TOPIC SEVEN: STAFFING

Staffing function is concerned with acquisition, development and maintenance of an efficient and
satisfied work force in the organization.

It involves the recruitment, training, development and appraisal of personnel in the organization.

This staffing/personal management enables to contribute most effectively to the organization

purpose in the performance of their duties, as well as to attain those personal and social
satisfactions which they tend to naturally seek within their working environment.

Staffing is the acquisition and the maintenance of human resource necessary for the
organizational success.

Objectives of Staffing

• To build and maintain cordial relations between people working at different levels in the
organization.
• To ensure effective utilization of available human resources.
• To provide fair working conditions, wages and amenities to employees.
• To achieve the development of employees to their fullest potential.
• To help other mangers in solving their personnel problems.

Functions of the Personnel Department

The function of the personnel department can be divided into two:-

1. Managerial Function

This is concerned with planning, organizing, directing and controlling the activities related to the
human resources.

These functions include:

 Human Resource Planning: Forecasting future staffing needs based on organizational

goals, budgets, and market conditions.
 Organizational Design: Structuring the organization to effectively utilize human
resources and achieve strategic objectives.
 Staffing: Recruiting, selecting, and hiring qualified personnel to meet the organization's
needs.
 Performance Management: Setting performance expectations, evaluating employee
performance, and providing feedback and coaching.
  Training and Development: Identifying training needs, developing training programs, and
providing opportunities for employee growth and skill enhancement.
 Compensation and Benefits: Administering employee compensation and benefits
programs to attract, retain, and motivate employees.
 Employee Relations: Maintaining positive relationships with employees, addressing
employee concerns, and fostering a positive work environment.
2. Operative Function- The personnel department's operative functions involve carrying out
the day-to-day activities related to human resource management. These functions include:
 Procurement/Employment: Attracting, recruiting, and selecting qualified candidates
for open positions.
 Record Keeping: Maintaining accurate records of employee information, including
payroll, benefits, and performance evaluations.
 Training and Development: Implementing training programs to enhance employee
skills, knowledge, and competencies.
 Performance Management: Conducting performance appraisals, providing feedback,
and recognizing employee achievements.
 Compensation and Benefits: Administering payroll, processing benefits claims, and
ensuring compliance with labor laws and regulations.
 Employee Relations: Handling employee grievances, resolving conflicts, and
promoting a positive work environment.
 Employee Services: Providing administrative support to employees, such as
onboarding, orientation, and employee assistance programs.

Manpower Planning

Also known as human resource planning manpower planning is the development of a

comprehensive staffing strategy for meeting organizational future human resource needs. It is the
process by which management determines how the organization should move from its
present/current manpower position to its desired manpower position.

Through planning the management strives to have the right number and the right kind of people,
at the right place and at the right time, doing things which result in both the organization and the
individual receiving maximum long-term benefit.

Features of manpower planning

1. It involves forecasts of the future manpower needs so that adequate and timely provisions
may be made to meet those needs.
2. The purpose of manpower planning is to determine the right number and the right type of
people required for effectively accomplishing the tasks and goals of the organization.
 3. It helps in ensuring effective utilization of present and future manpower.
4. It has two aspects i.e. quantitative and qualitative aspects
5. It result in the development of policy programs and procedures for the acquisition,
development, preservation and utilization of an organization’s human assets
6. It is a continuous process because the demand and supply of manpower are subject to
frequent changes.

Significance of manpower planning

1. It helps management to avoid both shortage and surpluses of manpower and thereby to
control labor costs.
2. Manpower planning defines human resources required to meet the organizations
objectives. By ensuring the right people at the right time, it contributes significantly to
the success and growth of the organization.
3. It provides a sound basis for the selection and training of manpower.
4. A long term and systematic manpower plan is necessary to ensure a stream of qualified
personnel flowing into the organization.
5. Manpower planning is important for an organization and an economy. At the firm level, it
warns management of upcoming manpower shortage and surpluses. At national level,
manpower planning helps to ensure optimum utilization of the country's human
resources, to maintain employment to improve productivity and to develop the human
assets.
6. Inventory of existing manpower helps in ascertaining the status of the available
personnel and to disclose untapped talent.

Objectives of manpower planning

1. Making the best use of human resources.

2. Obtaining and retaining the quantity and quality of people an organization needs.
3. Being able to anticipate the future term of potential surpluses and deficit of people.
4. To promote and develop existing personnel.
5. To provide control measures so that human resources are available when required.
 Importance of manpower planning

• Helps in correcting staff imbalances in time, thus management can reduce labor costs of
overstaffing and underutilization of talents is brought to attention.
• MPP provides a sound basis for development of personnel to make an optimum use of
available human resources.
• MPP identifies gaps in existing manpower so that suitable training programs may be
developed for building specific skills required in the organization.
• MPP enables the management to cope with uncertain and unforeseen situations.
• MPP involves an inventory of current manpower to determine its status and therefore
untapped talents available in the organization can be recognized and utilized.
• Helps management to have the right people at the right jobs at the right time.

Manpower Planning Process

Manpower planning process involves four basic steps:-

1. Assess current staffing needs. This involves assessment of the current jobs needed the
organization, shortages and supplies should be identified in this.
2. Forecasting future human resource needs. A systematic attempt to probe into the future
human resource needs should be done. This should put into consideration of the
organization growth plans, technological advancements, market trends and changes in
consumer behavior.
3. Formulate staffing strategy. A staffing strategy should be formulated based on the needs
of the organization.
4. Implementation of the strategy. The strategy is adopted and put into use.
5. Evaluate and update. The implemented strategy is monitored evaluated and updated to
ensure that the goals of the enterprise are being met.
Activities in Staffing

1. Job analysis: This involves identifying the tasks, skills, and knowledge required to
perform a particular job. Job analysis is used to develop job descriptions and
specifications, which are essential tools for recruitment and selection.
2. Recruitment: This involves attracting potential candidates for open positions.
Recruitment activities may include advertising job openings, attending job fairs, or using
online job boards.
3. Selection: This involves selecting the most suitable candidate from a pool of applicants.
Selection methods may include interviews, testing, and reference checks.
4. Training and development: This involves providing employees with the skills and
knowledge they need to perform their jobs effectively. Training and development
programs may be formal or informal, and may be delivered in a variety of formats.
5. Performance management: This involves setting performance expectations, evaluating
employee performance, and providing feedback and coaching. Performance management
is essential for ensuring that employees are meeting organizational goals.
6. Compensation and benefits: This involves administering employee compensation and
benefits programs. Compensation and benefits programs are essential for attracting and
retaining top talent.
7. Employee relations: This involves maintaining positive relationships with employees,
addressing employee concerns, and fostering a positive work environment. Employee
relations is essential for creating a workplace where employees feel valued and respected.
8. Succession planning: This involves identifying and developing potential successors for
key roles in the organization. Succession planning is essential for ensuring that the
organization has the leadership in place to meet future challenges.

Job Analysis

Job analysis refers to the process of determining the fundamental elements of a job through
systematic observation and analysis. Job analysis occurs during the assessment of the
organizational manpower needs.

It involves breaking up of a job into its basic elements and studying them in details to obtain all
the pertinent facts about the job. E.g.

• what the worker is expected to do

• Methods and techniques used
• The working conditions
• Skills required. (Content, job duties and personal qualities)
Job analysis serves the following purposes.

• It provides a basis for MPP and for recruitment and selection

• Facilitates job evaluation and performance appraisal which is necessary in wage
determination
• Helps in matching the employee competencies and the job during selection
• Helps in devising training and development programs for
• Facilitates proper allocation of authority
• It facilitates job
• The end result of job analysis is job description

Job Description

This is a clear summary of duties and responsibilities of a specific job.

It describes the title of the job, its location, tasks to be performed and work conditions.

Job Specification

This is a statement of the minimum acceptable human qualities required for the successful
performance of a job. It specifies the physical requirements, education and knowledge, work
experience, aptitude (ability to learn) and personal characteristic that one should possess in order
to handle the duties of a particular job effectively.

Job Evaluation/Grading

This technique/process of establishing the relative merits of jobs within an enterprise in order to
establish pay differentials

It involves the assessment of the work content of all jobs in the organization and their
classification into broad categories called job grades.

Advantages of job evaluation

1. Helps in selecting new staff

2. Assists in transferring employees from one department to another
3. Ensures that staff doing the same job receives the same rates of pay thus avoid wage
4. Assist in evaluating new jobs and deciding on appropriate rates of pay
5. May improve relationship between management and workers
6. Provide data needed for collective bargaining
 7. May result in improved staff morale and thus low labor turn over and increased output
8. Useful for estimating budgets.

Disadvantages of job evaluation

1. It may place all jobs into few grades and reduce chances of promotion
2. Job grades fails to take into account individual differences in workers abilities
3. There is a tendency to view workers in terms of their grades
4. Job grades are rarely evaluated while job content change time to
5. Salary scales are not solely based on job grading but also other factors such as trade
union influence etc.

Job Recruitment

This is the acquisition of human resources to fill up particular positions in the organization.

Thus recruitment is to seek out, to explore to evaluate, to induce and to obtain commitment from
prospective employees so as to fill up positions required for the successful operation of an
organization.

Each organization has its own policies and procedures that guide the recruitment e.g.

• When to declare a job vacant

• When to advertise for the job
• The source of recruitment
• How to advertise etc

Recruitment is very important because it increases the number of applicants from which a real
choice can be made

Sources of Recruitment

Sources of recruitment can be classified into two broad sources i.e.

1. Internal sources

• Transfers
• Promotions

2. External sources

• Advertisements
 • Education institutions etc

Internal Sources of Recruitment

Advantages

1. Increases morale in the organization especially for the person being

2. It's easier to assess employees because you know
3. it's a form of rewarding good performance of work
4. It is less expensive as it does not involve many procedures e.g. advertising short
listing.
5. There is no need for initiation/orientation as the person being recruited understands
the procedures & operations of the

Disadvantages

1. There is a danger of inbreeding in the organization

2. There may be a problem of morale for those who were not promoted
3. It may create infighting for promotions which may affect
4. It discourages the hiring of experts
5. A strong manager development program becomes necessary
6. There may be need to retrain the employee so as to suit the new

Organizations do have policies that guide them on transfers and promotions in the organization.

For instance a good transfer policy should have the following characteristics.

• It should ensure that the transferred workers in their new positions are not given
completely new kinds of jobs
• Responsibilities for recommending and approving transfers should be clearly defined.
• How a transfer is going to affect security of the employee should be spelt out clearly.
• Complete accurate job description of the jobs to which transfer are under consideration.

A good promotion policy should entail the following:-

• Promotions should be recommended by line managers and decided by their supervisors in

line Likely opening for promotion should be given wide
• Accurate job description should be prepared for each
External sources of Recruitment

It involves acquiring manpower from outside the organization. The sources include:-

• Direct application from suitable candidates

• Through management consultants
• Academic institutions e.g. colleges, universities
• Employment bureaus and agencies
• Sister organizations
• Government departments
• Through recommendations and suggestions current employees
• Unsolicited

Merits of External recruitment

• It's an inexpensive way of hiring qualified

• New blood is brought into the organization thus new insight
• There is no danger of inbreeding and
• There is a wider choice as the person is selected from among a large number of
applicants.

Demerits of external recruitment

• The person selected might not fit well in the organization

• There is a longer orientation and initiation
• The person recruited may meet with resistance from the other employees
• There is a morale problem for those from within who have not chosen
• It may be time consuming and costly coz of the many procedures

Job Advertisement

This is informing the public about existence of a vacancy position in an organization. It is a

usually done through the mass media or in meetings. The job advert should contain the following
elements;

• Details of the employing organization

• Position to be filled
 • Location of the position
• Key duties and responsibilities of the position holder
• Essential requirements of the job
• The minimum personal qualifications
• Deadline of submitting applications
• To whom the application should be directed

Principles of Effective Job Advertisement

In order to make an effective job advertisement the following principles should be observed;

• Always provide brief but sufficient information about the position to be

• Give brief but sufficient information about the employing
• Provide details of all the essential personal
• Outline clearly the essentials of the job
• Provide the main conditions of the job especially the
• State clearly where or to whom the application should be sent to
• The advertisement should be presented in an attractive

Job Selection

Selection is the process of offering jobs to one or more candidates from among those who
applied for the job.

It involves a series of steps which screens the candidates for choosing the most suitable person
for the vacant post.

Benefits of selecting the right kind of people

• Proper selection and placement of personnel goes a long way towards building up a
suitable workforce. This in turn keeps the rate of absenteeism and labor turnover low.
• Competent employees will show higher efficiency and enable the organization to achieve
its objectives.
• The rate of industrial accidents will be considerably low if suitable employees are placed
on various.
• When people get jobs of their choice and taste they get higher job satisfaction (contended
workforce)
• Saves the organization time, money and efforts of having recruit and select incase where
wrong selection was
Factors to consider when selecting employees: -

• Physical characteristics - sound body, limb, height, weight, sight etc

• Personal characteristics – age, sex, marital status, no of children, family background
• Proficiency/ skills and abilities- qualification and past
• Competence - potentiality of an individual for learning and becoming proficient in a job.
• Capacity to acquire Temperament and character – emotional, moral and social qualities,
loyalty etc. high intelligence can never serve as a substitute for qualities such as honesty
and trustworthiness
• Interest - without interest, work is colorless and monotonous. With interest work seems
meaningful and

The Selection Procedure

The selection procedure usually varies from organization to organization and even from
department to department depending on the position to be filled. The number of steps in the
procedure and their sequence may also vary.

Selection procedure can involve the following process/steps.

1. Preliminary interview

Most organizations start with preliminary interview. They are used to eliminate the
obvious/unqualified candidates.

It offers advantage both to the applicant and organization as it saves time, costs and efforts of
both the applicant and the organization. Only those who are suitable are allowed to fill the
application blanks.

2. Receiving Applications

When a vacancy has been advertised or enquiries are made from suitable sources, applications
are received from the candidates. This may be standard form or just ordinary application letters.

3. Evaluation of applications

The application blanks and letters and curriculum vitae are evaluated as per the individual
qualities and the vacant job. Only questions that have job relevance should be encouraged. E.g.
education, work experience and other specific job relate data.

4. Employment tests

Tests have become an integral part of the selection process. However certain conditions should
be met of tests are to be used for employee selection they include:-
 • A test should be reliable – provide consistent retort
• Should be valid – measure what they are designed to measure (e.g. job performance)
• Should be objective - can be interpreted by different people in the same way
• Should be standardized

Advantages of tests

• They eliminate biasness in the selection of personnel

• They can identify talents of individuals that can otherwise be hidden or less apparent.
• Reduce the cost of selection and placement as a large number of candidates can be listed
at the same place same time.
• Psychological tests can measure the aptitude of candidates and predict their success.
• Provides health basis for comparing applicants’ backgrounds.

Classification of tests

Intelligence tests- judge the mental capacity of the applicants.

Aptitude tests- measures an applicant’s capacity and potential for development.

Proficiency tests- measures skills already acquired by the applicant.

Personality tests- measure the total personality of the applicant.

Interest tests- reveal areas that an individual shows special concern and involvement. This will
suggest what type of job may be satisfying to the applicant.

5. Interviews

Interviews are the most widely used and probably the most important way of assessing the
qualification of a candidate. They are able to obtain additional information, provide information
about the firm, etc.

Guidelines for effective interviews

• Plan for the interview (job specification and description)

• Create a good climate for the interview- friendly and open rapport with the applicant
should be established.
• Allow sufficient time for uninterrupted interviews.
• Conduct a goal oriented interview i.e. irrelevant details should be left out.
• Avoid certain types of questions, leading questions or those that may imply
discrimination or are embarrassing.
• Seek answers to all questions and check for consistency and clarity.
• Record the results of the interview immediately on completion.
Structured interview

These are a series of job related questions with predetermined answers that are consistently
applied to all the candidates for a particular job/ post.

Unstructured interviews

These are a series of questions asked by interview panels and which do not follow any format.

Disadvantages of unstructured interviews

• Highly susceptible to distortion and bias

• Rarely job oriented
• Infringe on individual privacy
• Highly inconsistent
• The interviewer may only ask questions or look for details/ qualities he likes while
ignoring the rest.

Significance of interviews in the selection process

• Since the candidate is physically present, the interviewer gets to study various aspects
of…..
• Mental and social makeup of the candidates is manifested in….
• It is cheaper and effective, if properly planned.
• Correct judgment of the candidate can be made.
6. Reference checking

A referee is potentially an important source of information about a candidate’s abilities and

personality. Prior to the final selection the prospective employer normally makes investigation
on the references supplied by the applicant.

7. Medical examination

Physical and medical examinations help us determine if the applicant is fit for performing the
job. Contagious diseases are identified.

8. Placement in the organization

This involves making an employment offer. It involves assignment of duties and introduction of
the employee to the organization.