MODULE 4

THIRD FUNCTION OF MANAGEMENT: STAFFING

Objectives

At the end of this module, the students are expected to:

1. define staffing and explain its nature;

2. enumerate and explain the staffing procedure;
3. differentiate training and development; and
4. apply staffing as function of management.

STAFFING
What is Staffing?

Staffing is the management function that determines human resource needs, recruits,
selects, trains, and develops human resources for jobs created by an organization.

It is simply the process of recruiting, selecting, and training of men and putting them in
the right position or job inside the organization.

The Nature of Staffing (Iñigo, 2015)

1. Manning an organization structure completely operate present and future.

2. Considered as part and parcel of the whole system of management.

3. Includes determination of manpower needs, the discovery of persons to fill these

needs, their recruitment and employment, their placement and orientation and the
rearrangement of teams through promotion and transfer.
.

In an organization people complete the organizational structure. They were the one who
shows the entire system or how the system of management works in the organization. Without
them the organization will not meet its vision, mission and objectives. And it is the nature of the
management to discover their manpower needs, to discover, recruit, place, promote or transfer
them.

Please watch this video for additional information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JYhIAt8iE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT8N6nXG6Co

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The Staffing Procedure

1. Human Resource Planning

The process in which the organization plan for the organization’s manpower
needs based on the current structure or situation of the organization when it comes to its
people. HRP is a way of forecasting the needs of the organization when it comes to human
resources.

The three activities involved in human resource planning are:

1. forecasting, which is an assessment of future resource needs in

relation to the current capabilities of the organization;
2. programming, which means translating the forecasted human resource
needs to personnel objectives and goals; and
3. evaluation and control, which refers to monitoring human resource
action plans and evaluating the success.

2. Recruitment
Recruitment refers attracting qualified persons to apply for vacant positions in the
company so that those who are best suited to serve the company may be selected. It is also the
process of encouraging, inducing, or influencing applicants to apply for a certain position.

The organization may find, indulge or select qualified applicants or person for the
certain position on the following:

1. the organization’s current employees (when it comes to internal hiring);

2. through newspaper advertising (those who are searching a job);
3. schools (job fair or referrals from the school);
4. referrals from employees;
5. recruitment firms; and
6. competitors (qualified applicants who are currently working in the same
industry/same position).

Steps in Recruitment

1. Studying the different jobs in the company and writing job description
and specification (job analysis). When it comes to recruitment it is important for
the Human Resource Department (HRD) or the department who need additional
personnel to determine the different positions that should be filled out and what
will be the duties and responsibilities (job description) and the qualifications
required on the position (job specification). It is more important when the
organization have new positions because of sort of ―reorganization‖.

2. Requisition of New Employee. To inform the personnel department, the

line supervisor or the department head concerned should accomplish a formal
requisition form, indicating the position filled, the date the new employee will be
needed, his pay rate, the required qualifications of the employee, the job
description, approval by the responsible official of the company, and other

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 pertinent data.

3. Actual Recruitment of Applicants. On this procedure the personnel or

the HRD do advertisement, ask referrals and induced people to apply in the
vacant positions and make evaluation, screening and selection.

3. Selection
This is the process of short listing the applicants who applied for a certain
position and getting the most qualified or the suited applicant among all.

Steps in Selction

1. Reception of Applicants. Not all applicants are allowed to go through

the entire process of selection. They are limited by means of “preliminary
screening or sight screening”, whereby the undesirable are quickly eliminated on
the basis of rapid appraisal of their apparent characteristics such as age, height,
physical condition, etc. Screening is the process by which the applicants are
being interviewed and classified under two categories – those to be given
examinations and further interviews, and those who should not be considered at
all.

2. Preliminary Interview. This is an interview is commonly conducted by

the personnel staff which aim is to eliminate applicants who are not qualified. The
questions are not that technical but this is a good bases when in knowing if the
applicants who are qualified or not. The purposes of the interview are: a) to find
out how qualified the applicant is for the vacancy; b) to give the applicant the
information he needs in order to decide to take the job if offered to him; and c) to
create goodwill for the company. And there is no company hires an applicant
without conducting an employment interview. This shows the importance of the
interview as a major selection and placement tool.

3. Application Form. This is a company form the applicants should filled

out when applying for a job even they passed their resume. This is commonly
used by the company as: a) a guide when interviewing the applicant; b) a basis
for eliminating applicants with unfavorable personal data; c) for matching the
qualifications of the applicant with the job requirements as indicated in the job
description and job specification; d) for checking on the applicants’ school
records, references, and former employers; and e) part of the employee’s
permanent record and for communicating with the employees or his family.

4. Employment Test. The purpose of testing is to measure the applicant’s

abilities which cannot be gauged through interviews. It also helps make an
objective comparison among applicants.

5. Final Selection by Immediate Supervisor or Department Head.

Although the HRD is the one who do the entire process of selection still the
requesting department who are in need of personnel or staff are the one going to
decide who among the applicants is qualified for the position. It is the immediate
superior or the department head — going to select because they are the one who
knows what will be the duties and responsibilities the applicant will be working

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 and the qualifications needed for the job.

6. Physical and Medical Examination. The selected applicant is required

to pass a physical and medical examination. The purposes of physical and
medical examination are: a) to prevent contamination of contagious disease; and
to prevent the hiring of liability employees which may result in absenteeism,
hospitalization expenses, etc. It is obvious for the company to know that the
selected or qualified applicant will be an asset of the organization and not a
liability. Manpower is the important resources of an organization in achieving its
vision.

7. Hiring. When a candidate has passed all the selection requirements

and is chosen, he is finally sent to the personnel department for the completion of
hiring process.

Note: The presented steps are not the standard one. It is depend on the company’s established
hiring process.

Please watch this video for additional information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYwUfCCMHvk

4. Orientation/Induction/Indoctrination
This is an important part of the staffing procedure. The hired person should be
oriented to the company’s profile, rules and regulations, policies, programs, etc. This is part of
the company’s standard that before the person formally work in the company this will be the first
thing to do, because it prevent problems in the future when (commonly happened) co-workers
or unofficial orientation happens which cause leading to wrong information. The immediate
superior or department head also conduct orientation about the job. The orientation also
determines the employee’s success or failure because this is their first guide working in the
company.

5. Training and Development

According to the Labor Code of the Philippines, is the systematic development of the
attitude/knowledge/behavior patterns for the adequate performance of a given job or task. It is a
day to day, year round task. It focuses on helping employee’s performance in their current jobs.
Training gives additional learning to the employees toward their work or general to their area.
Effective training makes the employee efficient and productive which can be resulted to growth
of the individuals.

Training and development are different – development refers to formal education, job
experiences, relationships, and assessment of personality that help employees for the future.
And it is the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and behavior that improve an employee’s ability to
meet changes in job requirements and in client and customer demands. To make it clear, take a
look on the table below: Comparison of Training vs Development.

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 Training Development

Focus Current Future

Use of work experience Low High

Goal Preparation for current job Preparation for changes

Participation Required Voluntary

The table shows that when it comes to: a) focus – training is related to his or her current
job while development is for future-it can be the company is preparing the personnel for a
certain position or the person is preparing his or her self to be qualified to a certain position he
or she wishes to apply in the future (e.g. enrolled in another degree or graduate studies); b) use
of work experience – training is low because he or she only need to apply his or her knowledge
regarding the current job while in development is high-the personnel need to use all his
knowledge from the past and present because the process can be more challenging and
complicated to achieve; c) goal – training is for the preparation for current job because the
knowledge or learning he or she will receive is only related to his or her current job while in
development is preparation for changes because it focus in future which can be a different job;
and d) participation – training is required because it is part of the staff work and it is obvious that
he or she need to have refresher course or if the technology or process change he or she need
to attend trainings while in development it is voluntary because it’s up to the staff if he or she
want to learn something that the company is not providing or if it is provided it is not directly
related to his or her current job.

Common Types of Training

1. On-the-Job Training and Job Rotation. OJT is a type of training where the
trainee or the staff undergone training to within the department but different work
in a certain period – job rotation. It also called cross training – which can also be
happened from this department to other department. It makes the staff or worker
flexible or if the person assigned to the work is not around the person undergone
job rotation can handle the job that left behind.

2. Vestibule Training. On this type of training the trainee is in an actual type of

the work he or she will be performing. The training room is like the actual one
when he or she starts working (real work). The room is equipped with the same
machine, equipment, tools etc. that the trainee will be using in actual. It is where
the trainee does practical (work) test the same in actual operation but with less or
no pressure. Used for training typists, word processor, operators, bank tellers,
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 clerk, etc. This method is expensive, and the employee still must adjust to the
actual production environment.

3. Apprenticeship Training. This usually common to manufacturing plant, which

the workers were under apprenticeship program (TESDA-skilled trades) before
the company (can) absorb them. This is generally last for one month to one year.

4. Classroom Training. This is the most common or familiar training method used
by different companies. This is a classroom setup where trainees get information
to the trainers y listening and by presentations of materials and theories
(teaching method concept).

5. Programming Instruction. Requires the trainee to read material on a particular

subject and then to answer questions about the subject. It provides active
practice, a gradual increase in difficulty over a series of steps, immediate
feedback, and an individualized rate of learning. It is normally used to teach
factual information. This is like when the workers undergone training to pass the
certification exam e.g. process certification.

6. Management Development Program. This is a systematic process of training

and growth by which individuals gain and apply knowledge, skills, insights and
attitudes to manage work organization effectively.

5. Performance Appraisal
The process through which an organization gets information on how well an
employee is doing on his or her job. It means evaluating an employees’ current and/or
past performance relative to his or her performance standards. The reasons why having
performance appraisal are: a) provide important input in promoting an employee and
salary raise decision; b) correcting deficiencies; and c) career-planning purpose.

6. Employment Decision
After evaluating the performance of employees (managerial or otherwise), the
management will now be ready to make employment decisions.

The decisions can be:

a. Monetary rewards. These are given to employees whose performance

is at par or above standard requirements.
b. Promotion. This is the most common decision made when the person
is at par to his or her performance, but still it depends to the
organizational structure. If there is no higher vacant position the
promotion can be promotion in rank. The worker has greater
responsibilities or more challenging work than before.
c. Transfer. This is type of decision sometimes done when the worker’s
evaluation result is not that good on his or her current job. The
department wanted to get rid of a worker who is not performing well or the
organization will transfer him or her to a new position because they know
that he or she can perform well in the new position. The transfer is in the
same level position.

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 d. Demotion. This commonly view negative by the workers, because this
is a sort of punishment to workers who are not performing or doing well to
his or her duties and responsibilities. Demotion commonly pertains or
attached to the position level or title. But sometimes demotion is to lessen
the duties and responsibilities and transfer it to another person holding
the position. This can be resulted to less pay.

7. Separation
This is can be a company or worker’s decision to leave or quit a job. This is also
pertains employee voluntary to involuntary termination.

a) Voluntarily. The workers give his or her reason in leaving the company.
The workers is leaving based on his own will.

b) Involuntary or termination. This is the last option that the management

exercises when an employee’s performance is poor or when he/she committed
an act of violating the company rules and regulations. This is usually made after
training efforts fail to produce positive results. But this is done by the company in
proper procedure.

Activity 4:

Present your company’s recruitment process (flow chart). Study

and evaluate the process. After evaluating, propose an
improvement of the recruitment process (flow chart). Show and
compare the proposed (left) and existing (right). Highlight with
red box the improvement you made and have a comprehensive
explaination of your proposal.
(Will be submitted in Ubian LMS)

References:
Iñigo, Conrado E., Management for Filipinos: Principles and Application, 2015.
Noe, Raymond A. et.al. Human Resource Management: Gaining Competitive Advantage 9 th
Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JYhIAt8iE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT8N6nXG6Co
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYwUfCCMHvk

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