Staffing means manning of an organization. Staffing process involves determination of manpower requirements, recruitment, selection, placement, training, development, job transfer and appraisal of personnel to fill the various positions in an organization.
1. Manpower Planning
The staffing function starts with the manpower planning. This means to assess precisely how many persons are required for the various positions in the organization, how many persons does the organization already haves and how many more will have to be appointed. The staffing also ensures that the right kind of people is to be placed at the right job. Manpower planning is also known as Human Resource Planning. Beach has defined it as “a process of determining and assuring that the organization will have an adequate number of qualified persons, at the proper times, performing jobs which meet the needs of the enterprise and which provide satisfaction for the individuals involved.”
2. Recruitment
The second step in the staffing process in management is recruitment. After the manpower requirements have been assessed, the function of recruitment starts. It means to search the prospective candidates to be considered for employment. “Recruitment”, according to Edwin B. Flippo, “is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization.” This implies that recruitment examines the different sources of manpower supply, assesses their suitability, chooses the proper source or sources and invites applications from the prospective candidate for different jobs in the enterprises.
3. Selection
After the job-application of the prospective candidate has been received, the next step is to select from among them the most suitable ones. Selection is the process through which unsuitable candidate are rejected and the suitable ones are chosen. Koontz and Weihrich write- “selection is the process of choosing from among candidates, from within the organization pr from outside, the most suitable person for the current position or for future positions.”
4. Placement and Induction
After the selection process is complete, the selected candidates are placed at jobs for which they are most suitable. Placement is the actual posting of an employee to a particular job. The implied that specific position or rank is assigned at that stage.
Placement taken place along with induction. Induction means to orientate the newly appointed employee to his job in particular and to the whole organization in general. It here means, to introduce the newly selected employee to his hob, other jobs, nature of products, policies, rules, etc. of the organization. The purpose of induction or orientation of the newly appointed employee should be to:
- Give him a bird’s eye view of the organization;
- Familiarize him with the important spots of the organization;
- Apprise him of the expectations from him; and
- Ensure him that he will get full support for the constructive purposes.
5. Training and Development
In the narrow sense, training and development lie outside the purview of staffing, but some authors prefer to include it in the steps of staffing.
The term ‘Training’ connotes a systematic procedure of imparting technical knowledge and skill for specific jobs. It enables employees to take up the desired jobs effectively.
Training is given manly on three occasions. These are;
- When the new employees are hired;
- When employees are put on new jobs; and
- When some innovations have emerged and it is though worthwhile to use new techniques for doing a job.
The nature of some jobs is such that it does not require reorientation. On the other hand, there are jobs which require constant training.
Development is an educational process aimed at growth and maturity of managerial personnel. Development enables the managers to acquire and strengthen their administrative competencies.