Chapter Five

Staffing
Staffing is the process of identifying human resource needs, procuring the
necessary employees, training, utilization, and separation of those
employees. It is a separate field by itself and known as human resource
management. The major objective of the staffing function is enabling an
organization to attract, maintain and utilize efficient and effective workforce.

Functions of Staffing
Broadly speaking, staffing function has three major elements. These are:

A) Acquisition (Procurement)
Procurement is concerned with determining & obtaining the proper quality &
quantity of the workforce & contains elements of human resource planning,
recruitment, selection and induction (placement)

1) Human Resource Planning: - It is the process of determining &

preserving a firm’s human resource recruitment of organization at its
different levels for achieving its goals. Human resource planning
translates the overall organizational objectives, plans & programs to
achieve specific performance in to workforce needs. Steps in human
resource planning includes:-
è Analyzing organizational objectives and plan.
è Determining over all human resource needs.
è Taking inventory of existing personnel.
è Determining net new personnel requirements.
è Developing action plans.

2) Recruitment: is the process of searching for prospective employees

& stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. There are two
sources of recruiting potential candidates.
è Internal Requirement: - An effort to fill open positions with people
already employed in the firm. These include processes like transfer,
promotion, and recall from layoff.

Advantages: familiar employees, less costly, less orientation

Disadvantages: narrows down selection options, organizational breeding

è External Recruitment: - an effort to fill open positions from sources

outside the firm. It is searching for employees in the labor market,
walk-ins, write-ins, educational institutions, employment agencies and
labor unions.

Advantages: wide option for selection, new outlook comes in

Disadvantages: unfamiliar employees, more cost, orientation needed

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 3) Selection: It is the process of evaluating & deciding the best &
qualified candidates out of the pool of applicants received in the
recruitment process for job opening based on their abilities, skill &
performance. In other words, selection is a process in which
candidates for job pass through succession of hurdles to ascertain
whether the candidate’s posses the appropriate qualifications for
specific job. It needs care and allows no discretion when performed.
The selection process may include:
è Preliminary screening
è Application form filling
è Reference letters
è Employment interview
è Employment tests
è Physical examination

4) Induction (Orientation): Placement is the process where the

selected candidates are familiarized with the organization and it may
be done through oral communication, written Medias like manuals,
guidelines and others. It is designing to provide new employees with
information needed to function comfortably and effectively in the
organization. Induction conveys three types of information.
è General information about the daily work i.e. routine things.
è A review of organizational history, purpose, operations & products &
services.
è A detailed presentation of the organizational policies, work rules &
employee benefits.

B) Retention
Is the process through which the selected employees are maintained or
utilized & is at the same time the process of increasing the qualification of
employees. It includes the fol nlowing elements.

1) Training & Development

a) Training is any process by which the aptitudes, skills & abilities of
employees to perform specific jobs are increased or it is the act of
increasing the knowledge & skills of employees for doing a particular
job. Training programs are directed towards maintaining & improving
current job performance. Training is mainly given to non-managers to
improve their technical skills.

Objectives of Training
è To provide the knowledge, skills and attitudes for individuals to
undertake their current job more effectively.
è To help employees to become capable of assuming other
responsibilities

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 è To help employees to adopt to changing circumstances E.g.: new
technologies
è To reduce waste and to increase productivity
è To minimize input use and maximize output
è To relieve superiors from close supervision and get time for other
duties

b) Development is the systematic process of education, training and

growing by which a person learns & applies information, knowledge,
skills, attitudes & perceptions. It is training offered at present for up
grading the future performance of individuals at higher level positions.
Development programs seek to develop skills for future jobs. Managers
receive assistance in `developing the skills required in futures jobs,
conceptual & human relations skills. Hence, development includes
training & it focuses at individual growth through increasing the
general knowledge and understanding, not restricted to a particular
job. In other words, training complements development.

c) Compensation: It refers to all forms of financial returns and tangible

services & benefits employee receives as a part of an employment
relationship or the reward that individuals receive in return for their
labor from organization. It is adequate & equitable remuneration of
personnel for their contributions to the achievement of organizational
objectives.
è For an employee, compensation is a means by which they support their
needs and families
è For the employer, compensation represents a lion share cost.

Different Factors Affect Compensation Decisions

I) Internal Factors
è The size and age of organizations
è Labor budget

II) External Factors

è Government wage controls and guidelines
è Labor unions
è Economic conditions of the industry

d) Performance Appraisal (PA): is defined as a human resource

activity that is used to determine the extent to which an employee is
performing the job effectively. It is a formal structured system
designed to measure the actual job performance of an employee with
designed performance standards. It is the evaluation of an employee’s
job performance by his superiors.

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Objectives of PA
è To provide information towards strengths and weaknesses of
employees
è To bring better allocation of resources
è To maintain equitable and competitive pay structure
è To supply information on training needs
è To prepare rewards
e) Discipline: It is generally administered when an employee violates
company policy or falls short of work expectations & managers must
act to remedy the situation. Usually progresses through a series of
steps- warning, reprimand, probation, suspension, disciplinary transfer,
demotion & discharge- until the problem is solved/eliminated. It refers
to the taking of disciplinary actions for the application of penalties to
inhibit undesired behavior. The main objective of disciplinary actions is
to maintain desired behavior within the organization through
exemplary measures.

f) Transfer, Promotion and Demotion

1) Transfer is the movement of an employee from one job to another on the same
occupational level and at the same level of wages (salary) and other benefits. Transfer
can be temporary or permanent.
2) Promotion is the advancement of employee to a better job i.e. better in terms of greater
responsibility, more prestige or status, greater skills and increased rate of pay. Merit and
seniority are important factors in promotions.
3) Demotion is the movement of an employee from higher occupational level to a lower
level(less pay and less responsibility, status, prestige etc). It may be the result of
disciplinary action.

C) Exit (Separation)
It refers to the termination of the relationship between the worker and the
organization due to one of the following reasons.
1) Transfer is moving a person from one organizational level or location
to the other.
2) Resignation refers to the termination at the instance of the
employee’s interest. An employee resigns when he or she secures a
better job elsewhere or the employee may quit for personal reasons or
when an employee suffers from ill health or some other reason.
3) Dismissal When the employer initiates the termination of
employment. Some of the reasons, which lead to the dismissal of
employees, include excessive absenteeism, serious misconduct, theft
of organization’s property etc.
4) Retirement: The employee may also be separated from the
organization due to age and disability.

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