employment:

(a) After the job offer has been made and candidate accepts the offer, certain documents need to be executed by the employer and the candidate. One such document is the attestation form.

(b) This form contains certain vital details about the candidate, which are authenticated and attested by him or her. Attestation form will be a valid record for future reference.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Training and Development is an attempt to improve the current or future employee performance by increasing an employee's ability to perform through learning, usually by changing the employee's attitude or increasing his or her skills and knowledge.

(i) Benefits to the organisation: The benefits of training and development to an organisation are as follows:

(a) Systematic Learning: Training is a systematic learning, always better than hit and trial methods which lead to wastage of efforts and money.

(b) Higher profits: It enhances employee productivity both in terms of quantity and quality, leading to higher profits.

(c) Prepare Future Manager: Training enables the employees to take more challenging jobs and prepare them to take position of future manager who can take over in case of emergency.

(d) Increases employee morale: Training increases employee morale and reduces absenteeism and employee turnover.

(e) Help to adapt changes: It helps in obtaining effective response to fast changing environment - technological and economic.

(ii) Benefits to the employee: The benefits of training and development activity to the employees are as follows:

(a) Better Career: Improved skills and knowledge due to training lead to better career of the individual.

(b) Increased earning: Increased performance by the individual help him to earn more.

(c) Less prone to accidents: Training makes the employee more efficient to handle machines. Thus, less prone to accidents.

(d) High Morale: Training increases the satisfaction and morale of employees.

Training, Development and Education

(i) Training:

(a) Training is any process by which the aptitudes, skills and abilities of employees to perform specific jobs are increased.

(b) It is a process of learning new skills and application of knowledge.

(ii) Education:

(a) Education is the process of increasing the knowledge and understanding of employees. It is the understanding and interpretation of knowledge.

(b) It does not provide definite answers, but rather develops a logical and rational mind that can determine relationships among pertinent variables and thereby understand a phenomenon.

(iii) Development: It refers to the learning opportunities designed to help employees grow.

TRAINING METHODS

(i) On-the-job methods (ii) Off the job method

(i) On-the-job methods: On-the-job methods refer to the methods that are applied to the workplace, while the employee is actually working. It means, learning while doing.

Methods of On-the-Job Training

(a) Apprenticeship Programme:

· Apprenticeship programmes put the trainee under the guidance of a master worker. These are designed to acquire a higher level of skill.

· People seeking to enter skilled jobs, to become, for example, plumbers, electricians or iron-workers, are often required to undergo apprenticeship training.

· These apprentices are trainees who spend a prescribed amount of time working with an experienced guide, or trainer. A uniform period of training is offered to trainees, in which both fast and slow learn here, are placed together.

(i) Internship:

· It is a joint programme of training in which educational institutions and business firms cooperate.

· Selected candidates carry on regular studies for the prescribed period.

· Intemship is virtually a practical training of the theoretical knowledge. It means, they work in some factory or office to acquire practical knowledge and skills.

· During internship period, no salary is given as it is not a service contract. Normally stipend (very small amount of money) is given to the students.

· It is a training given to new employees when he first joins the company and giving him the basic information he needs to settle down quickly and happily.

· Under this, new employees are introduced both to their superiors and subordinates so that they can work with them as a team.

· The purpose of this training program is to accommodate new employees in the new environment.

(ii) Off-the-job method: Off-the-Job methods are used away from the work place. It means learning before doing.

(a) Vestibule training:

· Employees learn their jobs on the equipment they will be using, but the training is conducted away from the actual work floor.

· Actual work environments are created in a class room and employees use the same materials, files and equipment.

· This is usually done when employees are required to handle sophisticated machinery and equipment.

WORDS THAT MATTER

1. Staffing: Staffing means putting people to jobs' or 'finding the right people for the right Job.

2. Workload Analysis: Workload analysis would enable an assessment of the number and types of human resources necessary for the performance of various jobs and accomplishment of organisational objectives.

3. Workforce Analysis: It means analysing existing workforce or employees already occupying the job positions and how many of them are overburdened or under burdened.

4. Recruitment: Recruitment may be defined as the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation.

5. Selection: It is the process of identifying and choosing the best person out of a number of prospective candidates for a job.

6. Orientation: Orientation is introducing the selected employees to other employees and familiarising them with the rules and policies of the organisation.

7. Placement: It refers to the employee occupying the position or post for which the person has been selected.

8. Training: Training is a process of increasing the knowledge, skills and abilities of employees for doing a particular job.

9. Development: Development refers to the learning opportunities designed to help employees grow.

10. Performance appraisal: Performance appraisal means evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance as against certain predetermined standards.

11. Promotion: Promotion refers to being placed at higher job position with more pay, job satisfaction and responsibility.

12. On-the-Job methods: On-the-Job methods are applied to the workplace, while the employee is actually working. It means, learning while doing.

13. Off-the-Job methods: Off-the-Job methods are used away from the work place. It means learning before doing.

Notes - Time and Clocks

Staffing

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