Staffing
Staffing covers the human-resource flow, recruitment versus selection, and training methods, with marks for comparing internal and external sources.
Process
Manpower planning, recruitment, selection, placement and orientation, training and development, performance appraisal, promotion and transfer, compensation.
Recruitment sources
- Internal: transfer and promotion. Cheaper, motivating, but offers limited fresh talent and risks inbreeding.
- External: campus, advertisements, employment exchanges, consultants, recommendations, web portals. Wider pool and new ideas, but costly and slow.
Selection and training
Selection is negative in approach (rejecting unsuitable applicants) and follows recruitment; it uses tests, interviews, reference and medical checks. Training builds job skills; development is broader and long-term. On-the-job: apprenticeship, coaching, internship, job rotation. Off-the-job: classroom lectures, films, case studies, vestibule training, computer modelling.
Worked example
A textile mill needs 30 power-loom operators who must handle noisy, risky machines before entering the shop floor. Vestibule training fits: it gives off-the-job practice on duplicate equipment, so trainees learn without risking production or injury. Apprenticeship is too slow for this volume, and lectures alone cannot build the motor skill.
Traps
- Mixing recruitment with selection; recruitment attracts, selection filters.
- Calling internship off-the-job; it is on-the-job.
- Assuming internal sources are always better.
- Confusing training (skill) with development (overall growth).