CHAPTER6

THE STAFFING FUNCITON

General objective:
After completing this chapter, students are expected to be able to
explain the basics of staffing function in the management process.

1.1. The Meaning of staffing:

Staffing can be defined as:
- The processing of obtaining and maintaining capable and
competent people to fill all positions from top
managements to operative level.
- Therefore, the staffing process involves the following steps:
i. Human resource/ Manpower planning
ii. Recruitment
iii. Selection
iv. Orientation and induction
v. Training and development
vi. Performance appraisal

1.2. Human Resource Planning:

Human resource planning is the process by which managers ensure
that they have the right number and kind of people who are capable to
effectively and efficiently perform their tasks, at the right time and
place.
It involves analysis of:
➢ Current and expected skill needs of the
organization (internal factors); and,
➢ Factors such as the labour market, government
regulations, the labour union etc. (external environment).
 The Basic Human Resource Planning Steps
The basic human resource planning steps usually include
reviewing current human resource status and developing future
programme.
These steps are discussed here under.

1. Current Assessment / Human Resource Inventory

- The first step in the human resource planning process:

▪ Reviewing the organization’s current the status

▪ Taking inventory provides information about the
organization’s present personal
▪ Helps to know who occupies each position
▪ The qualifications, length of service and responsibilities
of each employee.
Generally human resource inventory helps the managers to assess
what talents and skills are currently available.

Job analysis:

It is the process of collecting, analyzing and coordinating

information about jobs.

Job description
- It is a written statement of what job holder does, how it

is done, and why it is done.

- It describes the content of the job.
- It is a written document of the duties and responsibilities of
a job.
Job specification
- It states the minimum acceptable qualification and experience
that a jobholder must possess to perform a given task
effectively and efficiently.

Summary: A job description can be used to describe the job to

potential candidates. The job specification keeps the manager’s
attention on the qualification necessary for a person to be able to
perform the given job.
2. Developing Future Programme / companion of forecast
inventory

- Human resource planning provides information to

guide current staffing needs.
- Moreover, it provides projections of future human
resource needs and availability.
- After assessing current capabilities and future needs,
managers are able to estimate shortages:
- Both in number and in type.

1.3. Recruitment

Specific Objective:

- After completing this lesson, students you be able to

describe how the recruitment of employees is carried out in
an organization.

What is Recruitment?
- It is the process of locating, identifying and attracting
capable applicants.
- It is also making potential candidates interested
in particular job positions and apply for it.

Sources of recruitment

- There are two sources of recruitment

i. Internal sources
ii. External sources
i. Internal source – includes the existing work force of the
organization. Vacancies can be filled by selecting from among the
pool of present work force provided that they can fit the emerging
positions.

Merits of Internal sources:

▪ Motivational and job satisfaction
Advantage (provision of continuity employment)
▪ Enhancing morale and creation
of a sense of security among workers.
▪ Less expensive – minimizes
training or orientation cost
▪ Easy to apply – performance of
employees can be easily evaluated, etc.

Demerits of Internal sources

▪ Limits the pool of talent available to the organization
▪ Discourages new blood from entering the organization

ii. External source of recruitment

It is used:
➢ When an organization has exhausted internal sources;
➢ When internal sources are found to be unsuitable; or
➢ When it becomes necessary to fill vacant positions with
new employees.
Major alternative external sources: The major alternative
external sources include the following.
a) Employees’ referrals
(word of mouth): It refers to encouraging employees to
Recommend capable and skilled persons to fill the available
vacancies. Its drawback is however, cliques may develop within
the organization.
b) Advertising: vacancies can be advertised in daily
newspapers, employment newsmagazine, etc.
c) Educational institutions: New employees can be recruited
from colleges and universities. Employment circulars are sent
to various educational institutions to invite potential
candidates students to apply.
d) Employment agencies: Employment agencies maintain a detailed
record of job seekers and refer the candidate with appropriate
qualification to the required employers.
Decruitment – It is a labor supply controlling approach
commonly applied when it becomes necessary to reduce the
organization’s surplus labour force.

Methods of Decruitment
▪ Attrition – not filling openings created
▪ Early retirement – retiring older employees before their
normal retirement date providing incentives.
▪ Firing – permanent involuntary termination of employment.
▪ Lay off – temporary involuntary termination of
employment (may last few months or years).
▪ Reduced workweeks – having employees work fewer hours
per week or perform their jobs on part time basis.

1.4. Selection

Specific objective:

➢ After completing this lesson you are expected to be able to

describe and understand the selection process.
 What is selection?

It is the process of deciding which candidates out of the pool of applicants have the
abilities, skills, and characteristics that adequately match the job demands.
➢ The role of
recruitment is to locate job candidates.
➢ The role of
selection is to evaluate each candidate and pick the best one for
the position available.

Selection process comes after recruitment, selection can be explained in terms of either
choosing the fit candidates, or rejecting the unfit candidates, or a combination of
both, selection involves both because it picks up the fits and rejects the unfits.

The selection process

➢ Selection is considered as a negative process because more
will be turned away than hired. The process usually follows
the following stages:

Conducting a screening interviews

Completing a Blank application form
Administration of psychological tests.
Conducting Evaluation interviews
Arrangement for physical examination
Placement
➢ The candidate may submit a fitness–certificate after the
medical examination is over. Putting the right person at right
position by employment letter specifying the place of work,
gross payment, hours of work, etc. is given to the candidate.
 1.5. Induction and Orientation

Definition: It is the introduction of a new employee to his/her job

and the organization.

Purpose: Induction is the process of introducing new employees to the company, its culture, policies,
and procedures. Orientation is the process of providing new employees with information about the
company, its products, services, and the job they will be performing.

Objectives of Orientation/ Induction:

- To reduce the initial anxiety

- To familiarize new employees with the job, the work unit

and the organization as a whole
- To facilitate the outsider-insider transitions
- To familiarize the employee with the goals and his/her new
co- workers
- To introduce the employee with the relevant policies,
rules and regulations.
 1.6. Training and Development
Very often the terms "training" and “development" are considered as synonymous. Really
speaking, there is a difference between the two.
Definition:
- Training: It is the process of increasing the knowledge and skills
of an employee for doing a particular job.

- Training is a part of staffing whose purpose is to aid

employees in improving performance.
- It is a learning process that involves acquisition of skills,
concepts, rules or attitudes to increase the performance of
employees.
- It is a continuous process.
Purposes of Training include:
▪ Improving the quantity of output
▪ Improving the quality of output
▪ Lowering cost of waste and maintenance
▪ Lowering the number of accidents
▪ Lowering staff turnover and absenteeism
▪ Increasing job satisfaction.
 Methods of Training

The methods of training can be classified into two broad

categories, namely, on-the-job training and off-the-job training.

I. On-the-job training

- It is letting the employees learn while doing.

- The employee is shown to perform the jobs and allowed to
do under the supervisor’s supervision.
- The following are the common approaches used in
arranging on-the-job training.

a. Coaching – Refers to the assignment of a specific person to

act as either an instructor or resource person for the trainee.
b. Apprenticeship: It is a methodology of allowing the trainee to
learn and practice by performing the actual task on the
job(frequently used to train personal in some skilled trades –
electrician, mechanics, tailors, carpenters etc.).
c. Job rotation (cross training): It is a process of training
employees by rotating them through a series of related tasks. Here,
the individual is made to learn several different jobs within a work
unit or department.
d. Vestibule training: Equipment and procedures similar to
those used in the actual job are set up in a special working area
(vestibule school).The trainee is then taught in this school how to
use the machinery and perform the required job.

e. Self-improvement programs: Refer to acquiring knowledge

through additional reading and self-improvement programs.
 II. Off the job training

It is training conducted away from the actual work setting.

Common methods of off the job training include the following:

a. Lecture and classroom instruction: useful for teaching the

factual material, concepts, principles, theories, and their
application to job situation.
b. The conference method: It is a training method where
participants are required to pool their ideas, viewpoints,
suggestions and discuss them at conferences.
c. Group discussion: It is a method of training where the
members are requested to present papers and discuss about the
papers in a common platform.
d. Role playing (psychodrama, social-drama): It is a type of
training where the trainees act out a given role as they would be
performing in a stage play.
e. Case studies: It is a method of training where the trainees are
given cases and are given to identify basic problem and suggest
solution.

Development:
Development is the systematic process of education, training and growing by which a
person learns and applies information, knowledge, skills, attitudes and 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.
Compensation: It refers to all forms of financial returns and tangible services and
benefits employee receives as a part of an employment relationship or it is the reward
that individuals receive in return for their labor from organization.
1.7. Performance Appraisal

Job performance: - Refers to the degree of accomplishment of task

that makes an individual’s job. It is measured in terms of results.
Performance appraisal is the process of determining and
communicating to an employee how he is performing the job. It is
periodic and impartial .

Benefits of performance appraisal

▪ Assists managers to observe their subordinates
more closely and do a better job coaching.
▪ Motivates employees by providing
feedback on job performance.
▪ Achieves better operational results - improved
work performance.
▪ Identifies development needs .
Transfer, Promotion, Demotion and Separation

▪ Transfer: is a movement of an employee from one job, section,

department staff, place or position to other place where salary,
status, and responsibility are the same. It is movement from one
job to the other.
▪ Promotion: Moving an employee to a job involving
higher pay, status, and thus higher performance requirements.
▪ Demotion: Shift of an employee to a lower position in
the hierarchy, salary, and responsibility due to inefficiency and
incompetence to fulfill assigned tasks. It causes frustration and
leads to a defensive or even aggressive behavior.
▪ Separation: Refers to those factors that bring the termination or
ceasing of the relationship between the organization and the
employee