Staffing
Core rules
- Staffing is finding the right people for the right jobs and developing them.
- Process: estimating manpower needs, recruitment, selection, placement and orientation, training and development, performance appraisal, promotion and career planning, and compensation.
- Recruitment is positive: it attracts a pool of applicants. Selection is negative: it rejects unsuitable candidates. Sources are internal (promotion, transfer) and external (advertisements, employment exchanges, campus, consultants, web).
- Selection steps: preliminary screening, tests, interview, reference check, selection decision, medical exam, job offer and contract.
- Training improves skills for the present job; development is broader growth for future roles. On-the-job methods include apprenticeship, coaching and internship; off-the-job methods include classroom teaching, vestibule training and case study.
Worked example
A firm needs a sales executive. It writes a job description for duties and a job specification for qualifications, advertises online, screens CVs, holds a sales aptitude test and interview, checks references, conducts a medical check and issues an offer letter. Reasoning: recruitment creates the applicant pool; selection narrows it. The test measures aptitude, the interview assesses fit and the reference check verifies claims.
Traps
Do not reverse recruitment and selection. Internal recruitment motivates staff but limits fresh talent; external recruitment widens choice but costs more. Training is not the same as development. Apprenticeship is on-the-job, not off-the-job. Performance appraisal is not the same as selection.