Definition

Staffing is the process of hiring eligible candidates in the organization or company for
specific positions. In management, the meaning of staffing is an operation of recruiting
the employees by evaluating their skills, knowledge and then offering them specific job
roles accordingly.

Importance of Staffing
Efficient Performance of Other Functions
For the efficient performance of other functions of management, staffing is its key. If an
organization does not have the competent personnel, then it cannot perform the
functions of management like planning, organizing and control functions properly.

Effective Use of Technology and Other Resources

What is staffing and technology’s connection? Well, it is the human factor that is
instrumental in the effective utilization of the latest technology, capital, material, etc. the
management can ensure the right kinds of personnel by performing the staffing function.

Optimum Utilization of Human Resources

The wage bill of big concerns is quite high. Also, a huge amount is spent on recruitment,
selection, training, and development of employees. To get the optimum output, the
staffing function should be performed in an efficient manner.

Development of Human Capital

Another function of staffing is concerned with human capital requirements. Since the
management is required to determine in advance the manpower requirements.
Therefore, it has also to train and develop the existing personnel for career
advancement. This will meet the requirements of the company in the future.

The Motivation of Human Resources

In an organization, the behavior of individuals is influenced by various factors which are
involved such as education level, needs, socio-cultural factors, etc. Therefore, the
human aspects of the organization have become very important and so that the workers
can also be motivated by financial and non-financial incentives in order to perform their
functions properly in achieving the objectives.

Building Higher Morale

The right type of climate should be created for the workers to contribute to the
achievement of the organizational objectives. Therefore, by performing the staffing
function effectively and efficiently, the management is able to describe the significance
and importance which it attaches to the personnel working in the enterprise.

Issues Considered In Staffing

When is it time to employ?
This can be done by determining whether the business goals can allow that; the best
starting point for a staffing is the organization’s business plan, which should contain
both short-term and long-term goals for the company. Whether it’s to increase turnover,
expand into new sectors, launch new products or grow through acquisition, these goals
are all inherently drive the people employed in an organization, and so if staffing is the
only strategy that is needed to fully align with the company’s objectives then it is a go
ahead to bring in new staff.

Another way to know when it is time to employ is by carrying out employee surveys of
work. Here on might ask questions like is the pay of the employees equivalent and fair
enough in comparison to the amount of work they do? Organizations can do a data
spreadsheet and consider average answers as this would help them know if there are
gaps to be filled in the organization. Most organizations today apply the people Science
approach; this means applying data-driven approaches to improve workforce visibility—
and how to both manage and engage your workforce. It’s about understanding people
and their behavior in the company, and generating more actionable insights to help
organizations make better business decisions about your workforce. Organizations can
use this approach to know if there is need to hire a new person in the company.
Equal employment opportunity plan
This is a plan for actively seeking out, employing, and developing the talents of those
groups historically discriminated in employment. This plan is done based on historic
factors of discrimination like; recruitment of women and minorities, recruitment of the
disabled, requirement based on sexual preference and gender identity, racial
discrimination and prejudicial questioning on employment application forms. This plans
this means that managers cannot refuse to hire, promote, train, or transfer employees
simply on the basis of their characteristics listed above and nor can they lay off or
discharge employees on these grounds. A study based on nationwide U.S. Census
Bureau data found that affirmative action had enhanced the promotion opportunities of
black workers in both government and business organizations. In fact, according to the
researcher, “with the exception of women in the public sector, women and blacks
enjoyed better promotion opportunities than equally qualified and situated white male
workers.

Generating Comprehensive Job Descriptions and Lists of Requirements

Most times, job descriptions and their lists of requirements are written by HR managers,
but when creating a new one, the task should only begin in one fashion – by having a
conversation with the position’s corresponding manager. For instance, if the HR
manager is creating a staffing plan that includes a warehouse associate, they must go
to the warehouse manager before they get to writing. Here, a simple conversation that
gives HR better insight into the exact duties that the warehouse associate will be
performing on a daily basis. It will also inform their list of requirements, which should
include details like:

 Minimum prior experience required

 Education history
 Prior work history
 Necessary certifications and licenses

This step will also give the HR manager an idea of how this position might relate to
others in the company, which affords them a more relatable vision of what that
department needs most.
Legal assessment and amenability
Modern organizations are a direct reflection of society in general. People take societal
influences to work (such as attitudes toward the opposite sex). Along with these
predispositions, they take their social, emotional, behavioral, and health-related
problems to work. In staffing, managers should always consider the fact that they might
encounter an employee with potential problems such as sexual harassment and alcohol
and drug abuse. This kind of issues cannot be ignored because organizational
competitiveness is put at stake. Therefore an organization should set specific rules and
regulations for taking action on such challenge and how to deal with them effectively if
any occurred and before any further recruitment process the organization should strictly
make sure that any potential employee or already employed employee clearly has no
such issues.

Employment forms
Mostly known as job application forms are forms that applicants for the specific jobs
may be required to complete either by filling an online application, a paper application,
an application at a store kiosk, or you could be asked to apply via email. These forms
are part of the formal hiring process companies sometimes use in order to ensure that
they have gathered comprehensive, accurate data from all applicants. Organizations
usually make applicants to fill these forms often to request certain information that is not
always included on resumes and CVs, such as professional or personal references, the
names of former supervisors, and/or a complete educational background.

Therefore during staffing an organization should carefully layout an application form that
captures all the information needed during the staffing process.

Resume and applicant screening

Resume screening is the process of determining whether a candidate is qualified for a
role based on his or her education, experience, and other information captured on their
resume. The goal of screening resumes is to decide whether to move a candidate
forward – usually onto an interview – or to reject them.
Screening resumes usually involves a three-step process based on the role’s minimum
and preferred qualifications. Both types of qualifications should be related to on-the-job
performance and are ideally captured in the job description.

These qualifications can include:

 Work experience
 Education
 Skills and knowledge
 Personality traits
 Competencies

Step 1: Screening resumes based on minimum qualifications

Minimum qualifications are the mandatory qualifications that a candidate must meet to
be able to do the job. A simple example of a minimum qualification is whether the
candidate is legally able to work in the country. These types of qualifications are often
considered knockouts because either the candidate has it and can move forward or they
don’t and gets screened out of the process. Candidates that meet the minimum
qualifications move onto the second step of screening resumes.

Step 2: Screening resumes based on preferred qualifications

Preferred qualifications are non-mandatory characteristics that would make someone a

stronger candidate for the job. A common example of a preferred qualification is
whether the candidate has prior related work experience. These types of qualifications
are often called nice-to-haves and are generally more qualitative than minimum
qualifications (e.g. strong communication skills). Candidates that meet both the
minimum and preferred qualifications move onto the shortlisting step of resume
screening.

Step 3: Shortlisting candidates based on minimum and preferred qualifications

Deciding which candidates gets shortlisted for the interview phase depends on your
recruiting needs. For high volume recruitment, generally all candidates that meet the
minimum qualifications move forward to the interview process. For low volume
recruitment, generally only the top few candidates that meet both the minimum and
preferred qualifications receive an interview.

Interviewing and assessments

The interview and assessment process is a multi-stage process for hiring new
employees. Organizations should pay special attention here because it is the most
important employee selection tool therefore companies should draw up a very well
structured interview and assessment plan.

Some steps an organization might consider when structuring the interview and
assessment process:

The Phone Screener: Phone interviews are an easy way to screen job seekers. In just a
few quick questions, phone screeners allow you to vet a candidate and make sure they
are a strong match skill-wise before you decide to invest further time in them. At this
stage, you’ll want to focus on high-level questions to make sure they meet the
requirements of the role.

The Skill Test: Behavioral questions allow the organization to find the best fit for each
role, and help hire employees who can drive innovation, productivity, customer
satisfaction and profits. The organization can determine test objectives, e.g. personality,
values, skills, etc. and decide how candidates will be moved forward or eliminated
based on the results.

The In-Person Interview: At this stage in the interview process, the organization should
already know that the candidate is generally well-qualified for the role, therefore they
should further infiltrate further into culture fit and work style to see what motivates a
candidate, what drew them to your company and how they work on a team, amongst
other questions.

The Group Panel: By meeting with a variety of people, candidates get a comprehensive
picture of the culture and the job itself, and team members get a strong sense of the
contribution the job seeker will make as an employee. The organization should make
sure that they identify a panel leader, and assign roles to each interviewer based on job
function and/or expertise.
The Candidate Presentation: Team members should get a sense of contribution, skills
and personality during a job seeker’s presentation. However, the organization should be
specific about the presentation topic to the candidate, and also determine objectives for
evaluation of the presenter with the team.

Background and reference checks

Background checking is the process of authenticating the information supplied to a
potential employer by a job applicant in his or her resume, application, interviews, and
references by doing a reference check. This is normally done by calling or simply writing
an email to the contacts provided in the resume to verify the information provided.
Background checks are to ensure the potential candidate are who they say on their CV
or that they have no criminal convictions and legal citizenship/immigration status.

Background checking is usually conducted by Human Resources professionals, but

occasionally, the manager or supervisor of the position being filled assists, especially
with reference background checking. Additionally, background checking of people who
are candidates for the same job should be the same. A clear connection should exist
between the background checks conducted and the requirements of the job or of basic
employment. When all information is verified and the candidate is found to be saying the
truth the organization should hire them.

Training
No matter how carefully job applicants are screened and selected, typically a gap
remains between what employees do know and what they should know. Training is
needed to fill in this knowledge gap. Training consists of a range of processes involved
in making sure that job holders have the right skills, knowledge and attitudes required to
help the organization to achieve its objectives. The organization can achieve this by;

Using mentors: Delegating senior team members to show new employees around, act
as a resource for questions, and help them get up to speed. This has an additional
benefit of helping senior team members feel valued and trusted.

Encouraging questions and ideas: It’s important to encourage the new employees to
ask questions and share ideas because if they don’t ask questions, they’ll make more
mistakes initially, and it will be harder for you to determine how well they understand the
training materials therefore by inviting them to share their ideas, the organization may
even get innovative ideas.

During the staffing process the organization should consider various training methods
and protocols that don’t just teach new employees how to do their jobs; but also send
signals about company’s culture and unwritten rules.

How to handle the rejected applicants

Rejection is part and parcel of the recruitment process. Unfortunately, the organization
will always have to turn down more candidates than they will hire. Throughout the
staffing process the organization should ensure that they handle the rejection process
very well and carefully. An organization can take the following steps with handling the
rejected applicants;

Keep it brief: The organization can explain in one brief sentence or paragraph why
you’re declining the applicant, for example, ”Although we were very impressed with your
skills, we have decided to go with an applicant who had more hands-on marketing
experience.” This will give them an idea of the areas that they need to work on without
entering into a long and lengthy discussion.

Be honest: The organization should genuinely inform the applicant if they are interested
in staying in touch with the candidate by finish off the phone call or email with an offer to
stay in contact about upcoming roles or simply ask to connect with them on LinkedIn
and save their details for future reference. However, if it is not possible that the
candidate will never work in the company at any stage then do not give them false
hope. Wish them all the best in the future and leave it at that.

Ask for feedback: Hiring is a two-way street. Asking for feedback is the best possible
way to find out what applicants think of an organization’s hiring process. While most
companies are happy to dish out feedback to applicants, most fail to ask for it in return
meaning they’re missing out on valuable learnings. By asking non-qualified candidates
for feedback shows that the company do care about their opinion and respect what they
have to say. The least an organization should do is just have little courtesy.
Conclusion
To sum up, from the above it is very important to note that each and every qualified
person should get a right position in the organization so as to get the right job,
according to their ability, talent, aptitude, and specializations so that it will help the
organization to achieve the pre-set goals in the proper way by the 100% contribution of
manpower. Therefore any staffing plans are meant to be tailor-made for each specific
organization, devised by Human Resource in collaboration with other relevant
departments, including the fact that the details may shift from plan to plan. That said, all
plans should be set up in a way that allows figures to be consulted quickly, a point
which can help the decisions made around recruitment, development, and funding, swift
and seamless .Thus it can be said that staffing is an essential function of every
organization.