Financial and Strategic Management

What is Staffing and the Process of its Working?

Staffing is an occupying significance as a function of management. The managerial function of staffing involves manning the organization structure through proper and effective recruitment, selection, appraisal, and development of the personnel to fill the roles assigned to the employers/workforce. It can be seen closely related to organizing, with both focused on ensuring the resources are directed to the right processes and tasks.

Why is staffing essential?

Staffing is essential to guarantee the operational functionality of the organization. Staffing also assures that the human resources available within the organization are capable to perform the designated tasks and that they are satisfactorily supported in those roles. This will further lead to organizational efficiency since people are motivated and qualified to work towards the common goal. Furthermore, even the most qualified employees need the occasional help and support. The staffing function helps create these development opportunities.

Nature of Staffing

Staffing is an inseparable managerial function along with planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. The operations of these four functions depend upon a strong team that is built through a staffing function. Staffing is a pervasive activity and is carried out by all managers and in all types of organizations where business activities are carried out. Staffing is a continuous activity- It continues throughout the life of an organization. The basis of staffing function is the efficient management of personnel- Human resources can be efficiently managed by a system or proper procedure, that is, recruitment, selection, placement, training, and development providing remuneration, etc. Staffing helps in placing the right men at the right job through proper recruitment procedures and then finally selecting the most suitable candidate as per the job requirements. Staffing is performed by all managers depending upon the nature of the business, size of the company, qualifications, and skills of managers, etc.

How to staff?

Manpower requirements- The foremost step in staffing is to plan the manpower inventory required by a concern in order to match them with the job requirements and demands. Therefore, it involves forecasting and determining the future manpower needs of the concern.

Recruitment- After knowing the requirements, the organization invites people to apply for jobs. The job requirement should unmistakably mention the desired candidate’s profile so that only eligible candidates apply for the job. Though hiring people through internal transfers and promotion is always the best way to go in terms of time and compensation; organizations usually have to work together with placement contractors, consultants, and employment exchanges to meet their needs. Organizations can also make use of media to advertise their job requirements.

Selection- Selection is the stage in staffing that can ‘make or break’ the entire process. Scanning candidates for the right skills, experience, and qualifications needs the hiring manager to be at the best of his/her ability. Through test or interview or discussion, it may be judged that whether a candidate is a fit for the job or not. Sometimes, the right candidates would not consider the opportunity just because they didn’t like the work environment. It’s a two-way process, with both the company and the candidate having to be very careful in the way they come across to each other.

Orientation and Placement- During orientation, new employees are introduced to the existing ones and are made to feel comfortable within the organization. It is an aspect of staffing with the basic objective of familiarizing the new employee with people, processes, and workspace.

Training and Development- Training is a part of incentives given to the workers in order to develop and grow them within the concern. Training is generally given according to the nature of activities and scope of expansion in it. Along with it, the workers are developed by providing them extra benefits of in-depth knowledge of their functional areas. Development also includes giving them key and important jobs as a test or examination in order to analyze their performances.

Remuneration- It is a kind of compensation provided monetarily to the employees for their work performances. This is given according to the nature of the job- skilled or unskilled, physical or mental, etc. Remuneration forms an important monetary incentive for the employees.

Performance Evaluation- In order to keep a track or record of the behavior, attitudes as well as opinions of the workers towards their jobs. F or this regular assessment is done to evaluate and supervise different work units in a concern. It is basically concerning to know the development cycle and growth patterns of the employees in a concern.

Promotion and transfer- Promotion is said to be a non-monetary incentive in which the worker is shifted from a higher job demanding bigger responsibilities as well as shifting the workers and transferring them to different work units and branches of the same organization.

About the author

Shreya Kushwaha

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