Chapter 6 Staffing PDF

CHAPTER SIX STAFFING 6.1. Introduction After jobs are identified, grouped, and the organization structure created, the next managerial task is that of staffing. Staffing is the process of identifying human resource needs, procuring the necessary emp...

CHAPTER SIX STAFFING 6.1. Introduction After jobs are identified, grouped, and the organization structure created, the next managerial task is that of staffing. Staffing is the process of identifying human resource needs, procuring the necessary employees, training, utilization, and separation of those employees. The major objective of the staffing function is enabling an organization to attract, maintain, and utilize efficient and effective workforce. Major elements of the staffing function are: 1. Human resource planning /Man power planning/; 2. Recruitment 3. Selection 4. Orientation and Induction 5. Training and Development 6. Performance Appraisal 7. Transfer; and [Promotion, demotion, lateral transfer) 8. Separation In this chapter each of these major elements of the staffing function are discussed. 6.2. Human Resource Planning Human resource planning: - It is the process of determining and preserving a firm’s human resource recruitment of organization at its different levels for achieving its goals. Human resource planning translates the overall organizational objectives, plans and programs to achieve specific performance in to workforce needs. Steps in human resource planning includes: -  Analyzing organizational objectives and plan.  Determining over all human resource needs.  Taking inventory of existing personnel.  Determining net new personnel requirements.  Developing action plans. 6.3. Recruitment Recruitment: Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organization. There are two sources of recruiting potential candidates. Internal requirement: - An effort to fill open positions with people already employed in the firm. These include processes like transfer, promotion, and recall from layoff. 1 Advantages: familiar employees, less costly, less orientation Disadvantages: narrows down selection options, organizational breeding External; recruitment: - an effort to fill open positions from sources outside the firm. It is searching for employees in the labor market, walk-ins, write-ins, educational institutions, employment agencies and labor unions. Advantages: wide option for selection, new outlook comes in Disadvantages: unfamiliar employees, more cost, orientation needed 6.4. Selection 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 typical selection program tries to match the qualifications of the candidates with the requirement of the job. Selection can be defined as: - “Selection is the process of differentiating between applicants in order to identify (and hire) those with a greater likelihood of success in a job”. Difference between recruitment and selection Recruitment and selection both these terms are often used together or interchangeably. But they are different from each other. They differ in terms of objective, process technique and outcome, which are as follows: - 1. The basic objective of recruitment is to attract maximum number of candidates so that more options are available. The basic objective of selection is to choose the best out of the available candidates. 2. Recruitment differs from selection in terms of process. Recruitment adopts the process of creating application pool as large as possible, so it is known as positive process. Selection adopts the process through which more and more candidates are rejected and fewer candidates are selected. Therefore, it is known as negative process or rejection process. 3. Recruitment techniques are not very intensive, requiring high skills. As against this, in selection process, highly specialized techniques are required. Therefore, in the selection process, only personnel with specific skills like expertise in using selection tests, conducting interviews, etc. are involved. 4. The outcome of recruitment is application pool, which becomes input for selection process. The outcome of selection process is in the form of finalizing candidates who will be offered jobs. 2 Selection Process The standard selection process has the following steps. 1. Screening of Applications: Prospective employees have to fill up some sort of application forms while applying. These forms have variety of information about the applicants like his personal bio-data, achievements, experience etc. This information’s are used to screen the applicants who are found to be qualified for the consideration of employments. Based on the screening of applications, only those candidates are called for further process of selection, who is found to be suitable to meet the job standards of the organization. 2. Selection Tests: Selection tests are organized by the organizations to know more about the candidates or to reject the candidates who cannot be called for interview, etc. Selection tests provide information about the attitude, interest, and personality of the candidate, which cannot be known by application forms. 3. Interview: Selection tests are normally followed by personal interview of the candidates. Interview is selection technique that enables the interviewer to view the total individual. It consists of interaction between interviewer and applicant. This is the way of finding out overall suitability of candidates for the job. Interview also provides opportunity to give relevant information about the organization to the candidates. 4. Checking of References: References are intended to investigate the candidate’s background and can be obtained from the following sources-school and college officials, previous employer or other persons of prominence who may be aware of the candidate’s behavior and ability. Through references more information about the candidates can be solicited to select the right type of a person for a job. 5. Medical Examination: medical examination is carried out to ascertain the physical standard and fitness of prospective employees. The medical examination is designed to match the applicant’s physical capabilities to job requirements. Medical examination also serves the following purposes. (a) To reject those whose physical qualification are insufficient to meet the requirements of the work they are being considered for. (b) To obtain the record of the physical condition of the person at the time of hiring. (c) To prevent the employment of those with communicable disease. 6. Approval by Appropriate Authority – on the basis of the above steps, suitable candidates are recommended for selection by the selection committee or personal department. Organizations 3  may designate the various authorities for approval of final selection of candidates for different categories of candidates. For top level managers, Board of Directors may be approving authority, for lower levels, functional heads concerned may be approving authority. When the approval is received, the candidates are informed about their selection and asked to report for duty. 6.5. Placement and Induction/Orientation Those candidates who have been selected should be given placement letters that state their employment and specific positions and other employment related matters. Induction/orientation has to do with familiarizing the new employee with the organization. This can be done by oral communication and physical observation, written media like manuals, guidelines and others. The new employee will be given information on the organization’s history, operations, products, policies and rules, services available, opportunities and other issues. 6.6. Training and Development Training is any process by which the aptitudes, skills and abilities of employees to perform specific jobs are increased or it is the act of increasing the knowledge and skills of employees for doing a particular job. Training programs are directed towards maintaining and improving current job performance. Training is mainly given to non-managers to improve their technical skills. Objectives of Training ✓ To provide the knowledge, skills and attitudes for individuals to undertake their current job more effectively. ✓ To help employees to become capable of assuming other responsibilities ✓ To help employees to adopt to changing circumstances E.g.: new technologies ✓ To reduce waste and to increase productivity ✓ To minimize input use and maximize output ✓ To relieve superiors from close supervision and get time for other duties 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. Managers receive assistance in developing the skills required in futures jobs, conceptual and human relations skills. Hence, development includes training and it 4 focuses at individual growth through increasing the general knowledge and understanding, not restricted to a particular job. In other words, training complements development. 6.7. Maintenance and Utilization Procured and trained/developed employees should be maintained and utilized utmost. This requires adequate and equitable remuneration of personnel, the creation of opportunities for progress, and a mechanism of evaluating their contribution. Compensation and performance appraisal are at the heart of the maintenance and utilization function of human resources management. 6.7.1. Compensation 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. Compensation is adequate and equitable remuneration of personnel for their contributions to the achievement of organizational objectives. ✓ For an employee, compensation is a means by which they support their needs and families ✓ For the employer, compensation represents a lion share cost. Different factors affect compensation decisions. a. Internal factors ✓ The size and age of organizations ✓ labor budget b. External factors ✓ government wage controls and guidelines ✓ labor unions ✓ economic conditions of the industry 6.7.2. Fringe Benefits (Supplementary Compensation) These are extra benefits given to an employee in addition to salary or wages. Wages and salary payments represent only part of the total package of compensation. Fringe benefit constitutes a significant portion of the employee pay (sometimes up to 40% of payroll expenses). Broadly classified these are two types a ) time-off pay – these are payments for the time not worked and include, paid vacations, paid holidays, paid sick leave, and others. B) non-pay benefits – these are not paid in cash but include expenditures on items such as medical services, transportation, accommodation, insurance, cafeteria services, education programs, child care facilities, and others. 5  6.8. Performance Appraisal Performance appraisal (PA): is defined as a human resource activity that is used to determine the extent to which an employee is performing the job effectively. It is a formal structured system designed to measure the actual job performance of an employee with designed performance standards. It is the evaluation of an employee’s job performance by his superiors. Objectives of PA ✓ To provide information towards strengths and weaknesses of employees ✓ To bring better allocation of resources ✓ To maintain equitable and competitive pay structure ✓ To supply information on training needs ✓ To prepare rewards 6.9. Transfer It is a shift of a person from one job, organization level, or location to another. The transfer may be a promotion, demotion, or a shift to another same level position /lateral transfer / Promotion: refers to a shift for advancement of an employee to a higher job with more employment and prestige, higher status, and higher responsibility. The possibility of advancement often serves as a major incentive for superior performance, and promotions are the most significant way to recognize such superior performance. Therefore, it is externally important that promotions be fair i.e., based on merit and free from favoritism. Demotion: refers to a shift of an employee to a lower position in the hierarchy due to inefficiency, and incompetence to fulfill assigned tasks. Lateral transfer: refers to the movement of an employee from one job or position to another without involving any significant change in the employment and status 6.10. Employee Relations An employee relation is one important area of human resource management. It is mainly concerned with the relationships existing between employers and employees. The contents of employee-employer relations are expressed in an employment contract which may include elements such as amount and method of payment; hours of work; holidays and holiday pay; provisions for sickness, injury, and entitlement to pay; terms and conditions of pension rights; disciplinary rules and procedures; institutional rights of unions and management; terms and conditions of termination of the contract; enforcement and administration of the agreements; and others. The three principal actors in employee 6 relations are employees, employers and the government. Generally, all these parties are represented by other bodies such as the labor union, managers/employer association, and specialized government unit. The three basic elements of the subject of employee relations are collective bargaining, grievance handling, and disciplinary procedures. a. Collective bargaining: this is a two-way negotiation process between employees and employers to reach at an agreement on matters of employment. The end result of a successful collective bargaining process is collective agreement that is a binding document governing employee relations during a specified period of time. b.Grievance (complaint) handling: Employees should have established and known method of processing grievances grievance procedure. The grievance procedure consists of an orderly series of steps followed to resolve disputes. Employees should know where they stand in matters pertaining to the justice or injustice of their treatment. c. Disciplinary action: disciplinary action refers to the application of penalties that lead to an inhibition of undesired behavior. Among the penalties available are oral reprimand, written reprimand, loss of privileges, fines, layoff, demotion, suspension, and dismissal. 6.11. Separation Exit (separation): It refers to the termination of the relationship between the worker and the organization due to one of the following reasons. ✓ Retirement; One of the important forms of separation is compulsory retirement at a fixed age. ✓ Resignation refers to the termination at the instance of the employee’s interest. An employee resigns when he or she secures a better job elsewhere or the employee may quit for personal reasons or when an employee suffers from ill health or some other reason. ✓ Dismissal When the employer initiates the termination of employment. Some of the reasons, which lead to the dismissal of employees, include excessive absenteeism, serious misconduct, theft of organization’s property etc. 7