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@ (ii) CLASS-12 STAFFING: Staffing is ‘putting people to jobs’. Staffing has been described as the managerial function of filling and keeping filled the positions in the organisation structure. Importance of Staffing: “Human resources are the foundation of any business. The right people can help you take your business to the top; the wrong people can break your business. Hence, staffing is the most fundamental and critical drive of organisational performance.” (i) It helps in discovering and obtaining competent personnel for various jobs; (ii) It makes for higher performance, by putting right person on the right job; (ili) It ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise through the succession planning for managers; (iv) It helps to ensure optimum utilisation of the human resources. By avoiding overmanning, it prevents under-utilisation of personnel and high labour costs. At the same time it avoids disruption of work by indicating in advance the shortages of personnel; and (v) It improves job satisfaction and morale of employees through objective assessment and fair reward for their contribution. If right kind of employees is not available, it will lead to wastage of materials, time, effort and energy, resulting in lower productivity and poor quality of products. Staffing process: Estimating the Manpower Requirements: Understanding manpower requirements is not merely a matter of knowing how many persons we need but also of what type. Workload analysis would enable an assessment of the number and types of human resources necessary for the performance of various jobs and accomplishment of organisational objectives. Workforce analysis would reveal the number and type available. In situation of overstaffing somewhere would necessitate employee removal or transfer elsewhere. A situation of understaffing would necessitate the starting of the recruitment process. Recruitment: Recruitment may be defined as the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in the organisation. (ili) Selection: Selection is the process of choosing from among the pool of the prospective job candidates developed at the stage of recruitment. {a) It ensures that the organisation gets the best among the available. (b) It enhances the self-esteem and prestige of those selected and conveys to them the seriousness with which the things are done in the organisation. (iv) Placement and Orientation: Orientation is, thus, introducing the selected employee to other employees and ™ familiarising him with the rules and policies of the organisation. Placement refers to the employee occupying the position or post for which the person has been selected. Training and Development: Training is any process by which the aptitudes, skills and abilities of employees to perform specific jobs are increased. It is a process of learning new skills and application of knowledge. (vi) Development refers to the learning opportunities designed to help employees grow. It covers not only those activities which improve job performance but also those which bring about growth of the personality. Performance Appraisal: Performance appraisal means evaluating an employee’s current and/or past performance as against certain predetermined standards. The employee is expected to know what the standards are and the superior is to provide the employee feedback on his/her performance. (vii) Promotion and career planning: It becomes necessary for all organisations to address career related issues and promotional avenues for their employees. They must encourage employees to grow and realise their full potential. (viii) Compensation: Compensation, therefore, refers to all forms of pay or rewards going to employees. It may be in the form of direct financial payments like wages, salaries, incentives, commissions and bonuses and indirect payments like employer paid insurance and vacations. RECRUITMENT: It has been defined as ‘the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for jobs in an organisation.’ There are two sources of recruitment — Internal and External. iT a Transfers: It involves shifting of an employee from one job to another, one department to another or from one shift to another, without a substantive change in the responsibilities and status of the employee. It is practically a horizontal movement of employees. Transfers can also be used for training of employees for learning different jobs. Promotions: Promotion leads to shifting an employee to a higher position, carrying higher responsibilities, facilities, status and pay. Promotion is a vertical shifting of employees. i} 7 1, Improve Employees performance: Promotion motivates the employees to improve their performance through Lad learning and practice. Employees work with commitment and loyalty and remain satisfied with their jobs. Simplifies the process of selection and placement: The candidates that are already working in the enterprise can be evaluated more accurately and economically. 3. Transfer is a tool of training as employees are prepared for higher jobs. Also people recruited from within the organisation do not need induction training. Transfer has the benefit of shifting workforce from the surplus departments to those where there is shortage of staff. 5. Cheaper: Internal source of recruitment is cheaper than external source of recruitment. Limitations of Internal Sources: yPwny Induction of fresh talent is reduced: Internal recruitment involves danger of ‘inbreeding’ by stopping ‘infusion of new blood’ into the organisation. The employees may become lethargic if they are sure of time bound promotions. A new enterprise cannot use internal sources of recruitment. The spirit of competition among the employees may be hampered. Frequent transfers of employees may often reduce the productivity of the organisation. Limitations of External Sources: 1. 2. 3. Dissatisfaction among existing staff: Employees may feel that their chances of promotion are reduced. Lengthy process: The business has to notify the vacancies and wait for applications to initiate the selection process. Costly process: A lot of money has to be spent on advertisement and processing of applications. Selection: Selection is the process of identifying and choosing the best person out of a number. Process of Selection: sUT Preliminary Screening: It helps the manager eliminate unqualified or unfit job seekers based on the information supplied in the application forms. Selection Tests: An employment test is a mechanism (either a paper and pencil test or an exercise) that attempts to measure certain cha- racteristics of individuals. {a) Intelligence Tests: This is one of the important psychological tests used to measure the level of intelligence quotient. (b) Personality Tests: It provides clues to a person’s emotions, her reactions, maturity and value system etc. {c) Aptitude Test: It is a measure of individuals’ potential for learning new skills. It indicates the person’s capacity to develop ({d) Trade Test: These tests measure the existing skills of the individual. They measure the level of knowledge and proficiency in the area of professions or technical training. The difference between aptitude test and trade test is that the former measures the potential to acquire skills and later the actual skills possessed. {e) Interest Tests: Every individual has fascination for some job than the other. Interest tests are used to know the pattern of interests or involvement of a person. Employment Interview: Interview is a formal, in-depth conversation conducted to evaluate the appli cant’s suitability for the job. The role of the interviewer is to seek information and that of the interviewee is to provide the same. Though, in present times, the interviewee also seeks information from interviewer. Reference and Background Checks: Many employers request names, addresses, and telephone numbers of references for the purpose of verifying information and, gaining additional information on an applicant. Selection Decision; The final decision has to be made from among the candidates who pass the tests, interviews and reference checks. Medical Examination: After the selection decision and before the job offer is made, the candidate is required to undergo a medical fitness test. The job offer is given to the candidate being declared fit after the medical examination. Job Offer: Job offer is made through a letter of appointment/confirm his acceptance. Such a letter generally contains a date by which the appointee must report on duty. {viii) Contract of Employment: It includes Job Title, Duties, Responsibilities, Date when continuous employment starts and the basis for calculating service, rates of pay, allowances, hours of work, leave tules, sickness, and grievance procedure. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT; Importance of Training and Development: Training is any process by which the aptitudes, skills and abilities of employees to perform specific jobs are increased. It attempts to improve their performance on the current job or prepare them for any intended job. Development refers to the learning opportunities designed to help employees grow. It covers not only those activities which improve job performance but also those which bring about growth of the personality. Benefits to the organisation: 1. Optimum utilisation of resources: Training is a systematic learning, always better than hit and trial methods which lead to wastage of efforts and money. Leading to higher profits: It enhances employee productivity both in terms of quantity and quality. Equips future managers: who can take over in case of emergency. Training increases employee morale and reduces absenteeism and employee turnover. It helps in obtaining effective response to fast changing environment. yPywn Benefits to the Employee: 1. Improved skills and knowledge due to training lead to better career of the individual. 2. Increased performance by the individual helps him to earn more. 3. Training makes the employee more efficient to handle machines. Thus, less prone to accidents. 4. Training increases the satisfaction and morale of employees. Difference between Training and Development Training Development It is a process of increasing knowledge and skills. It is a process of learning and growth. It is to enable the employee to do the job better. It is to enable the overall growth of the employee. It is a job oriented process. It is a career oriented process. TRAINING METHODS: ON THE JOB TRAINING: i) Apprenticeship Programmes: Apprenticeship programmes put the trainee under the guidance of a master worker. These are designed to acquire higher level of skill. People seeking to enter skilled jobs, to become, for example, plumbers, electricians or iron-workers, are often required to undergo apprenticeship training. ii) Internship Training: It is a joint programme of training in which educational institutions and business firms cooperate. Selected candidates carry on regular studies for the prescribed period. They also work in some factory or office to acquire practical knowledge and skills. OFF THE JOB TRAINING: i) Vestibule Training: Employees learn their jobs on the equipment they will be using, but the training is conducted away from the actual work floor. Actual work environments are created in a class room and employees use the same materials, files and equipment. This is usually done when employees are required to handle sophisticated machinery and equipment. 
