Chapter: 6
STAFFING
Staffing refers to
recruitment and selection of competent personnel to fill various jobs in an
organisation. It is the process of human resources planning, recruitment,
selection, placement and orientation, training, performance appraisal,
promotion, transfer, remuneration and retirement of employees. It provides
people needed to carry out the works and responsibilities designed for each
position in an organisation. Due to the increasing size of business, rapid
advancement in technology and growing competition, now it becomes an important
function.
In the words of Koontz and
O’Donnell “Staffing function pertains to the recruitment, selection,
development, training and compensation of subordinates”
NEED FOR STAFFING
Following are the various
needs of staffing:
1) To forecast and balance the demand and supply
of suitable personnel.
2) To have efficient function of other
management function.
3) To effectively utilize the technology and
other resources.
4) To maximize productivity.
5) To develop higher employee morale.
6) To motivate human resources for the better
performance.
7) To develop human resources.
IMPORTANCE OF STAFFING
Staffing function is
important due to the following reasons:
1. Key to Other Functions:
Staffing injects life in to
the organisation, because this function makes other functions like planning,
directing and controlling active. This means through staffing place right man
at the right job, i.e, for performing planning, directing and controlling.
2. Building a Sound Human Organisation:
Staffing function helps in
building a sound organisation, which leads the members to perform their work
with high personal satisfaction. So staffing identifies right persons, induce
them to join, create a condition for getting their long term service with maximum
cooperation.
3. Changing Environment:
The rapid changing
technology, increasing size of business etc makes staffing more important than
forever before. Staffing makes personnel up to date and creates a labour force
to fill the jobs as and when the organisation needed.
4. Maximum Productivity:
Staffing helps in placing
right men at right place. It results in maximum production.
5. Long Term Effect:
Decision through staffing
effects the organisation for a long period. When a person is selected as an
employee his efficiency or otherwise has a long term effect on the
organisation. Human factor determines the success of the organisation.
STEPS IN THE PROCESS OF STAFFING
The various steps involved
in staffing process are as follows:
1. Man power Planning:
It is also knows as Human
Resources Planning. It is the process of determining the future manpower needs
of an organisation keeping the production schedules, market fluctuations,
demand forecasts etc. It determines scientifically the number and types of employees
that an organisation have to be hire, train and promote in order to achieve its
objectives. It ensure that there is no shortage of manpower and have qualified
persons at the proper time to do various jobs.
The process of manpower
planning has two parts:
A.Quantative analysis
B.Qualitative analysis
Through quantative aspect of manpower planning management tries to ensure required
number of employees is in each department and at each level. Qualitative aspect of manpower planning
helps to determine what qualities and characteristics are required on the part
of personnel for doing a job, i.e., qualification and experiences of employees.
Qualitative aspects thus involve job analysis.
Job
analysis is a systematic and detailed study of a job it is the
process of determining the tasks involved in a job and the personnel qualities
of job holder required to perform the job. Thus it provides information about
the job and job holder, i.e., information about the nature of job, tools and
equipments to be used and the qualification and characteristics required in job
holder. The information based on job analysis is used to prepare two statements
like Job Description and Job Specification.
Job Description describes
the job and Job Specification describes the qualities of a job holder to do the
job.
2. Recruitment:
Discuss as a separate topic
3. Selection:
Discuss as a separate topic
4. Placement and Orientation:
Placement
means asking the selected candidates to occupy the position in the organisation
for which they have been considered. In other putting the right man on the
right job. Proper placement of an employee reduces absenteeism, employee
turnover and accident rate.
Orientation is
the process of introducing a new employee to the fellow workers, supervisors
and subordinates. It helps him to acquaint with the working conditions, rules
and regulations of the organisation. Moreover this socialization process helps
him to create a sense of belongingness. It is also known as Induction.
5. Training:
Discuss as a separate topic
6. Performance Appraisal:
It is also known as Merit
Rating. It is a systematic evaluation of an individual’s performance on the job
and his potential for development. It is a formal way of assessing the relative
worth of an employee in terms of his ability and contribution and not the job.
It provides a feedback to each employee about his performance in job. It also
helps to determine promotion policies, training needs and develop a suitable
compensation package.
7. Promotion:
Promotion is another process
in staffing. This process includes all activities associated with transfer and
demotion. Promotion refers to the shifting of an employee from a lower position
to a higher position. It results in increased responsibilities and naturally
provides better scale of pay. It helps the employees to grow with in the
organisation and for using their hidden skills for the growth of the
organisation.
8. Compensation:
Discuss as a separate topic
9. Separation:
In staffing separation means
termination, retirement, resignation and death of employees. This cannot be
avoided, but turnover of employees is a problem to an organisation and need
managerial attention.
RECRUITMENT
Recruitment is the process
of searching and identifying maximum number of talented and qualified
prospective employees, attracting and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an
organisation. Its purpose is to create a pool of work force, up on which an
organisation can select qualified one for job vacancies. It is a positive
process of discovering the sources of manpower to meet the requirements of
staffing.
In the words of Edwin B. Flippo “Recruitment is the
process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging
them to apply for the jobs in an organisation”.
SOURCES OF RECRUITMENT
There are two main sources
for manpower supply. They are
A. Internal Sources
B. External Sources
A. INTERNAL SOURCES
Recruitment from
within the organisation is known as internal source of recruitment. Promoting
persons from lower levels may fill up vacancies at higher levels. Transferring
surplus staff from another branch may compensate shortage of manpower in a
branch. It encourages and motivates the existing employees and a sense of
loyalty among them. It is more economical in terms of time and money.
Following are
the various sources of internal recruitment:
1. Promotion
2. Transfer
3. Recalling the
laid-off employees
I. PROMOTION:
It means posting
of an employee to higher position. Additional responsibilities, status,
facilities and pay are the motivated elements of promotion. It encourages lower
level employees to work hard with full skill.
3. TRANSFER:
It refers to change in
employment of an employee without any change in the status and
responsibilities. Transferred employees are in the same level but performing
different tasks.
3. RECALLING THE LAID-OFF EMPLOYEES:
Lay off refers employees are
temporarily terminated from work dut to the shortage of power and materials.
Such terminated employees can be recalled when works resumes or when position
falls vacant.
B. EXTERNAL SOURCES
It refers to the
recruitment of employees from outside the organisation. It provides a wide
source of candidates having adequate qualification. Through this source the
organisation will get people with new ideas and specialised skill needed to
cope with new challenges and to ensure growth of the organisation.
Following are the
various outside source of recruitment:
1. Advertisement
Advertising in
local or national newspapers or trade and professional journals is a common
method for encouraging people to apply for jobs. This method is most suitable
for the recruitment of experts and specialists at top or middle level, which
are not available from other sources. This source provides a wide range of
candidates.
2. Personnel Consultants
These are
agencies developed in recent times for providing personnel consultancy services.
They undertake recruitment on behalf of employers. They charge fees for this
purpose.
3. Jobbers and Contractors
They are
commission agents provide required man power to the organisation. They keep in
touch with the potential employees in villages and bring them to the place
where workers are needed.
4. Factory Gate
Sometimes, a
large number of job seekers assemble everyday at the factory gate. In times of
severe shortage of unskilled workers, recruit the suitable candidates to meet
the shortage on casual basis.
5. Educational Institutions
Big business
houses generally approach colleges, technical institutions and management
schools to fill up job positions. They conducted interviews in these
institutions, collect bio-data and make a list of suitable candidates.
Generally this source is suitable for recruiting manpower at top level.
6. Waiting List
Sometimes
organisation maintains a file for keeping applications received through
personal visit of job seekers, application through mail or a note of enquiry
made through phone about job vacancies etc. Such records can be used as a
source for conducting recruitment.
7. Employment Exchanges
It is an
important source of recruitment from outside. The job seekers registered their
name with employment exchange and the employers required employees may approach
the exchange. The exchange refers the names of qualified candidates to the
employer. This is the most popular source of recruitment for unskilled, skilled
and semi skilled operative jobs.
8. Employee’s Recommendation
Candidates
recommended by the existing employees may be a good source of recruitment. This
method is suitable for recruiting employees at a lower level and helps in
increasing the goodwill of the existing employees.
9. Labour Union
Candidates
recommended by Labour union are considering as a source of recruitment for
lower level jobs.
SELECTION
Selection is the
process of choosing the people with right qualification from the applicants for
the job vacancies to be filled. It is a negative process, which ascertains
whether or not candidates possess required qualification, training and
experience. It involves matching with the requirements of the jobs to be
filled. It is an important function because the success of an organisation
ultimately depends up on the people work in an organisation.
STEPS IN THE PROCESS OF SELECTION
The basic idea
behind selection process is to observe maximum possible information about the
candidates to ascertain their suitability for employment. A standard selection
process has the following steps:
- Preliminary Interview
- Application
blank
- Employment
test
- Selection
interview
- Physical
or medical test
- Checking
reference
- Final
approval
- Placement
and orientation
1. Preliminary
Interview:
It is also known
as screening interview. Its main purpose is to check whether the candidates
fulfill the minimum qualification and to eliminate unsuitable candidates. It
helps to save the time and money of the organisation.
2. Application
Blank:
After
preliminary interview, the successful candidates are asked to fill in blank
application, which are specially designed to get necessary information about
the candidates. Through the application blank candidates provides useful
information to the employer like identification, education, experience,
expected salaries, family background, references, aptitude, interest etc. After
screening applications, prepare a short list of promising candidates for a
written test.
3. Employment
test
Short listed
candidates are asked to write an employment test to find out whether they are
suitable for other procedure in the selection process. This test provides
information about their aptitude, interest, personality, proficiency,
intelligence etc, which cannot be known from the application form.
Following are
the various tests used in the selection process:
Trade test: This test is used to
measure and discover the knowledge and skill of an applicant related to the
job.
Performance test: This test
measure the capacity of the candidates to show actual performance on a specific
job. It measures the achievement and proficiency of the candidates already
possessed.
Psychological test: This test
measures the qualities of candidates like intelligence, attitude, aptitude,
interest, emotion, achievement etc. This test is conducted by giving a task to
the candidate and his performance is compared with standards set.
4. Selection
interview
Interview is a
face to face conversation between job seeker and the selection committee or
employer. The basic idea behind behind interview is to observe additional
information or clarification on information already on the application blank.
It also helps to find out the candidates mental and social make up and to know
the hidden qualities possessed by him.
5. Physical or
Medical examination
The candidates
who are found suitable after selection interview are called for a physical or
medical examination. The purposes of this test are:
1. To ascertain whether
the candidates is physically fit for the job
2. The prevent
the entrance of communicatable diseases in the organisation
3. To protect
the organisation against unwarranted claims under the workmen compensation Act.
6. Checking
references
If the candidates
have been found satisfactory from the above mentioned steps, the employer seeks
references from the referees mentioned in the application blank. Generally the
referees may be known persons or previous employers. The various information
given in the application blank can be verified with the help of references.
7. Final approval
Approval by
the appropriate authority is the 7th step in the process of
selection. When a candidate is selected, it should be informed the authority
and issued the letter of appointment to the candidate and ask him to join duly
within a specified time.
8. Placement and
orientation
After the
formalities are completed, the selected candidates are e placed on the right
job on probation basis. When the new employee completes the probation period
successfully, he becomes the permanent employee in the organisation.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
Training is
the process of improving and updating the knowledge and skill of an employee
for doing a particular job. Its purpose is to mould the behavior of people, so
that they can do their jobs in a better way.
It is a continuous process that enables the workers to provide optimum
productivity and keeps the old workers in touch with the latest development.
Development is
future oriented and involves growth of an employee in all respects. It is the
process by which employees acquire skills and knowledge not only to perform
their present jobs but also for increasing their capabilities for accepting
higher position in future. It is career-bound and gives more importance to
education than training.
Need for Training:
Training is
needed to employees for sharpening and enhancing empoyees’ skills, which make them more
effective on their job. Following discussions explains the need for training in
detail:
Employees can
learn the scientific way of doing a job through training. Olden days they learn
by observing and through trial and error method which takes more time to learn.
Now have a lot of training institutions,
which will provide new employees to learn to do a particular job within a short
period of time.
2. Higher Productivity
Trained
employees are more able to produce that untrained employees both in quality and
quantity. It also helps the existing employees to increase their level of
performance while doing the job.
3. Less Supervision
Trained
employees are self reliant in his work as they know what do and how to do. They
need not required more help while
doing the job. So it helps to minimize supervision and increases his span of
management.
4. Higher Morale
One among the
objective of training is to mould the attitude of employees to support the
organizational activities and to ensure better cooperation and loyalty. So the
morale of employee increases when they are given proper training. It also helps to reduces dissatisfactions,
complaints, absenteeism and labour turnover.
5. Better Management
Manager can
use the trained employees to manage the organization in a better way. They can use their assistance for doing the
managerial functions. For example managers can delegate some of his authority
to reduce his work load. It will be a success when the employee will be a trained one.
6. Economical Operations
Trained
employees are able to handle their work in better and economical way. They use
the materials without wastage and handle the machines and equipments properly.
More over the rate of accident will be minimized. All these factors reduce the
cost of production and acquire overall operations economically.
7. Benefits to employees themselves
Trained
employees acquire more knowledge and skill. It helps to make more production with proper quality,
which helps to get increased salary and bonus. Such employees are considered as
valued employees by the employer which ensures job security. It also helps to
get promotion and career growth.
Training Methods:
The most
popular training methods used by an organization are
- On the job training
- Off the job training
Following are the main types of
training conducted by the organization:
