STAFFING

NATURE AND IMPORTANCE OF STAFFING

Staffing is a process to fill the job positions with suitable number of people having the required skill sets so as to achieve the desired targets. It involves recruitment, selection, placement, training and development of peoples as capable employees of the organization.

Staffing also involves processes like career planning, succession planning, compensation and incentives, performance appraisal, promotion, demotions and transfers etc. In a broader term we can define staffing as an activity to find out the nature and number of people required working for the organization, attracting retaining and appraising the employees so that the organization targets can be achieved in an effective and efficient manner.

• Staffing and Human Resource Management

If we look towards staffing and human resource management, we can say that human resource management is the extension of staffing, human resource management activities and staffing is almost the same, practically staffing is generic and human resource management is a specific term only.

Characteristics of Staffing

·         Staffing is one of the important function of organization, it deals with assessing the total number of people required, the Knowledge, skill and attitude possessed by the, the method of recruitment, selection and placement of such employees, their training, development and compensation. How to plan for their appraisal and further development in the organization so that organization keep on achieving its targets in most effective manner.

Staffing is all pervasive management function: - staffing is all pervasive activity of the management, from the board of directors to the supervisors of the organization everyone is doing the staffing activity, whether to appraise the performance of employee, or giving training etc staffing activities are done by each level of the organization, the personnel or human resource department is only to provide support function to the staffing process of the entire organization.

Staffing is a continuous activity: - like all other managerial functions staffing is also a continuous activity, management of human resource will be carried out throughout the function of organizations, employees will be leaving or entering the organization, the movement of employee within the organization through transfer, promotion or demotion will also be continuous so we can say that staffing is continuous activity.

Staffing deals with the most dynamic and complex resource of management:-   staffing deals with the most dynamic and complex resource of the organization i.e. the human resource which is very difficult to understand and standardize, this resource is also very significant for the success of the organization.

Importance of Staffing

Ensure fulfillment of human resource requirement:- staffing helps to estimate and provide the required human resource for the achievement of organizational goals. It is by the way of staffing the organization knows the number and nature of human resource required and it also fulfills these requirements through recruitment, selection and placements.

Increases efficiencies of organization:- by providing the right number and nature and with the help of training and development, the staffing improves productivity as no work suffer due to non availability of required staff or manpower, secondly the right kind of staffing ensure there is less wastage of other resources like the materials, time and machineries.   

Efficient Management of Human resource:-  staffing helps to manage the human resource employed within the organization in and effective manner, staffing helps in evaluating the suitable compensation and incentives, ensure the employee’s KSA’s are maintained and developed through training and development activities. Effective and timely administration of HR related decisions like promotions and increments also helps to retain the employees with the company.

Better Human Relations:- staffing helps to maintain the competence and enthusiasm of the personnel employed by it. Human resource management aims at establishing desirable working relations between employers and employees and between groups of employees. It attempts to ensure satisfaction to the personnel so that they work voluntarily for the well-being of the enterprises,

Builds Higher Motivation and Morale:- staffing helps to build higher motivation level and morale among the employees, which can be achieved by the appreciations and motivation given by the manager to his team, through disbursement of monetary and non monetary benefits and incentives. Improving the work life of the employees and helping them achieve their personal targets by maintaining healthy work life balance.

Functions of Staffing

Following are the functions of staffing process in an organization.

·         Planning Human Resource Requirement:- the staffing process begin with assessment of the jobs and the designations required to carry out the various activities of the organization, then it involves to work out the total requirement of the human resource requirement for the organization. The basic function of human resource planning involves.

• Forecasting future manpower requirements based on past experience and future plans.
• Making an inventory of existing manpower and assessing how they are being utilized.
• Anticipating manpower problems in the light of manpower forecasts, and determines the adequacy of manpower.
• Planning recruitment, selection, training, development, motivation and compensation so that future manpower requirements are met satisfactorily

·         Planning the strategic plan of the human resource department:- in this step the management develops the targets and strategies required to achieve the targets of the staffing process, it define what will be the strategy the organization will employ in fulfilling the human resource requirement of the company.

·         Recruitment: - it is the process of identifying and attracting right kind of human resource required to fill the job positions in the organization. Recruitments can be done through advertisements in news papers, collaborating with online job portals, and outsourcing to placement agencies or through internal grapevine activities etc.

·         Selection:- the selection is a process to assess the candidature of the prospective employees and selecting people for employment with company, it starts with evaluating the applications, conducting selection processes like group discussions, personal or technical interviews, tests and medical examinations etc.

·         Induction or orientation:- once the candidate is selected he is given a offer letter on the acceptance and joining the candidate is given induction or orientation, in this process the new employee is made aware of the corporate policies, vision and mission, introduction to the concerned people and departments, his work areas duties and responsibilities and other such information which will be required by him in performing his tasks. Induction or orientation is a method by which employee is given an opportunity to understand the organization and expectations and system.

·         Placement:- after successful completion of the orientation process the new employee is given placement which means he is being given the designation and his responsibilities and authorities are being fixed.

·         Administrative work:- in this process the staffing performs the administrative works like making and disbursement of wages and salaries, maintain record of leaves, appraisal of work, promotion demotion and transfers, deductions of PF and tax liabilities, disbursement of bonus and incentives etc.

·                  Training and development:-  training is an activity where the employees are given an opportunity to learn and maintain the required skills, knowledge and attitude required for performing the current job as per the requirement of the organization, training helps to maintain the level of performance by the employee, development activities deals with further enhancement of KSA which will be required by the employee in performing the job of higher level. Development activities targets to make the employee ready to take up the next level i.e. promotion.

·                  Management of compensations and incentives: - depending on the company strategy the staffing function will also evaluate equitable compensation and incentive system, the company will evaluate the worth of job and also compare the internal and external job equity to develop find out realistic compensation and incentive package that can be offered to the employee.

·         Working Environment. It is the responsibility of staffing function to provide conducive work environment and basic amenities to the employees so as to make the work life better and yield higher levels of job satisfaction, good work environment include proper lighting and ventilation, hygienic environment, safety and security systems, amenities include bath rooms, canteen facility, recreation centre, medical facility etc.

·         Employee well being and satisfaction:-  activities which are targeted for the well being and increasing job satisfaction of the employee is also the responsibility of the staffing function. Such activities include providing education to employees, sports and health club facility, free canteen services, crèche facility for the young one of the employees, provision of transport etc

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