Staffing in HRM

The Bhopal School of Social Sciences

(Affiliated to Barkatullah University, Bhopal)

E-content Development

Study Material

For

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Unit 2

Module 2 - Staffing

Compiled and Prepared by:

Gaurav Atri
Assistant Professor
Department of Commerce, BSSS

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Staffing in HRM

STAFFING OF HUMAN RESOURCE

INTRODUCTION

Staffing is the function of employee recruitment, screening and selection performed

within an organization or business to fill job openings. Other areas of employment
which may be handled by a staffing department are orientation, training, retention and
termination. This function is sometimes handled outside of an organization by using
contractors at various levels of the staffing process. Small organizations may handle
staffing on a case-by-case basis, while larger organizations may go through multiple
staffing cycles during a single year. Organizations of any size may use staffing to
acquire temporary or permanent employees. Some related terms and departments
include human resources, personnel management and hiring.

In a new enterprise, the staffing function follows the planning and organizing function.
In the case of running an enterprise, staffing is a continuous process. So, the manager
should perform this function at all times. The staffing function includes recruitment,
selection, training, development, transfer, promotion and compensation of personnel.

It is obvious that the management must ensure a constant availability of sufficient

number of efficient executives in an enterprise for the efficient functioning of the
enterprise. The selected personnel should be physically, mentally and temperamentally
fit for the job.

Staffing is a basic function of management. Every manager is continuously engaged in

performing the staffing function. He is actively associated with recruitment, selection,
training and appraisal of his subordinates. These activities are performed by the chief
executive, departmental managers and foremen in relation to their subordinates. Thus,
staffing is a pervasive function of management and is performed by the managers at all
levels.

It is the duty of every manager to perform the staffing activities such as selection,
training, performance appraisal and counselling of employees. In many enterprises,
Personnel Department is created to perform these activities. But it does not mean that
the managers at different levels are relieved of the responsibility concerned assistance
to the managers in performing their staffing function. Thus, every manager has to ensure
the responsibility of staffing.

DEFINITION

Staffing can be defined as one of the most important functions of management. It involves
the process of filling the vacant position of the right personnel at the right job, at right time.
Hence, everything will occur in the right manner.

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It is a truth that human resource is one of the greatest for every organization because in
any organization all other resources like- money, material, machine etc. can be utilized
effectively and efficiently by the positive efforts of human resource.

Therefore it is very important that each and every person should get right position in the
organization so as to get the right job, according to their ability, talent, aptitude, and
specializations so that it will help the organization to achieve the pre-set goals in the proper
way by the 100% contribution of manpower. Thus it can be said that it is staffing is an
essential function of every business organization.

According to Koontz and O’Donnell, “The managerial function of staffing involves

managing the organization structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal
and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the structure.”

S. Benjamin has defined staffing as – “The process involved in identifying, assessing,

placing, evaluating and directing individuals at work.”

According to Theo Hainmann, “Staffing function is concerned with the placement,

growth and development of all those members of the organisation whose function is to
get things done through the efforts of other individuals.”

Thus, staffing plays a vital role in human resource planning. It ensures best utilization
of manpower in the organization. Staffing is the key to all other managerial functions.
It helps to maintain a satisfactory workforce in an enterprise.

From the above definitions of staffing it is observed that the staffing function has to
perform a number of sub functions and covers from managerial personnel to lower level
employees. It is the process of matching the jobs with capable people and tries to
maintain and develop employees through appropriate training and development
programmes.

MEANING

Staffing is the process of hiring eligible candidates in the organization or company for
specific positions. In management, the meaning of staffing is an operation of recruiting
the employees by evaluating their skills, knowledge and then offering them specific job
roles accordingly.

Staffing is concerned with manning various positions in the organisation. Staffing

involves the determination of manpower requirements of the enterprise and providing
it with adequate competent people at all its levels. Thus, manpower planning,
procurement (i.e., selection and placement), training and development, appraisal and
remuneration of workers are included in staffing.

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The staffing function of management pertains to recruitment, selection, training,

development, appraisal and remuneration of personnel. It is the duty of every manager
to perform this function.
The responsibility for the efficient planning and execution of staffing function rests
upon every manager at all levels. The responsibility increases as one moves up the
organisational hierarchy. Many managers believe in the myth that the staffing function
is the responsibility of the personnel department.

No doubt, the personnel department involves itself in staffing function. However, there
cannot be a greater folly a manager can commit than throwing the entire responsibility
on someone else’s lap. The responsibility for staffing is more at the higher echelons of
the enterprise. The policymakers cannot shirk from this basic responsibility.

One important factor that needs special consideration is the estimation of the number of
managers required in the enterprise. The number depends not only on its size but upon
the complexity of the organisational structure, its plan for expansion or diversification
and the turnover rate.

The degree of decentralization determines to a very large extent, the number of

personnel required. If the estimation is to be accurate and if the enterprise wants to avoid
any misadventure, then it must involve itself seriously in a manpower planning exercise.

CONCEPT OF STAFFING

Once the organisational goals are set, the plans are prepared and organisation is
appropriately structured to pave the path for achievement of the set goals. The next step
is to provide appropriate personnel to fill in the various positions created by the
organisational structure. The process putting people to jobs is termed as staffing.
Staffing, the management function involves appointing appropriate personnel,
developing them to meet organisational needs and ensuring that they are a satisfied and
happy workforce.
Staffing is defined as a managerial function of filling and keeping filled the positions in
the organisational structure. The personnel appointed are a combination of permanent
employees, daily workers, consultants, contract employees etc.

Staffing includes:
1. Identifying the requirement of workforce and its planning.
2. Recruitment and selection of appropriate personnel for new jobs or for positions
which may arise as a result of existing employees leaving the organisation.
3. Planning adequate training for development and growth of workforce.
4. Deciding on compensation, promotion and performance appraisals for the
workforce.

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OBJECTIVES OF STAFFING

1. To procure right type of personnel for right jobs.

2. To train and develop human resources.
3. To develop personnel policies as regards transfer, promotion, etc.
4. To mould effectively the human resources and motivate them for higher
performance.
5. To establish desirable working relationship between employers and employees
and between groups of employees.
6. To ensure satisfaction of the needs of the workers so that they become loyal and
committed to the organisation.
7. To build high morale among employees by maintaining good human relations.

FUNCTIONS OF STAFFING

1. Manpower Planning: Manpower may be planned for short-term and long-term.

The short-term manpower planning may achieve the objectives of the company
at present conditions. The long-term manpower planning should be concerned
with the estimation of staff members required in future.
2. Development: Development is concerned with the development of staff
members through adequate and appropriate training programmes. The training is
given only to the needy persons.
3. Fixing the Employment Standards: It involves the job specification and job
description. These enable the management to select the personnel and train them
scientifically. Job description is a systematic and organised written statement of
the duties and responsibilities in a specific job. Job specification is a statement
of personal qualities that an individual must possess if he is to successfully
perform the job.
4. Sources: It is concerned with the method by which the staff members are
selected. The sources may be internal and external sources. Internal source
means that a vacancy is filled up by the company out of the staff members
available within the company. The external source means that a vacancy is filled
up by the company from outside the company. The person selected may be
unemployed or working in any other company.
5. Selection and Placement: It includes the process of selection of the staff
members. The placement includes giving a job to a person on the basis of his
ability, education, experience and the like.
6. Training: The training may be arranged by the company itself. In certain cases,
the staff members may be sent out by the company to get the training. The
expense is borne by the company. The training may be required not only by the
new staff members but also by the existing staff members.
7. Other Functions: The other function of staffing includes co-ordination,
promotion, transfer, record maintenance regarding employees, rating of
employees, motivation, etc.

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IMPORTANCE OF STAFFING

1. Identifies Competent Personnel: Staffing identifies the requirement of

workforce to fill in the positions in the organisational structure and selects right
people for the right job. It ensures that people with adequate competencies are
employed.
2. Improved Performance: By deploying right people on the right job helps
business enterprises to use physical resources in the most optimum manner
leading to higher productivity, better efficiency and improved performance.
3. Continuous Survival and Growth: Proper training and employee development
programmes updates managers with the changes in business environment. The
succession planning for managers ensures the continuous survival and growth of
the enterprise.
4. Optimum Utilisation of the Human Resources: Staffing identifies the
workforce requirements and plans appointment of people accordingly. This
ensures that there are adequate personnel available to avoid under-utilisation or
disruption of work due to under-staffing.
5. Provides Job Satisfaction and Builds Morale: Staffing provides opportunities
for growth through internal promotions, appreciates and rewards the contribution
through continuous appraisals. This keeps the workforce satisfied and in high
morale.

CHARACTERISTICS OF STAFFING

1. People-Centered - Staffing can broadly view as people-centered function and

therefore it is relevant for all types of organization. It is concerned with
categories of personnel from top to bottom of the organization.
a. Blue collar workers (i.e., those working on the machines and engaged in
loading, unloading etc.) and white collar workers (i.e., clerical
employees).
b. Managerial and Non Managerial personal.
c. Professionals (eg.- Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary)
2. Responsibility of Manager - Staffing is the basic function of management
which involves that the manager is continuously engaged in performing the
staffing function. They are actively associated with the recruitment, selection,
training, and appraisal of his subordinates. Therefore the activities are performed
by the chief executive, departmental managers and foremen in relation to their
subordinates.
3. Human Skills - Staffing function is mainly concerned with different types of
training and development of human resource and therefore the managers should
use human relation skill in providing guidance and training to the subordinates.
If the staffing function is performed properly, then the human relations in the
organization will be cordial and mutually performed in an organized manner.
4. Continuous Function - Staffing function is to be performed continuously which
is equally important for a new and well-established organization. Since in a

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newly established organization, there has to be recruitment, selection, and

training of personnel. As we compare that, the organization which is already a
running organization, then at that place every manager is engaged in various
staffing activities. Therefore, he is responsible for managing all the workers in
order to get work done for the accomplishment of the overall objectives of an
organization.

NATURE OF STAFFING

1. People-oriented – Staffing deals with efficient utilization of human resources in

an organization. It promotes and stimulates every employee to make his full
contribution for achieving desired objective of the organization.
2. Development-oriented – It is concerned with developing potentialities of
personnel in the organization. It develops their personality, interests, and skills.
It enables employees to get maximum satisfaction from their work. It assists
employees to realize their full potential. It provides opportunities to employees
for their advancement through training, job education, etc.
3. Pervasive function – Staffing is required in every organization. It is a major
sub-system in the total management system that can be applied to both profit
making and non-profit making organizations. It is required at all levels of
organization for all types of employees.
4. Continuous function – Staffing is a continuous and never-ending process. It
requires constant alertness and awareness of human relations and their
importance in every operation.
5. Human objectives – It develops potentialities of employees so that they can
derive maximum satisfaction from their work. It creates an atmosphere where
employees willingly cooperate for the attainment of desired organizational goals.
6. Individuals as well as group-oriented – Staffing is concerned with employees
both as individuals and as group in attaining goals. It establishes proper
organizational structure to satisfy individual needs and group efforts. It integrates
individual and group goals in such a manner that the employees feel a sense of
involvement towards the organization.
7. Developing cordial working environment – It develops a cordial environment
in the enterprise where each employee contributes his best for the achievement
of organizational goals. It provides a very comfortable physical and
psychological working environment.
8. Interdisciplinary nature – Staffing has its roots in social sciences. It uses
concepts drawn from various disciplines such as psychology, sociology,
anthropology, and management. It has also borrowed principles from
behavioural sciences. It is a science of human engineering.
9. Integral part of general management – Staffing is an integral part of the
general management. It is very much a part of every line manager’s
responsibility. Every member of the management group (from top to bottom)
must be an effective personnel administrator. It renders service to other
functional areas of management.

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10. Science as well as art – Staffing is a science of human engineering. It is an

organized body of knowledge consisting of principles and techniques. It is also
an art as it involves skills to deal with people. It is one of the creative arts as it
handles employees and solves their problems systematically. It is a philosophy
of management as it believes in the dignity and worth of human beings.

KEY ASPECTS OF STAFFING

1. Recruitment – Recruitment is a positives process which aims to attract larger

number of people with desirable profile to apply for positions vacant in the
organisation. Higher the number of applicants, greater is the possibility of
finding a suitable employee.
2. Selection – Selection is a negative process which scrutinizes the applications
received and selects only those who are most suitable for the vacant position.
Recruitment invites applications but selection rejects applications.
3. Training – Training is another positive process which upgrades the knowledge
and skills of employees and enhances the ability to perform better.
Organisations follow the process of recruitment, selection and training to ensure that all
positions in the organisational structure remain Med with qualified and talented people.
However, the business environment influences the way these processes are carried out.

FACTORS INFLUENCE STAFFING PROCESS

1. Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market

2. Unemployment rate
3. Labour market conditions
4. Legal and political considerations
5. Company’s image
6. Company policies
7. Human resource planning cost
8. Technological developments
9. General economic environment.

ELEMENTS OF STAFFING
1. Human Resource Planning – This is the first step in the process of staffing in
which a planner forecast and determine the number and kind of manpower
required by the organisation in future. It has two aspects viz., short term and long
term.
2. Recruitment – It refers to identification of the sources of man power
availability.
3. Selection – It is the process of choosing and appointing the right candidates for
various positions in the organisation.
4. Placement – It involves placing the selected candidates on the right jobs after
given orientation training.

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5. Training and Development – It involves improving job and work knowledge

skills and attitudes of employees on a regular basis so that they may perform
their work effectively and efficiently.
6. Remuneration and Compensation – It is necessary to pay equitable amount of
wages and salaries to the employees. In order to achieve the objectives of the
organisation.
7. Performance Evaluation – It is the appraisal system of various categories of
employees in terms of their behavior and work performance at the work place.
8. Transfer – It is the moving of employees to similar positions in the other work
units.
9. Promotion – It is the moving of employees from low position to higher position
in the organisation. It is also called vertical movement upward direction.
10. Working Environment – It is the responsibility of personnel department to
provide good working conditions to the employees in the organisation. It
certainly influence the motivation and morale of the employees.

STAFFING - POLICY

Staffing policy is concerned with the selection of employees for particular jobs. At one
level, this involves selecting individuals who have the skills required to do particular
jobs. At another level, staffing policy can be a tool for developing and promoting
corporate culture. By corporate culture, we mean the organization's norms and value
systems. Firms pursuing transnational and global strategies have high needs for a strong
unifying culture, and the need is somewhat lower for firms pursuing an international
strategy and lowest of all for firms pursuing a multidomestic strategy.

In firms pursuing transnational and global strategies, we might expect the HRM
function to pay significant attention to selecting individuals who not only have the skills
required to perform particular jobs but who also "fit" the prevailing culture of the firm.

Types of Staffing Policy

1. The Ethnocentric Approach - An ethnocentric staffing policy is one in which
all key management positions are filled by parent-country nationals.
2. The Polycentric Approach - A polycentric staffing policy requires host-country
nationals to be recruited to manage subsidiaries, while parent-country nationals
occupy key positions at corporate headquarters.
3. The Geocentric Approach - A geocentric staffing policy seeks the best people
for key jobs throughout the organization, regardless of nationality.

STAFFING – PROCESS

The staffing process is a systematic attempt to implement die human resource plan by
recruiting, evaluating and selecting qualified candidates for the job-positions in the
organization. Thus, like planning and organization, staffing is also an important
function of management.

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1. Manpower Planning: It may be regarded as the quantitative and qualitative

measurement of labour force required in an organization. It is concerned with
creating and evaluating the manpower inventory and to develop required talents
among the employees selected for promotion advancement.
2. Recruitment: It is a positive process of searching for prospective employees and
stimulating them to apply for the jobs in the organization. The scientific
recruitment leads to greater productivity, better wages, higher morale, reduction
in labour turnover and better reputation on the concern.
3. Selection: It is the process of eliminating those who appear unpromising. The
purpose of this process is to determine whether a candidate is suitable for
employment in the organization or not. The main aim of this process is to choose
right candidate for the right position in the organization.
4. Placement: It means putting the person on the job for which he is selected. It
includes the introduction of the employee to the job.
5. Training: Aker selection of an employee, the most important function of the
personnel programme is to impart training to the new comer. With the rapid
technological changes, the need for training employees is being increasingly
recognized so as to keep the employees in touch with the new developments.
Thus, every concern must have a systematic training programme.
6. Development: A sound staffing policy calls for the introduction of a system of
planned promotion in every organization. If employees are not having suitable
opportunities for their development and promotion, they get frustrated.
7. Promotion: It implies upgrading of an employee to a higher post involving
increase in rank, prestige or status and responsibilities. Generally increase in pay
accompanies promotion but it is not essential ingredient and there can be a dry
promotion also.
8. Transfer: It implies movement of an employee from one job to another without
any increase in pay, status or responsibilities. Usually transfer takes place
between the jobs having approximately the same salaries.
9. Appraisal: It reveals as to how efficiently a sub-ordinate is performing his job
and also to know his aptitude and other qualities necessary for performing the
job assigned to him. The main aim of this performance appraisal is to improve
the efficiency of a concern by mobilizing the best efforts from individuals
employed in it.
10. Determination of Remuneration: Fixation of remuneration is a difficult and
complex because there are no definite or exact means to determine the correct
wages, job evaluation is the only systematic technique to determine the worth of
the job.

REFERENCES & FURTHER READING

 https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/management/staffing-process/31920
 https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/staffing/staffing-meaning-features-and-
importance/3508
 http://enbv.narod.ru/text/Econom/ib/str/227.html#:~:text=Staffing%20policy%20is%20concer
ned%20with,developing%20and%20promoting%20corporate%20culture

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 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/basic-steps-management-planning-process-terry-
mullane#:~:text=Management%20planning%20is%20the%20process,and%20long%2Dterm
%20corporate%20strategies.
 https://theteche.com/what-is-management-planning-principles-of-management/
 https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/organisation/staffing/31866

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Gupta, Shashi K. . Human Resource Management, 7e Text & Cases. Kalyani
Publisher, 2017.
 S.S., Khanka. Human Resource Management, 2e (Text and Cases). S. Chand,
2019.

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