First of all, what is staffing? Staffing is the function of management that involves securing and developing people to perform the jobs created by the organizing function. It is quite simply all about putting the right people in the right jobs with the right training. The goal of staffing is to obtain the best available people for the organization and to develop the skills and abilities of those people. If this is done correctly, your organization will run efficiently and effectively and have the best possible chance for success. Obtaining the best people generally involves forecasting personnel requirements and recruiting, selecting new employees. Developing the skills and abilities of an organization's employees involves employee development, as well as the proper use of promotions, transfers, and separations. I'll be telling you a lot more about all of these elements in this module. So let's start where every job should start. With the job analysis. The first step of the staffing process is the job analysis. What exactly does that mean? Job analysis is the process of gathering and analyzing information about the content and requirements of a job. In other words, what makes up a job and what do people need to do the job correctly. Ideally, this is done with a combination of inputs, both objective and subjective, including feedback from supervisors and possibly other workers. The end products of a job analysis are job descriptions and job specifications. A job description summarizes the essential responsibilities, activities, qualifications, and skills for a role. In other words, what a person who has that job is expected to do. A job description should include important company details, company mission, culture, and any benefits it provides to employees. It may also specify to whom the position reports and the salary range. Ultimately, a job description should be used to develop fair and comprehensive compensation and reward systems that are beneficial to both the organization and the worker. A job specification defines the employee characteristics and qualifications required for satisfactory performance of a specific job or function. In other words, it tells you what an ideal candidate for the job looks like. Job specifications can be physical or intellectual. For example, a particular job may require a person to have skill in using specific software, as well as the ability to lift up to 50 pounds. The next step of the process is to perform a skills inventory for current employees. A skills inventory contains basic information about each employee of the organization. Many companies have computerized versions of the skills inventory because they allow for a quick and accurate evaluation of the skills available within your organization. Organizations use skills inventories to assess whether current staff can meet company goals. Understanding the company's pool of current skills and talents and future scholars requirements aids in strategic planning efforts. A skills inventory typically involves six categories of skills. Skills, special qualifications, salary and job history, company data, capacity of individuals and special preferences of individuals. Here are the first three. The skills category includes education, job experience, and training. Knowing these for each employee can help the organization identify individuals who may need additional training for a job they already have. Also, those who are good candidates for job growth or promotion. Special qualifications include things such as memberships and professional groups, certifications held, and special achievements. These are often useful for building employee competence through professional development. Salary and job history refers to present salary, past salary, dates of raises, and various jobs held. Here are the second three. Company data, such as the employee's benefit plan data, retirement information, and seniority. Capacity of the individuals. These are measures of an employee's capabilities, such as scores on tests and health information. These are indicators that an employee may be capable and ready to expand their skill set. Special preferences of individuals. Examples of these are locations or job preferences. This is important to identify employees who may only be interested in a promotion or role change that keeps them in the same location for example. The next step is to make plans based on the findings of the skills survey. Organizations must constantly anticipate changes in the current workforce. Human resource planning, or HRP, is the process of systematically planning to achieve optimum use of an organization's most powerful asset, quality employees. HRP matches the internal and external supply of people with the openings the organization expects to have for a given time frame. A goal of HRP is to ensure the best fit between employees and jobs while avoiding manpower shortages or surpluses. Also important is that HRP enables the organization to forecast it's future HR needs. Forecasting is largely conducted on the basis of intuition and the experience and judgment of managers. All levels of management should be involved in the forecasting process. A supervisor's role is to assess whether or not they need more employees in their department to achieve goals or possibly more training for the employees they have and to share that infor with their bosses.
