Chapter Five

The Staffing Function

After jobs are identified, grouped and the
organization structure created, the next managerial
task is staffing.
It is a separate field by itself and known as human
resource management.
Human resource refers to the sum total of the
inherent abilities, acquired knowledge and skills
represented by the aptitudes, and talents of an
organization work force.
The major objective of staffing function is to enable
an organization to attract, hire, train, develop,
reward, and retain efficient and effective work force.
Definition:
 Staffing is defined as the process of filling and keeping filled
the positions in the organizational structure.
 Broadly speaking, staffing function has four major elements.
 Acquisition (Procurement)
 Training & Development
 Retention (Maintenance & Utilization) and
 Separation & Employee relation (Exit)
 These broad elements can be further divided into 7 steps
A. Acquisition (Procurement)
 Procurement is concerned with determining and obtaining the
proper quality and quantity of the workforce and contains the
following elements.
 Human resource planning: Is the process of determining
the right quality and quantity of workforce for the right
position.
It involves assessing current HR of the organization,
future needs & ways to fill the gap i.e. HR inventory,
forecasting personnel requirement & planning to
procure new employees to perform particular jobs
effectively.
2. Recruitment and selection
Recruitment: is the process of searching for prospective
employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the
organization. There are two sources of recruitment;
1) Internal recruitment
2) External recruitment
Selection: identifying and choosing those applicants who
can successfully perform a job from the available
candidates through Preliminary interview, Application
form, reference letters, employment interview, practical &
 Internal recruitment
Transfer- is the movement of an employee from one job
to another on the same occupational level and
salary/wage and other benefits. It can be done on
temporary or permanent basis.
Promotion- is the advancement of an employee to better
job, greater responsibility and more prestige or status
with greater skills and increases the rate of pay. merit
and seniority are important factors in promotion.
Demotions- is a reduction in an employee’s status, pays
and responsibilities.
Advantages: Seniority, less costly getting of familiar
employee to the respective position and so on.
Disadvantages: it prevents new blood or outlook from
outside man power and it narrow down the selection
option.
 External recruitment
1. Direct recruitment: by placing a notice on the notice
board of the enterprise, specifying the details of the jobs
available. This is also known as recruitment at factory
gate.
2. Unsolicited applications: applying for jobs by own
initiative.
3. Advertising: used when the vacancy is for higher post to
address all potential applicants. contains information
about the company, job description, and job specialization.
4. Employment agencies/labor contractors This is the
good source of recruitment for unskilled and semiskilled
jobs. In some cases, compulsory notification of vacancies
is required by the law.
5. Educational institutions: Job fair.
6. Recommendations: Applicants introduced by friends,
relatives and employees of the organization may be good
source of recruitment. Many employers prefer to take
 Methods of Recruitment
 Direct method of recruitment: Recruiters directly
contact the prospective employees and attract them.
i.e.
 Contact graduating students & select the best among
them
 Hold conferences/seminars for prospective employees
and encourage them to apply for vacancies
 Participate in job exhibitions or job fairs to attract
prospective employees
 Indirect method: Organizations encourage
prospective employees to apply for vacancies through
advertisements in newspapers, magazines, journals,
etc..
 Third party method: Private employment agencies,
those carry out recruitment process of an organization
for a fee.
D. Placement: refers to the process of offering the
vacant job position (placement letter) to the chosen
employees.
E. Induction (Orientation): to introduce the new
employee to the organizations philosophy, rules,
policies, etc.… and it may be done through oral
communication, written Medias like manuals,
guidelines and others. assimilation & socialization of a new
employee
B. Training and development: -
Training is the act of increasing the knowledge and
skills(technical skill) of employees for doing a
particular job.
Development is the systematic process of education,
training and growing by which a person learns and
applies information, knowledge, skills, attitudes and
perceptions.
Importance of training
 To provide the knowledge, skills and abilities or attitudes
for individuals to undertake their current job effectively
 To help employees became capable of assuming
responsibilities within organization
 To reduce waste and increase efficiency (increased
productivity)
 To help employees to adapt to changing circumstance
facing organization such as new technologies, new
products and so on.
 Availability for the future personnel needs of the
organization
 Reduced supervision
 Personal growth, improvement in employee morale and
Organizational stability
Methods of training
 On-the-job & Off-the- job
 Job/position rotation
 Coaching: trainee is placed under a close guidance and supervision
of the trainer and he/she given an opportunity to perform an
increasing rage of management tasks and share the coaches
experience.
 Internship: is undertaken by a joint program of training where
school and business organization cooperate in order to train students.
 Role playing: trainees assume different identities.
 Case study: is a method utilizes stimulated or actual business
problems experienced before him/her to solve.
 Lecture, conferences, seminars and work shops
 Apprenticeship-is learned from more experienced employees. It is
generally followed in technical fields in which proficiency is acquired.
Training programs are primarily directed towards maintaining and
improving current job performances while development programs
are primarily intended to develop skills for the future jobs.
C. Retention (Maintenance and utilization)
Compensation: is adequate and equitable
remuneration of personnel for their contributions to the
achievement of organizational objectives.
Factors affecting compensation decisions:
External factors
 The government influence through wage controls and guidelines
 Unions influence demanding for better pay and working
conditions
 Economic conditions of the industry
 The labor markets & competition
Internal factors
 The size and age of the organization
 The labor budget or resource allocation
 Managerial philosophy and strategy

Fringe benefits: Time off pay & Non-pay benefits

 Performance appraisal: determine the extent to which
an employee is performing the job effectively. It is formal,
structured comparison between employee performance
and established quality standards.
It helps:
 To determine who shall receive merit increases.
 To determine training needs
 To identify employee to be transferred.
 To provide adequate feedback to each individual for his
performance.
 To improve or change bring desirable attitude & behavior &
attitude toward some more effective working habits.
 To provide useful information & data for the manager to judge
the future job assignment of employee.
 To improve the efficiency of an organization through improved
work performance.
 To reduce favoritism in making managerial decision.
3. Exit (separation)
It refers to the termination/discontinuation of the
relationship between the worker and the organization
due to one of the ff reasons;
The employers forced mandatory retirement;
dismissal; (layoff)
The employees like resignation; voluntary
retirement; (quit)
The agreement, when the contract ends; or they can
also be caused by things outside the will of both the
employer & the employee (accidents, death)
Employment relationships:
Exercise
Define Staffing.
What are the four broad elements of
staffing?
Write down the steps in staffing.
Thank
You!!