Importance of Staffing

Staffing is a management function which includes hiring, motivating, and retaining the best people available to achieve a company’s objectives. It is essentially the task of getting and keeping the right people.

Staffing is concerned with filling various job positions in the organisation with suitable personnel.

If right types of persons are not available, the organisation would not be able to achieve its objectives.

It is an inherent part of the job of every manager to procure, develop, and motivate personnel who can work efficiently for the goals of the organisation.

Learn about the Importance of Staffing

Importance of Staffing (6 Main Reasons)

ADVERTISEMENTS:

According the H. Koontz, “Staffing involves filling, and keeping filled, the positions in the organisation structure. This is done by identifying workforce requirements; inventorying the people available; and recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting, appreciating, planning the careers of, compensating, and training or otherwise developing both candidates and current job holders so that tasks are accomplished effectively and efficiently.”

Staffing is important due to the following reasons:

(i) Facilitates control – Well trained staff works according to plans and helps in the achievement of the organisational goals. They help in reducing the deviations in performance. This helps the managers in controlling various organisational functions.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(ii) Optimum Utilisation of Human Resources – In order to get the optimum output from the personnel, the staffing function should be performed in an efficient manner because a huge cost is involved in the selection and training of staff.

(iii) Long-term implications – Investment in human resources has long-term effects. Since staffing function has long-term implications, these decisions should be taken with utmost care. The decisions are crucial for the efficiency of the staff in the organisation.

(iv) Efficiency – Since staffing helps to place the right person, with the right knowledge, at the right place and the right time to perform the organisational activities, efficiency of the organisation increases.

(v) Motivation – The workers can be motivated through financial and non-financial incentives. Financial rewards are important but acceptance and recognition by managers are also strong forces of motivation for the employees. There should be a balance between financial and non-financial incentives to motivate the employees.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

(vi) Support to other functions – Staffing is the key to efficient performance of other functions of management. If an organisation does not have competent personnel, it can’t perform planning, organisation and control functions properly. Staffing supports other functions of management.

Staffing as a Part of Human Resource Management:

Staffing is concerned with filling various job positions in the organisation with suitable personnel. If right types of persons are not available, the organisation would not be able to achieve its objectives. It is an inherent part of the job of every manager to procure, develop, and motivate personnel who can work efficiently for the goals of the organisation.

Human Resource Management process includes five activities:

1. Human resource planning

2. Staffing

3. Training and development

4. Performance appraisal, and

5. Compensation.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Staffing is an integral part of human resource management. It facilitates procurement and placement of the right person on the right jobs.

Following features show Staffing as a part of Human Resource Management:

i. It is concerned with all categories of personnel from top level to the bottom level in the management.

ii. Staffing is a continuous process and requires ongoing efforts.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

iii. Staffing is concerned with training and development of human resources.

iv. It is the duty of every manager to perform the staffing activities such as – selection, training, performance appraisal and counselling of employees.

v. Recent trend shows that various quantitative techniques such as – human resource accounting have become very popular in the management of human resources.

Staffing is an important part of human resource management. Every enterprise requires managerial and non-managerial employees. Staffing is concerned with procurement, development, compensation, maintenance and integration of managers or executives.

Importance of Staffing

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Staffing is very important function of management after planning and organising. This is related to the concept of the Human resource management. The inputs are processed into outputs with help of quality human resources. The objectives of the organisations are achieved by such activity.

Staffing is related with the appointment of the people at work. It is the process of filling vacant positions in the organisation structure. Staffing is a pervasive and continuous function that ensures the right kind of people at right time on appropriate job. The staffing involves determining the requirement of people at various organisational levels, appointing and retaining them at those levels. These appointed people should be retained with the help of training and development.

Staffing is an important function of the organisations.

This is due to the following reasons:

1. Facilitates Leadership – Staffing is a function of providing people at work and these people become the leader of the organisation. The leader leads the organisation in such a way to attain the goals and objectives of the organisation.

2. Emphasis on Human Element – The staffing is related with human elements, by doing the appointment of human beings at work. Workers are the most valuable asset for the organisation. Therefore, they must be treated as most valuable resource to gain the productivity.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

3. Development of Potential Managers – The development of potential managers is ensured by staffing. This is the process by which the best potential employees are selected for the organisation and training is provided to develop them for future challenges.

4. To Enhance Organisational Efficiency – In the modern era each and every organization faces tough competition in business environment. A sufficient staffing practice provides the sound policies and procedure to face the competition. The organizations become able to enhance organisational efficiency due to better staffing.

5. Increase in Overall Efficiency – The staffing ensures the right person, with right knowledge at the right time and place. If the activities of the organisation will take place rightly then the efficiency of the organisation will enhance. This is helpful in increasing the overall efficiency.

Importance of Staffing – Short Notes

After Organising, Staffing is the most important managerial activity. How well job positions are filled often determines the outlook and strategies of the managements.

The managerial function of hiring and selecting personnel and putting them in position is called ‘staffing’. Being of continuous nature, it focuses on the needs of the business organisation in terms of human resources.

But staffing should not be mistaken with Human Resource Development (HRD) which today constitutes the building programme of bottom line management, who then rise to fill the top managerial positions. Staffing is concerned with estimation and hiring the required personnel at all levels and also arranging for their further training and development needs.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

While stating the importance of staffing a distinction needs to be drawn between the modern marketing techniques of human resources and that of traditional systems when a mere familiarity with certain qualifications was enough. Today the importance of staffing lies in internal training facilities as against such professional competence acquired in external environments earlier. A business organisation without competent people to run and manage it is an empty shell.

Therefore staffing becomes key to other managerial functions. The makeup of an organisation much depends on its human resource content. It involves identification and right combination of skills; inducing the right people to join the organisation and creating conditions for their continuance m the organisation. The visibility of an organisation also depends on its human resource content. Only people not machines enable the organisation to maintain its competitive edge and survive many difficult challenges.

The people provide the leadership and keep the ship afloat, under stormy conditions. It is the people who do product development, innovation and take care of all the ways of doing business. Much depends on the type and quality of staffing and team building techniques of an organisation.

Importance of Staffing (With Advantages)

Once the plans are decided and an organisation structure is created, the next step in the management process is to fill the various posts created in the organisation. This is the managerial function of staffing. Staffing is the executive function of recruiting selecting, training, developing, promoting and retiring subordinate managers.

According to Koontz and O’Donnell “the managerial function of staffing involves manning the organisation structure through proper and effective selection, appraisal and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the structure. In other words staffing is the process of identifying, assessing, placing planning developing and evaluating individuals at work.”

Staffing is an integral part of the management process and it is the responsibility of every manager. In a big organisation, there exists a specialised personnel department to assist and advise managers in the efficient performance of the staffing function. Staffing is a continuous and never ending process because of changes in the work force of the organisation. The purpose of staffing is to ensure that the right number and right type of people are working on the right jobs at right time and place.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

Human resources and managerial personnel are the most important asset of an organisation. The ability of an organisation to achieve its goals depends upon the quality of its human resources.

Efficient staffing provides the following advantages:

1. It helps in discovering and obtaining competent personnel for various jobs.

2. It makes for higher performance by putting right man on the right job.

3. It ensures the continuous survival and growth of the enterprise through the development of successive managers.

4. It helps to ensure optimum utilisation of the human resources.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

5. It improves job satisfaction and morale of employees through objective assessment and four- rewarding of their contributions.

Importance of Staffing (with Objectives)

Staffing is necessary to achieve the following objectives:

(a) To forecast and balance the demand for and supply of suitable personnel.

(b) To discover and procure competent employees for various positions in the organization.

(d) To train and develop employees.

(e) To provide proper work environment to employees.

(f) To minimize wastage of human resources and thereby reduce cost of personnel.

(g) To promote healthy and cordial employer employee relations.

(h) To promote the spirit of cooperation and self-discipline among employees.

(i) To facilitate expansion and growth of the organization by developing people to their full potential.

Importance of Staffing – 7 Vital Reasons

Staffing is a very important function of the management.

The reasons that make it vital are written below:

1. Maximum and Efficient Utilisation of Resources:

Staffing plays an important role in the maximum and efficient utilisation of resources. Resources like money, material and machine etc. can be utilised efficiently only through specialised manpower and specialised manpower can only be acquired through a good staffing system.

2. Reduces Cost of Production:

Staffing plays an important role in reducing cost of production by bringing on-board the deserving candidate at the right time so that wastage and mistakes can be eliminated or reduced. Thus, it assists in reducing cost of production. When worthy personnel are selected through an established recruitment process, it is an assurance that the organisation is getting the right person for the job. This leads to efficient organisational performance.

3. Provides Job Satisfaction:

Staffing contributes to an employee’s job satisfaction. Staffing makes sure jobs are allocated to the personnel according to their inherent ability, talent, and aptitude and acquired specialisation. As a result, the staff puts hundred percent effort to perform its duties.

4. Long-Term Implications:

Staffing looks at the long-term human resource requirements of the organisation. By looking at organisational goals on a long-term basis, it gives a clear picture to the organisation as to its human resource requirement for the future. Thus, staffing fulfills the present and future human resource requirements of an organisation.

5. Key Management Function:

Staffing is the function that infuses life into other departments of an organisation by providing the right man for every job and position. All other functions depend upon the effectiveness of staffing.

6. Contributes to Organisational Efficiency:

Staffing improves employee output through in-house and continuous training and development programs.

7. Promotes Better Working Environment:

Careful and efficient staffing can lead to better employee bonding and relationships, effective supervision and leadership. Higher productivity can be achieved through better human relationships in an organisation.

Staffing is a very important managerial function and an on going process. It must be noted that staffing is not restricted to merely recruitment and selection; but also includes appraisal, professional development, training, performance evaluation, compensation, etc.

Importance of Staffing Explained!

The tasks associated under staffing broadly aim towards implementing the organisational goals based on the pre-determined or planned (and organised) jobs/ responsibilities. Importance of staffing is explained below:

1. Effectiveness of Other Functions:

The functioning of other managerial tools like planning, organising, directing and controlling can be possible only through staffing. This is because staffing involves recruitment and retention of necessary human resources to perform relevant tasks and activities under planning, organising, directing and controlling.

2. Effective Utilisation of Resources:

Efficient human resources are a necessity for an organisation to operate because these resources utilise other resources such as capital, raw material, machinery and other supporting human resources. Every organisation requires raw materials, capital, machines, etc., and their maximum and efficient utilisation can be ensured by human resources recruited through staffing.

3. Reduces Costs of Production:

Staffing plays an important role to reduce costs of production by appointing the right person for the right job when a necessity arises in an organisation. If R&D department in a production firm requires a scientist with minimum research experience of 2 years in a particular industry, the staffing team will identify only those scientists with suggested years of experience in the required industry from their internal/external databases and direct them to the R&D unit.

To avoid wastes, the staffing team will inquire the R&D department for more specific details to identify suitable candidates and avoid mistakes during the search. This process saves time and cost of selection, thus ensuring optimum utilisation of human resources.

4. Facilitates Present and Future Needs of Employees:

Staffing as a system interconnects multiple departments/business units in an organisation and depicts availability of vacant and/or new positions to be placed at present or in the future. An organisation can accordingly fulfill those vacant and new positions through the staffing team depending upon the organisation’s budgets and requirements.

5. Sound and Strong Organization:

An organisation can be sound and strong if its superiors/subordinates have the right skills, abilities and perform them appropriately that caters to their future goals. This soundness and strength is facilitated through staffing which mainly involves identifying, selecting and retaining the right people in the organisation.

6. Helpful for Employee Development:

Staffing can create unity and coordination among all employees (superiors-subordinates) through effective control, clear communication, effective supervision and leadership. Staffing also supports training and development of employees for enhancing and improving their knowledge and skills.

Importance of Staffing – 8 Points

The importance of staffing has been so widely recognized that nearly all organizations realize the need for establishing a strong personnel department to ensure better industrial relations.

The importance of staffing can be realized from the following points:

i. Achievement of organizational goals – Employees are the common denominator of progress. The effective utilization of skills and talents of employees help in the attainment of organizational goals.

ii. Effectiveness of operations – Proper staffing helps to increase the effectiveness of employees by their wholehearted collaboration. It creates enthusiasm among workers and motivates them in a particular direction.

iii. Satisfaction from work – It helps employees to utilize their potentialities for attaining maximum individual satisfaction from their work. It offers proper monetary incentives, economic and social security to employees. It protects them against the hazards of life such as illness, old-age problems, unemployment, etc.

iv. Basis of success of any enterprise – Staffing is the key to success of any enterprise. It becomes important for achieving the objectives of the organization. Personal aspect of management is applied by all managers throughout the organization. Qualified personnel are usually employed in different departments for attaining the objectives of an organization.

v. Important task of management – The handling of employees is an integral part of every line manager’s responsibility. Managing the human component is the central task, as all else depends on how well it is done. The personnel department renders assistance to other functional departments to perform their functions.

vi. Nervous system of the organization – Staffing is the nervous system of the organization. It is a two-way channel of information reaching out to every part of the organization. It is a live channel and is used in every action. It is inherent in the dynamism of the structure of the organization.

vii. Dealing with human beings – The human factor is the most difficult to manage because emotions, feelings, needs, and outlooks differ from man to man. The human resource manager is the controller of human factors and he tries to ensure optimum use of human resources. Thus, human resource management performs the toughest job of dealing with the human part of the organization.

viii. Professional growth – This contributes to the professional growth by providing maximum opportunities for personal development of each employee. It enhances the knowledge and skills of people and helps to develop them for promotion. It utilizes human resources for the benefit of mankind. It motivates employees to work efficiently and secure their willing cooperation.

Importance of Staffing – In an Organisation

Nothing is more important to a firm than the qualities and abilities of the people it employs. People are indispensable in the generation of goods and services. It is the people who operate machines, design new products and services, make decisions to borrow and spend financial resources, market products and deliver services.

Only an organisation that consists of the right kind of people can hope to survive and flourish in the present-day competitive environment.

Staffing helps an organisation in the following ways:

1. Key to Other Managerial Functions:

An organisation having the right kind of people can translate its plans into results easily. It can organise its facilities and resources properly. It can keep its activities on the right track and achieve the objectives smoothly (without any resistance from employees).

2. Design a Sound Organization:

Staffing is useful in designing a sound organisation. Proper recruitment and selection practices enable the organisation to attract talented people into its fold, jobs are, thus, put in the hands of the best brains, paving the way for a right kind of work atmosphere and culture. People are now more willing to work sincerely and show results.

3. Motivation to do Outstanding Work:

Where the vacancies in an organisation are filled with the right kind of people, it is possible to achieve objectives smoothly. The talents of people are put to good use. Their contributions are taken note of and rewarded properly. As we all know, human beings are capable of enlargement i.e., capable of producing an output that is greater than the sum of inputs.

Once they are motivated, even common men can do uncommon things. According to Koontz and O’Donnell, the effective managing of an organisation is one of the best assurances of successful operations and growth.

Relationship of Staffing to Other Functions:

Staffing is related to other functions of management in the following manner:

a. Planning:

Planning is deciding in advance what is to be done. Here decisions are made regarding who is to do it, how it is to be done, where it is to be done, etc. Plans will not be yielding results, unless right kind of people are appointed to take care of the above decisions.

b. Organising:

Once plans are formulated, managers must organise human and physical resources properly. They must design and develop an organisation that will enable people to carry out the plans. The various job positions must be filled with the right kind of people to perform their duties. Staffing is, thus, an important follow-up activity after organising.

c. Directing:

Staffing is related to directing also. Unless right kind of people are selected initially, it will be difficult to get things done. They may defy orders, disobey instructions and spoil resources.

Importance of Staffing: 5 Quick Points

We all know the adage, ‘man behind the machine’. Therefore, it is possible to make a long list on the importance of staffing.

However, here we shall limit to a few:

1. Profound Impact on Strategy:

Strategy is the art of aligning internal resources to face external opportunities and challenges. Staff or people are the ones who create strategy. Thinking, analysis, and intuition in adapting to various contingencies is also within the realm of people. Resource-based view of the strategy suggests that organisations are competitive due to the existence of valuable, rare, inimitable, and difficult to substitute resources.

Therefore, people with such qualities directly influence competitiveness. In addition, ‘management’ itself is a resource. This is possible only if appropriate people exist, especially in a knowledge economy and markets which focus on co-creation of value. These underscore the strategic importance of staffing.

2. Key to Managerial Functions:

All managerial functions such as planning, organising, directing/leading, and controlling including staffing are based on people, and they become the key to all managerial functions. Out of these, the element of planning needs special mention because the human brain is the seat of planning.

3. Efficient and Effective Utilisation of Human Resources:

Staff is a resource and staffing ensures efficient and effective use of this resource by ensuring its quantity, quality, and appropriateness. It achieves these by increasing productivity through performance appraisal, training, development, and remuneration.

Better Human Relations Staffing affects human relationships in the workplace, which, in turn, creates cooperation, clear communication, exercise of authority, nurturing creativity, and innovation through participation, creating change, and effective controls and supervision.

4. Impacts Quality and Cost:

Staffing is crucial in ensuring quality of manpower through appropriate selection. It lowers training cost, cost of turnover, and ensures customer relationship.

5. Enhances Motivation:

The function of staffing not only includes putting the right person on the right job, but also supporting him/her in the job. When a person does a job that fits him/her, it increases motivation, leads to greater participation, and feeling of challenge and then to accepting stretch goals (goals beyond what is normally expected of a job).

Importance of Staffing (Facts)

To run a business unit systematically, many resources are required, like- man, machinery, material, money, etc. Human resource because of its special features is different from other resources. These features are – knowledge, experience, skill, understanding, flexibility, initiative, etc. Only because of these features, to focus more on human resource has become an important part of management function.

For example- if by mistake a defective machine is purchased, it can be easily replaced.

On the other hand, if a misfit employee is appointed, no doubt he can also be replaced but before parting with the organisation, he will spoil many other employees. Thus, it becomes important to be more alert while staffing the employees, than while handling other resources. In the given context it is said, “It is important to have a good organisational structure but it is even more important to fill the jobs with the right people.”

Following facts highlight the importance of staffing:

(1) Helpful in Discovering and Obtaining Competent Personnel:

Under staffing latest techniques are used for recruiting and selecting the employees. As a result, it becomes possible to search for and to select able employees for different posts. Under the recruitment process, search for employees is conducted and through selection they are not selected.

(2) Helpful in Better Performance:

Through the medium of staffing, right people are posted at right places. Thus, suitable people are selected, keeping into mind the importance of organisational posts. As a result, it increases the efficiency and effectiveness of employees.

(3) Helpful in Continuous Survival and Growth of the Enterprise:

Every enterprise aspires for its continuous survival and growth. This is possible only when it has human asset of supreme quality. This, aspiration of an enterprise can be fulfilled through staffing. Under this planning is done for the development of managers. They are made able to face contingent complexities. These managers do planning for the development of an organisation and ensure its survival.

(4) Helpful in Optimum utilization of the Human Resource:

Under staffing all the activities related to human resource are performed systematically. By doing this the situation of over manning never arises. As a result, optimum utilization of employees takes place and subsequently, labour cost is reduced. Apart from this, by making employees available at the right time, the probable hurdles which can arouse during the course of work can easily be overcome.

(5) Helpful in Improving Job Satisfaction and Morale of Employees:

Under staffing, by studying human behaviour, their preference for the type of environment, promotion policy, training and remuneration policy known for. The effort is made to provide them with all the desired facilities. Special care is taken for, that in no way the pay package of employees is reduced. In this situation, they get total job satisfaction and their morale is boosted.

Importance of Staffing – For Organisational Success

For the long-term survival and success of an organisation, it is very essential that it is run by the competent people with necessary qualifications and expertise. This can be ensured with well-organised staffing function.

Thus, staffing function contributes to the organisational success and is important in following aspects:

1. Optimal Utilisation of Resources:

Various resources such as – material, machine and money are effective if they are optimally used by the employees of an organisation and employees will do so if they are capable enough to work efficiently. Thus, by ensuring recruitment of appropriate and efficient personnel, staffing function indirectly ensures the optimum utilisation of all other resources of the organisation.

2. Development of Human Capital:

Human capital is an intellectual investment in an organisation. In order to reap its benefits, it is imperative that all measures are taken to sharpen and develop this human capital. For this, staffing function ensures that regular training and development programmes are carried out for the organisational personnel.

3. Source of Motivation:

Job satisfaction is one of the major sources of motivation. Staffing function, by matching individual qualities with the job requirements, ensures that people are doing what they are capable of doing. It reduces the scope of frustration and work burden. People satisfied with their job are inclined to work with more efficiency and desire.

4. Provides Scope for Expansion:

When an organisation is contended with the current performance of employees, it may plan to expand further. Staffing function facilitates an organisation in achieving not only current goals by making efficient people available as and when required, but also supports the expansion plans by ensuring that for new jobs, either existing personnel would be updated or new recruitments would be done as per the requirements.

5. Reduction in Costs:

Staffing function by appointing the right personnel for the right job and at the right time ensures minimal wastage and reduction of costs. When people know how to do and what to do, they make fewer mistakes, do less wastage and use other resources optimally.

6. Smooth Functioning of Organisation:

Having a team of competent people results in less chaos and rift in an organisation. This increases coordination and cooperation among employees leading to smooth functioning. Moreover, recruitments leading to job satisfaction and contentment results in less absenteeism and employee turnover.

Importance of Staffing – 5 Reasons

The staffing function is an important managerial function because of the following reasons:

1. Staffing is the chief function that ensures that all other functions are also performed well. If there is no competent staff in place in an organisation, other functions like planning, organising and control functions will not happen correctly.

2. Big organisations pay a good portion of their revenue to employees as salary. Moreover, the organisations also spend on recruitment, training and development of the employee. So, it gets important for the organisations to perform the staffing function properly so that optimum output could be obtained from the employees.

3. It is the management’s responsibility to figure out the manpower requirements well in advance. It has also to train and develop the existing employees for career advancement. This will meet the requirements of the company in future.

4. By staffing in an efficient manner, the management can show to the employee how much importance it attaches to them. This way, the morale of the staff gets a good boost.

5. It is the human factor that is useful in the effective utilisation of latest technology, capital, material, etc. The management can hire the right employee by performing the staffing function.