Staffing is the process by which organizations meet their human resources needs, including forecasting future requirements, recruiting and selecting candidates, and orienting new employees. Some organizations deliberately seek to attract, hire, and retain certain types of people-resulting in the image of a stereotypical employee. For example, a soft-drink company hires college graduates who are assertive overachievers, who are risk takers, and who respond positively to intense pressure to reach sales and cost goals. At another company, where most of the work is defense-related, the preference is to hire people with military experience.
The staffing process involves much more than simply hiring people. It also includes easing employees’ entrance into an organization, as well as their movement through (promotion, job rotation, transfer) and out of (termination, retirement) it. The six components of the staffing process are:
1. Planning: Before hiring anyone, the organization needs to forecast its human resource requirements and the compensation process. By doing so, it can determine the number of employees to hire and the types of skills they need. Moreover, management will be able to determine when it will need these employees.
2. Recruitment: The organization next develops a pool of job candidates from which to select qualified employees. Candidates are recruited, for example, by running advertisements, contacting employment agencies, and visiting college campuses.
3. Selection and hiring: After recruiting candidates for available positions, the organization selects and hires those people who are most likely to perform well on the job by testing and/or interviewing the candidates.
4. Training and development: After employees have been hired, they must be oriented to their jobs and to the organization in general. Effective orientation programs familiarize new employees with company policies, safety rules, and work expectations. They also include explanations of compensation and employee benefits.
5. Movement: After completing the orientation process, an employee continues to participate in the staff process. Promotions, demotions, transfers, and training are all part of the process that spans an employee’s career.
6. Termination: Termination occurs as the final stage of human resources management. It is the stage when the employees separate from the organization as a result of the employee’s finding a new job, retiring, becoming disabled, being fired or laid off.