Chapter 10: Staffing
An organisation structure, once designed, is no more than a chart of empty positions. Every one of them has to be occupied, and not by whoever happens to be available, but by a person whose skills match what the position demands. A machine can be bought ready to work. A workforce cannot. It has to be estimated in advance, searched for, screened, appointed, settled into the job, and kept competent as the work itself changes. Staffing is the managerial function that does this work. It exists because every other function fails without it: a plan no one is capable of executing is only paper, a structure with vacant posts cannot carry authority, and no amount of supervision will correct an appointment that should never have been made. A shortage of hands halts production, a surplus raises cost without raising output, and a wrong selection is costly to undo, since employment once granted cannot be withdrawn as easily as a purchase order. This chapter covers the meaning, nature and importance of staffing, its place within human resource management, the steps in the staffing process, recruitment and its internal and external sources, selection and its procedure, and training — its need, types and methods.
Figure
Fig. 10.0-1 — Candidates Waiting To Appear For A Selection Interview Photograph of applicants seated in a company reception area with their application folders, waiting to be called in for an interview.
10.1 Meaning and Nature of Staffing
Once the organisation structure has been designed, the enterprise possesses a set of positions and nothing more. Each position carries duties and authority, but neither can be exercised until a person occupies it. Filling those positions, and keeping them filled with people equal to the work, is the managerial function of staffing.
Staffing may be described as the process of estimating the number and kind of personnel an organisation requires, obtaining them, placing them in suitable positions, and maintaining and improving their competence and performance. It runs from the forecast of manpower needs at one end to the appraisal and development of people already at work at the other.
What The Function Covers
Staffing is not exhausted by hiring. It covers recruitment, selection, placement, orientation, training and development, remuneration, appraisal, promotion and transfer — every activity by which an organisation acquires people and keeps them productive in the positions they hold. Stated in a single line, staffing seeks to ensure that the organisation has the right number and the right kind of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing the right things.
The function is demanding because of what it deals with. Materials can be ordered to specification and machines can be commissioned to a schedule, but people bring their own abilities, expectations and limitations, and they take time to acquire. An enterprise that discovers a shortage of trained hands on the day production is to begin cannot correct it that day, which is why manning is planned alongside the work rather than after it.
Nature Of Staffing
The character of the function follows from the fact that it deals with people rather than with things.
Part of management — staffing is one of the functions every manager performs, alongside planning, organising, directing and controlling. Management obtains results through people, so the function that supplies and maintains those people is inseparable from management itself.
Pervasive function — it is performed at every level and in every department, because each manager has subordinates to select, guide and appraise. A manager may take expert advice on manning, but cannot hand the responsibility over entirely.
Concerned with people — staffing deals with employees both as individuals and as groups. People have needs, emotions and sentiments, and are not simply working tools, so some understanding of human behaviour is necessary for the function to be discharged well.
Wide scope — it extends over recruitment, selection, placement, training, transfer, promotion, appraisal and compensation, and it is found not only in business but in government departments, the armed forces and every other organised body that has posts to fill.
Multiple objectives — staffing aims at efficiency and at justice together, and neither can be pursued successfully without the other. Output suffers if the wrong people are appointed; morale suffers if the right people are treated unfairly.
Extends beyond the personnel department — large enterprises create a personnel department to assist managers with hiring, training and compensating, but it is a service department. It advises and supplies specialised help, while responsibility for the people in a section remains with the manager who heads that section.
Continuous function — vacancies arise through growth, resignation, retirement, transfer and dismissal, and skills grow obsolete as methods change. Manning is therefore not settled once at the inception of the enterprise but attended to at all times.
Objectives Of Staffing
The objectives the function is expected to serve are of three kinds.
Organisational objectives — to make optimum use of the human resources available to the enterprise, so that neither posts nor abilities lie idle.
Employee objectives — to secure the fullest development of each individual and a reasonable measure of personal satisfaction in the work performed.
Social objectives — to maintain industrial peace between management and labour and to contribute thereby to economic progress.
10.2 Importance of Staffing
Without people an organisation is an empty shell of job positions. Plans remain unexecuted, authority has no one to flow to, machines stand idle, and control has no performance to measure. Staffing injects life into the structure by putting a suitable person into every position, which is why it is treated as the function on which the effectiveness of directing and controlling ultimately rests.
Its importance is also a matter of money. Building and maintaining a competent workforce absorbs considerable time, effort and expenditure — on advertising vacancies, on tests and interviews, on induction, on training and on wages that continue whether or not the person suits the job. That investment yields a high return or a poor one according to the care with which the function is performed, and the consequences run for years, since a wrong appointment at the managerial level is difficult and costly to reverse.
What Proper Staffing Secures
Competent personnel for every position — systematic estimation of requirements followed by recruitment and selection discovers people who match the demands of each post, instead of leaving appointments to chance or convenience.
Higher performance — placing the right person on the right job raises both the quantity and the quality of output, because the work asked for is work the holder of the post is equipped to do.
Optimum utilisation of human resources — manpower planning shows how many people of what kind are needed, so that the enterprise avoids the cost of surplus staff and the disruption caused by shortages.
Continuous survival and growth — succession planning prepares people within the enterprise for the posts that will fall vacant through promotion, retirement or resignation, so that leadership does not fail at the moment it is needed.
Higher job satisfaction and morale — objective assessment of performance and fair reward for it strengthen the willingness of employees to remain and to work well, which in turn holds down absenteeism and labour turnover.
Support to every other function — planning depends on people capable of executing the plan, organising on people to occupy the posts created, directing on people worth leading, and controlling on people whose performance can be measured against a standard.
Why Its Importance Has Grown
The function has become more demanding in recent decades for reasons that lie outside the enterprise as much as within it.
Increasing size of organisations — enterprises now employ large numbers across several locations, and the sheer volume of appointments, transfers and promotions makes informal manning impossible.
Rapid advancement of technology — new equipment and methods make existing skills obsolete, so employees have to be retrained and fresh categories of specialists have to be recruited.
Complicated behaviour of people at work — expectations of pay, security, recognition and career growth have risen, and a workforce that is not managed with these in view does not stay.
Trade unions and labour legislation — the terms on which people are employed, disciplined and discharged are now governed by law and by collective agreement, and errors in staffing carry legal as well as commercial consequences.
Competition after liberalisation — firms compete with well-managed rivals at home and abroad, and the quality of their people is one of the few advantages that cannot be bought ready-made.
10.3 Staffing as a Part of Human Resource Management
Manning the positions in an organisation is one part of a larger task. The same people who are recruited have to be paid, trained, kept safe, dealt with collectively through their unions, and retained over a working lifetime. The field that takes in the whole of this task is human resource management, and staffing sits inside it as the function through which people are obtained and placed.
What Human Resource Management Covers
The specialised activities grouped under the field include the following.
Analysing jobs and preparing job descriptions, so that what each post requires is settled before anyone is sought for it.
Searching for qualified people and selecting those suited to the posts available.
Training employees for their present work and developing them for greater responsibility later.
Framing compensation and incentive plans that are adequate to attract people and fair enough to retain them.
Maintaining relations with employees and their unions, and settling grievances before they harden into disputes.
Providing social security and welfare facilities as required by law and by the standing practice of the trade.
How Staffing Fits Within It
Staffing is an integral part of this wider field, and the two overlap rather than compete. The distinction usually drawn is one of coverage: staffing attends chiefly to the managerial positions in the structure, while human resource management deals with managerial and non-managerial employees alike, and adds to procurement the concerns of welfare, compensation policy and industrial relations. The comparison is set out in Table 10.1.
Treating staffing as part of human resource management has three consequences worth noting. It keeps attention on the human factor, which is indispensable at every level and in every activity of the enterprise. It presents manning as a continuing effort rather than an occasional exercise in hiring. And it has encouraged the use of quantitative techniques, of which human resource accounting — the practice of valuing an organisation’s people as an asset — is the best known.
Why Every Manager Still Staffs
A personnel or human resource department does not take the function away from line managers. It is a service department, assigned the operative work of hiring, training and compensating, which it performs in consultation with the departmental heads concerned. The head of the department for which a post is being filled retains the final say, because that manager must work with the person appointed and answer for the section’s results.
Two reasons make this responsibility inescapable. First, no department functions successfully without competent staff, and only the manager in charge knows precisely what the work of that department demands. Second, every enterprise must build a second line of people ready to take the place of those who retire or resign; an organisation that cannot produce its own managers will not survive its present ones.
10.4 Steps in the Staffing Process
Staffing proceeds as a sequence of connected activities, each of which depends on the one before it. Nobody can be recruited until it is known how many people of what kind are wanted; nobody can be selected until a pool of applicants exists; and no one can be trained until there is a post and a person to fill it. The sequence is summarised in FC 10.1.
Flowchart
FC 10.1 — Steps In The Staffing Process Estimating manpower requirements → recruitment → selection → placement → orientation → training and development → performance appraisal → remuneration → promotion and transfer
Estimating manpower requirements — the number and kind of people the enterprise will need are forecast in the light of its present activities and its future plans, such as production schedules, demand forecasts and expansion proposals. This step is also called human resource planning, and it is part of overall corporate planning, since people have to be arranged for at the same time as money and materials.
Recruitment — the sources from which suitable people can be obtained are identified, and candidates are induced to apply. The purpose is to assemble a pool large enough to allow a real choice at the next step.
Selection — the applicants are screened through a series of hurdles, and those who meet the requirements of the post most satisfactorily are chosen. Selection can only be as good as the pool recruitment has produced.
Placement — the selected person is assigned to a particular job. A candidate chosen for general suitability may still be misplaced, and correct placement reduces both dissatisfaction and turnover.
Orientation — the new appointee is introduced to the job, to colleagues and to the organisation, so that unfamiliarity does not delay useful work.
Training and development — job knowledge, skills and attitudes are improved on a regular basis, both to bring new employees up to the required standard and to keep existing employees abreast of changes in methods and technology.
Appraisal, remuneration and promotion — performance is assessed against the standard expected, pay and incentives are settled, and people found capable of greater responsibility are promoted or transferred. This closes the cycle, because promotions and separations create the vacancies with which the next round of planning begins.
Workload And Workforce Analysis
The first step rests on two exercises carried out together. Workload analysis examines the work to be done and establishes the number and types of people required to perform it — how many machines, shifts, counters or sales territories there are, and what each demands. Workforce analysis examines the people already on the rolls, by number, skill, age and location.
The difference between the two is what makes the step useful. If the workload calls for more people than the workforce provides, the gap indicates how many are to be recruited and in which categories. If the workforce exceeds the workload, the surplus points to transfer, redeployment or a hold on further appointment.
Induction Of A New Employee
Orientation, also called induction, is the process of introducing and familiarising a newly appointed employee with the job, the work group and the organisation, so that the person feels settled in an unfamiliar environment. In a small firm it may be informal; in a large one it is a planned programme covering the history and products of the company, its structure, the location of departments and services, rules and regulations, personnel policies, the grievance procedure, safety measures and the terms of employment.
A programme of this kind is arranged for reasons of ordinary efficiency.
To build the new employee’s confidence, in the self and in the organisation, so that useful work begins sooner.
To supply the practical information a newcomer needs about the place of work, hours, leave rules and facilities available.
To develop a feeling of belonging and loyalty towards the organisation.
To prevent a false impression forming in the first few days, since early impressions are difficult to correct later.
10.5 Recruitment: Meaning and Process
A vacancy does not fill itself. Once manpower planning has shown how many people of what kind are wanted, the enterprise has to make its requirement known and persuade suitable persons to come forward. Recruitment is that step — the process of publicising information about job vacancies and inducing prospective candidates to offer themselves for appointment.
The objective is not to find one person but to assemble a sufficiently large number of qualified candidates, so that the enterprise has a real choice when it comes to selection. A single applicant for a single post leaves the firm no alternative except to appoint whoever has applied. For this reason recruitment is called a positive process: it works by attracting people and by enlarging the field, not by rejecting anyone.
Steps In The Process
Identifying the sources of supply — the enterprise determines where people of the required number and type are likely to be found, whether within its own ranks or outside.
Assessing the alternative sources and choosing among them — each source differs in cost, in speed and in the quality of candidate it yields, so the one best suited to the post in question is selected.
Publicising the vacancy — the requirement is made known through the chosen channel, for example an advertisement in a newspaper, a notice on the company’s board, or a requisition sent to an employment exchange, and enough information is given for unsuitable persons to rule themselves out.
Contacting the source and securing applications — the source is approached and applications are collected, sorted and kept ready for the selection procedure that follows.
Recruitment is a continuing activity rather than an occasional one, since vacancies keep arising through expansion, promotion, retirement, resignation and dismissal.
Judging A Source Of Recruitment
No source is best for every post. The suitability of a source, for a particular vacancy, is judged on the following considerations.
Time — the interval between the receipt of applications and the placement of candidates, which matters most when a post has fallen vacant suddenly.
Ratio of applicants to appointments — a source that produces a hundred applications for one post consumes effort in sorting; one that produces three may not offer a real choice.
Cost — advertising, agency fees, tests and interviews all carry expense, which has to be weighed against the importance of the post.
Suitability — whether the source can supply the right number and the right type of people, which is the test a source of unskilled labour and a source of senior executives must each meet in its own way.
Effect on existing employees — whether the choice of source will encourage the people already employed or discourage them, since morale is affected by the belief that opportunities within the firm are real.
The Two Categories Of Source
Every source of recruitment falls into one of two categories, according to whether the person sought is already on the rolls of the enterprise or outside it. The classification is set out in FC 10.2, and the two categories are examined in the two sections that follow.
Flowchart
FC 10.2 — Sources Of Recruitment Recruitment → Internal Sources, External Sources; Internal Sources → Promotion, Transfer, Re-employment of ex-employees; External Sources → Advertisements, Employment exchanges, Educational institutions, Placement agencies, Casual callers, Direct recruitment at the gate, Recommendations of present employees, Labour contractors and jobbers, Internet
10.6 Internal Sources of Recruitment
Internal sources refer to people already employed in the organisation. A vacancy at a higher level may be filled by moving up someone from a lower level, and a shortage in one branch or factory may be met by moving across surplus staff from another. Recruitment from within therefore does not add to the total number of employees; it rearranges the people the enterprise already has, and leaves a vacancy at the lower level to be filled later.
Three arrangements come under this head.
Promotion, Transfer And Re-employment
Promotion means shifting an employee to a higher post carrying greater salary, status and responsibility. It is used when a senior position falls vacant and someone at the level below has proved equal to it. The movement is upward, and the employee’s terms of service change with it.
Transfer means shifting an employee to a similar job in another department, branch or shift, with no substantial change in salary, status or responsibility. The movement is horizontal, and its purpose is to place available ability where the work happens to be, not to reward it. The two are compared in Table 10.2.
Re-employment is the third arrangement. An employee who left the organisation earlier, on retirement or for personal reasons, may be taken back when the need arises. The person is not a stranger, the abilities are on record, and the period of settling in is short.
Advantages Of Internal Sources
Familiarity — the organisation already knows what its employees can do, from their record and their appraisals, so assessment is more reliable than any judgement formed from an application form and an hour’s interview.
Economy — little has to be spent on advertising the vacancy or on inducing candidates to apply, and the elaborate machinery of tests and reference checks can largely be dispensed with.
Saving of time — the candidates are on the premises, so the interval between the vacancy arising and the post being filled is short.
Motivational value — employees who see higher posts being filled from within work with greater care, because promotion is a reward they can realistically expect. Morale improves across the enterprise, not merely in the person promoted.
Better use of existing talent — abilities that have developed in the course of employment are put to fuller use, and the person moved up already understands the products, the methods and the customers.
No induction required — the new incumbent knows the organisation, its rules and its people, and can begin work at once.
Limitations Of Internal Sources
Restricted choice — the field is confined to the people already employed, and the best person for the post may simply not be among them. A newly established enterprise has no internal source at all.
Incomplete source — every vacancy cannot be filled from within, because promotion at one level leaves a vacancy at the level below, and the lowest level has to be filled from outside in any case.
Inbreeding — an organisation that relies too heavily on its own people receives no fresh talent and no new ideas, and old ways of working continue unquestioned. The danger is known as inbreeding.
Lack of competition — where employees know that promotion follows seniority as a matter of course, and no outsider will be considered, some become lethargic and effort declines.
Conflict among staff — several employees may aspire to the same vacancy, and those passed over often become dissatisfied, with a fall in efficiency that outlasts the promotion itself.
Disturbance of work — frequent transfers unsettle the routine of a department, since the transferred employee must learn the new setting and the department must adjust to the change.
10.7 External Sources of Recruitment
External sources refer to the recruitment of candidates from outside the organisation. Every enterprise has to use them at some stage, because the lowest level of every grade must be filled from outside, because a new undertaking has no employees of its own, and because a post may demand a skill that nobody on the rolls possesses.
Sources Outside The Organisation
Advertisements — the vacancy is advertised in newspapers, trade journals or on television. Enough can be said about the organisation and the job for unsuitable persons to rule themselves out, and a post box number can be used where the firm does not wish to reveal its identity. The difficulty is the volume of response: many applicants are unsuitable, and time must be spent sorting them.
Employment exchanges — these register the names of job seekers together with their qualifications and experience, and refer suitable names to employers who notify their vacancies. The source is economical and quick, but it is better suited to unskilled and operative posts than to those calling for specialised skill and experience.
Educational institutions — colleges, technical institutes and management schools are approached directly, and interviews are held on their premises. Many institutions maintain placement cells for the purpose. This route, known as campus recruitment, suits technical and professional posts, but supplies candidates who are young and without work experience.
Placement agencies — specialist firms, also called placement consultants, act as intermediaries. They receive requisitions from client companies, advertise the vacancies, screen the applications and often conduct the preliminary interviews. They relieve the employer of routine work and can keep the client’s identity confidential, but they charge a substantial fee, so they are used mainly for senior executives and technicians.
Casual callers — people in search of work call at the offices of well-known companies and leave their applications. A waiting list kept up to date from such unsolicited applications costs nothing and can be drawn upon when a vacancy suddenly arises.
Direct recruitment at the gate — a notice of vacancies is put up at the factory gate, and job seekers assemble there on the day stated, where a foreman or supervisor picks the workers required. It is used for casual and temporary vacancies at the lower level, and is common during the construction of plants and ports.
Recommendations of present employees — existing employees introduce friends and relatives, and often stand surety for them. Since an employee’s own standing is affected by the person recommended, some preliminary screening happens before the name is even put forward, and the source tends to yield reliable candidates.
Labour contractors and jobbers — unskilled and semi-skilled labour is recruited through contractors who maintain links with villages and small towns and bring workers to the place of work on payment of commission. The source supplies numbers quickly, but when the contractor leaves, the workers brought by him may leave with him.
The internet — job portals and professional networking sites carry both vacancies and the profiles of job seekers, and allow a firm to search by qualification, experience and location. The reach is wide and the cost low, which has made this among the most used routes for office and technical posts.
Advantages Of External Sources
Wider choice — the field is the whole labour market rather than one payroll, so the enterprise can look for the best person available instead of the best person present.
Fresh talent — outsiders bring new ideas, new methods and an outlook not shaped by the firm’s own habits, which is precisely what an organisation short of initiative needs.
Healthy competition — when internal candidates know they must compete with outsiders, complacency is checked and performance improves.
Complete source — every kind of vacancy can be filled, whether created by expansion, resignation, retirement, death or dismissal, and at every level.
Trained people at short notice — experienced candidates already trained elsewhere can be appointed, saving the enterprise the cost and delay of training a beginner.
Limitations Of External Sources
Discontent among existing employees — those who hoped for promotion and find an outsider appointed lose motivation, and relations between management and workers may become strained.
Expense — advertising, agency fees, tests, interviews and the induction of the person appointed all cost money, and the cost is incurred whether or not the appointment proves sound.
Time — vacancies have to be publicised, applications awaited, tests and interviews arranged and notice periods served, so the post stays unfilled for a considerable period.
Uncertainty — advertisement does not guarantee suitable applicants, and a firm may find, after the whole exercise, that nobody who applied fits the post.
Longer settling-in — an outsider is unfamiliar with the products, the procedures and the people, and needs orientation and time before becoming fully productive.
Choosing Between The Two Categories
Neither category is superior in itself. Internal recruitment is quicker, cheaper and better informed; external recruitment is wider, fresher and complete. Most enterprises therefore use both, reserving promotion for posts where proven familiarity matters and going outside where a skill is missing or a fresh outlook is wanted. The two are compared in Table 10.3.
10.8 Selection: Meaning and Importance
Recruitment leaves the enterprise with a pile of applications. What follows is the work of examining those applications, testing the people behind them, and settling on the few who will actually be appointed. Selection is the process of carefully screening the candidates in order to identify and choose the most suitable persons for the vacancies to be filled.
The process divides the applicants into two groups — those who are to be employed and those who are to be rejected — and since the number rejected is always far larger than the number appointed, selection is described as a negative process. The description is not merely a matter of arithmetic. Tests, interviews and reference checks are more dependable for identifying who cannot do the work than for identifying who will do it best, so the machinery of selection operates chiefly by elimination.
Selection is also a multistep process. The candidate passes through a series of hurdles, each of which yields more information than the one before, and a failure at any hurdle ends the candidature there. It always follows recruitment, because there is nothing to screen until applications have been secured.
Selection Distinguished From Recruitment
The two steps are often spoken of together, but they answer different questions. Recruitment asks how the field can be widened; selection asks how it can be narrowed. Table 10.4 sets out the difference.
Importance Of Selection
An error committed at this stage is expensive, and it is expensive for a long time.
Efficiency of the organisation — if unsuitable people are appointed, the standard of work falls at once, since the ability to do the job was never there to begin with.
Cost of a wrong choice — the money and time spent on selecting and training an unsuitable employee are not recovered when that employee shirks work, absents himself or leaves, and the exercise must then be repeated for the same post.
Difficulty of reversal — once a person has been confirmed in a post, employment carries legal protection and cannot be ended at will, so a wrong appointment may remain with the enterprise for years.
Quantity and quality of performance — a person whose abilities match the demands of the post produces more and produces better, and wastage of materials and machine time is correspondingly lower.
Turnover and absenteeism — people placed in work they can do and are satisfied with tend to stay, so proper selection holds down both labour turnover and absenteeism.
Performance of the manager — a manager’s results depend on the subordinates available, and no amount of supervision compensates for a section staffed by people who lack the necessary skills and attitudes.
10.9 Steps in the Selection Procedure
There is no single procedure appropriate to every post. A firm engaging casual labour at the gate may decide on the spot, while the same firm may take two months over a departmental head. What every well-organised procedure has in common is that it is built as a series of hurdles, each step yielding more information about the candidate than the step before, and each capable of ending the candidature. The usual sequence is set out in FC 10.3.
Flowchart
FC 10.3 — Steps In The Selection Procedure Preliminary screening → application blank → employment tests → selection interview → medical examination → checking references → final approval and job offer
Preliminary screening — a brief interview at the reception is used to see whether the candidate is apparently suitable and meets the minimum qualifications stated for the post. Its purpose is to save the organisation and the candidate the trouble of a full procedure where there is plainly no prospect, and those who pass are given the prescribed form.
Application blank — the candidate records age, qualifications, experience, family background, interests and other particulars on the prescribed form, which becomes a written record for comparison and a basis for questioning at the interview. After scrutiny of the forms received, the more suitable applicants are short-listed and the rest are rejected.
Employment tests — candidates appear for written or practical tests designed to measure the skills, aptitudes and traits the post calls for. Tests assume that behaviour at work can be predicted by sampling, and they are used as a supplement to the rest of the procedure rather than as a substitute for it.
Selection interview — a formal face-to-face conversation is held between the employer’s representatives and the candidate. It is the most widely used step of all, because some qualities can be judged only by meeting a person.
Medical examination — candidates found suitable are examined by a panel of doctors to establish that they are physically fit for the work and free from any condition that would create difficulty later. For work involving heavy machinery or public safety this step is indispensable.
Checking references — the candidate is required to name responsible persons who know him, and these referees are approached in writing or by telephone for information about background, ability and character. The step is chiefly useful for detecting discrepancies, since a candidate may have understated a reason for leaving or overstated a previous position.
Final approval and job offer — those who clear the earlier steps are formally appointed by a letter of appointment stating the post, the terms and the date of joining. When the candidate accepts, a contract of employment comes into existence, and appointment is usually on probation for a stated period before confirmation.
Employment Tests And Their Kinds
Tests are grouped according to what they attempt to measure. The classification is set out in FC 10.4.
Flowchart
FC 10.4 — Kinds Of Employment Tests Employment tests → Proficiency tests, Aptitude tests, Personality tests; Proficiency tests → Achievement or trade test, Skill or dexterity test; Aptitude tests → Intelligence test, Interest test
Proficiency tests measure what a candidate can already do. An achievement or trade test measures the level of knowledge and skill in a particular trade or occupation, as when an applicant for an accounts post is set a test in accountancy. A skill or dexterity test measures how quickly and accurately the work itself is performed, as when a candidate for a typing post is asked to type a page.
Aptitude tests measure the capacity to acquire knowledge and skill in future rather than present attainment. An intelligence test measures mental alertness — reasoning, comprehension, memory and the ability to relate things — and indicates learning ability. An interest test measures the kind of work towards which a person inclines, and helps in finding work the candidate will take to. A personality test seeks to measure temperament and emotional make-up, and gives clues to a person’s maturity and values.
Tests are useful for definite reasons. They provide a common basis on which the suitability of different candidates can be measured; they check the claims a candidate has made about qualifications and experience; they assess a person objectively, without the assessor’s liking or disliking entering into it; and the results, kept over time, help in establishing standards of job performance.
They also have definite limitations. They are not fully reliable indicators of what a person knows and can do; bias or dishonesty on the part of those conducting them can produce misleading results; they may be unfair to candidates from economically and socially backward sections whose schooling has been different; and some able candidates avoid organisations that test, so that the firm loses them altogether.
Conducting The Interview
The interview has three objects: to judge the candidate’s personality and overall suitability, to cross-check what the application blank and the tests have already indicated, and to give the candidate an accurate picture of the job and the company, so that the acceptance is an informed one.
Its weaknesses are equally well known. It is time-consuming and expensive; it tests bearing and expression rather than the skills the job requires; the interviewer may lack the expertise to draw out what matters; and personal judgement or bias can make the result inaccurate. These are met by ordinary care — a room free from noise and interruption, questions planned in advance, a candidate put at ease, and full attention to what is said.
10.10 Training: Meaning, Need and Importance
A person appointed to a post is not necessarily able to perform it on the first day. The machine may be unfamiliar, the firm’s methods may differ from those learnt elsewhere, and the standards expected may be higher than any met before. Training is the organised activity by which the job knowledge, skills and attitudes of employees are improved so that they can perform their work well.
Training is a two-way process, since there must be someone to learn and someone to teach, and it is deliberate rather than incidental — an employee who picks up the work by watching others is learning, but is not being trained. It is also continuous. Methods change, equipment is replaced and standards rise, so an employee trained once is not trained for good.
Why Training Is Needed
New employees have no experience of the particular job — however well qualified on paper, a newly recruited person has to be taught the firm’s own methods, and until then confidence and speed are both lacking.
Existing employees fall behind — better methods and machines are constantly introduced, and an employee whose skills are not refreshed becomes progressively less useful in the same post.
Promotion requires a wider outlook — an employee being moved to a more responsible position must be prepared for duties different in kind from those already performed, not merely greater in quantity.
Safety cannot be left to chance — human error and negligence are the chief causes of industrial accidents, so both new and existing employees have to be trained in the use of safety devices and in safety consciousness.
Versatility is valuable — an employee who can perform more than one job can be moved where the work is, which protects the enterprise against absence, seasonal load and sudden orders.
New technology has to be taught — when equipment or work methods are changed, the employees who will operate them must be instructed before the change takes effect, not after.
What Training Is Expected To Achieve
To prepare employees for the jobs they are to hold, by imparting the knowledge and skill those jobs require.
To enable employees to work more effectively in their present posts, by exposing them to the latest concepts and techniques in the field concerned.
To build a second line of competent officers, so that people are ready to occupy higher positions when these fall vacant.
Benefits To The Organisation
Management has no real choice about whether to train. In the absence of a formal programme employees learn by trial and error, picking up wrong ways of working and taking far longer to learn them. A systematic programme merely reduces the time, cost and wastage that learning involves in any case.
Higher productivity — trained employees work faster and make fewer mistakes, so both the quantity and the quality of output rise, and the time taken to learn a new task falls.
Reduced supervision — a trained employee is self-reliant and knows what the work requires, so supervisors are freed from constant checking and can attend to more important matters.
Better safety — employees who understand their machines and the safety devices provided commit fewer errors, and accidents and the losses they cause are correspondingly reduced.
Economy in materials and machinery — careful handling reduces wastage, spoilage and breakage, damage to equipment is minimised, and the cost of production falls.
Higher morale — training improves confidence and signals that management takes an interest in its people, which raises motivation, reduces grievances and lowers absenteeism and labour turnover.
Promotion from within — an enterprise that trains its people can fill senior posts internally, which is cheaper and quicker than recruiting outside and keeps the promotion ladder credible.
Stability and growth — a trained workforce can handle a variety of jobs and adapt to change, so the enterprise can expand, diversify and meet adverse conditions without being held back by its people.
Benefits To The Employee
Improved performance, and with it greater earning capacity and a stronger position in the labour market.
Better career prospects, since knowledge and skill are what qualify a person for higher posts.
Fewer accidents, because a trained employee handles machines with understanding rather than by guesswork.
Greater job satisfaction and morale, as work that can be done competently is work that is done with confidence.
Greater mobility, since a trained person can move between jobs, departments and employers with less difficulty.
10.11 Training, Education and Development
Training, education and development are all parts of the learning process, and in ordinary speech the three words are used loosely for one another. In the study of staffing they are kept apart, because they differ in what they attempt, in whom they are meant for, and in who pays for them.
Training And Education
Education improves general knowledge and builds an overall understanding of the environment; training improves the knowledge and skill required for a particular job. A mechanic who repairs a car better than an engineer has been trained but not educated in engineering, since the principles behind the machine are not known to him. The scope of education is thus wider, while the purpose of training is specific and immediate.
The difference runs through the practical arrangements as well. Education is given formally in a school or college, is theoretical in nature, extends over years, and is paid for by the student and by the government. Training is given at the place of work, is practical in nature, is completed in a short period, and is paid for by the employer, who expects a return from it in the form of better performance. The comparison is set out in Table 10.5.
Training And Development
Development refers to the growth of a person in all respects. It is the process by which managers and executives acquire not only competence in their present posts but also the capabilities needed for future tasks of greater difficulty and wider scope.
Training aims at present job performance; development aims at performance in posts not yet held. Training is therefore job-centred while development is career-bound. An employee may be trained to operate a particular software package, and may separately attend a management course to acquire the judgement expected of a department head; the first improves what is being done now, the second prepares for what will be done later.
Two further differences follow. Training is generally initiated by the employer, who identifies a gap in performance and arranges instruction to close it; development owes more to the individual’s own motivation, since nobody can be made to grow. And training is a reactive process, undertaken because a present need has arisen, while development is proactive and future-oriented. Table 10.6 draws the comparison together.
10.12 Types of Training
Training is arranged for several different purposes, and it is the purpose that gives each type its name. The same employee may pass through more than one of them in the course of a career — on joining, on being moved to new equipment, and again on being promoted. The types are set out in FC 10.5.
Flowchart
FC 10.5 — Types Of Training Types of training → Induction or orientation training, Job training, Safety training, Promotional training, Refresher training, Remedial training
Induction or orientation training — this adjusts a newly appointed employee to the work environment, making the person familiar with the job, the superiors and subordinates, and the rules of the organisation. It builds confidence at the outset and is also called pre-job training, since it precedes the actual performance of the work.
Job training — this increases the knowledge and skills needed for performance on the job itself. Employees are taught the correct methods of handling the equipment and machines used in their work, which reduces accidents, waste and inefficiency at the same time.
Safety training — this is provided to minimise accidents and damage to machinery. It consists of instruction in the use of safety devices and in safety consciousness, and is indispensable wherever the work involves machinery, height, heat or hazardous material.
Promotional training — this trains existing employees to perform higher-level jobs. Employees with potential are identified and trained before promotion, so that they do not find the responsibilities of the new post difficult to shoulder on the day they take it over.
Refresher training — this revives knowledge that has faded and updates skills that have fallen behind. Techniques become obsolete as science and technology advance, and employees forget methods they seldom use, so short refresher courses are arranged to guard against ‘personnel obsolescence’ — the tendency of an individual worker to become outdated in terms of what the job now requires.
Remedial training — this is designed to correct mistakes and shortcomings in the behaviour and performance of particular employees. Those concerned are told privately what is going wrong and why it must be changed. Because the subject is conduct rather than technique, such training is best imparted by people with an understanding of human nature and industrial psychology.
Figure
Fig. 10.12-1 — A Safety Training Session On The Shop Floor Photograph of factory workers in helmets and gloves watching an instructor demonstrate the correct use of a machine guard.
10.13 Methods of Training: On-the-Job and Off-the-Job
Once it is settled that an employee needs training, the question is where the learning shall take place. If it happens at the workplace, while the work is actually being performed, the method is on-the-job training. If the employee is taken away from the job and taught elsewhere, the method is off-the-job training. The principle behind the first is learning by doing; behind the second, learning before doing. The methods falling under each are set out in FC 10.6.
Flowchart
FC 10.6 — Methods Of Training Methods of training → On-the-job methods, Off-the-job methods; On-the-job methods → Coaching, Understudy, Job rotation, Apprenticeship, Internship; Off-the-job methods → Lectures, Conferences and seminars, Case study, Role playing, Films, Vestibule training, Programmed instruction
On-The-Job Methods
Coaching — the superior acts as a coach, guiding and instructing the trainee at work. Goals are agreed between them, progress is reviewed periodically, and changes in behaviour and performance are suggested as the work goes on.
Understudy — an employee is attached to a senior as an assistant and gradually takes over parts of that senior’s duties. The method is used where a post must be filled without a break when the present holder retires or is promoted.
Job rotation — the trainee is moved from one job to another to broaden knowledge and understanding of the department as a whole. Rotation also lets the trainee test aptitude across different kinds of work and builds acquaintance with employees in other sections.
Apprenticeship — the trainee works under the guidance of a master worker for a prescribed period, learning the trade by performing it. It is the established method in skilled trades such as those of the electrician, plumber, ironsmith and carpenter, where competence takes years to acquire.
Internship — an educational institution and a business firm cooperate, the student pursuing regular studies for the prescribed period and working in a factory or office to acquire practical knowledge and skill alongside.
Off-The-Job Methods
Lectures — classroom instruction is used to convey specific information, rules and procedures to a number of trainees at once. It is economical for large groups, though it moves in one direction only, and audio-visual aids are used to hold attention.
Conferences and seminars — participants discuss a subject under a leader, contributing their own experience. The method suits problems that have no single settled answer, and it develops the ability to listen and to argue a position.
Case study — a written account of a real-life problem of the kind managers face is given to the trainees, who study it, identify the issues, analyse them and develop alternative solutions. Judgement is exercised without any consequence to the enterprise.
Role playing — trainees act out the parts of the persons in a situation, such as a supervisor and an aggrieved worker. It is used chiefly for learning how to handle people rather than machines.
Films — a film demonstrates skills and processes that cannot easily be presented in a lecture, and is most effective when followed by discussion.
Vestibule training — a duplicate of the actual work environment is created in a training room, with the same equipment the trainee will later use.
Programmed instruction — the information to be learnt is broken into small units arranged in logical sequence, and the trainee moves from one to the next by answering questions or filling blanks, proceeding at a personal pace.
Choosing Between The Two
On-the-job methods are economical, since no separate premises, instructors or equipment are needed, and what is learnt is exactly what the job requires. Their cost lies elsewhere: the trainee is working on live material and running machinery, so mistakes damage output and may damage the equipment.
Off-the-job methods keep production undisturbed and allow steady, systematic learning without the pressure of the job. They are indispensable where the equipment is costly or dangerous, and where what has to be developed is judgement rather than manual skill. Against this stand their expense and the risk that what is taught in a classroom differs from what the shop floor actually demands. Table 10.7 draws the comparison together.
10.14 Summary
- Staffing is the managerial function of filling the positions created by the organisation structure and keeping them filled, so that the enterprise has the right number and the right kind of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing the right things.
- By its nature staffing is a part of management, pervasive across levels and departments, concerned with people rather than things, wide in scope, directed at several objectives at once, wider than the work of the personnel department, and continuous.
- The objectives it serves are of three kinds:
- Organisational — optimum utilisation of human resources.
- Employee — fullest development of the individual and personal satisfaction in the work.
- Social — industrial peace and a contribution to economic progress.
- Proper staffing secures competent personnel for every post, higher performance through right placement, optimum use of human resources, continuous survival and growth through succession planning, and higher job satisfaction and morale.
- The importance of the function has grown with the increasing size of organisations, rapid technological change, the rising expectations of employees, trade unions and labour legislation, and competition after liberalisation.
- Human resource management is the wider field, covering procurement, development, compensation, integration and maintenance of both managerial and non-managerial personnel. Staffing lies within it, and the personnel department is a service department: responsibility for manning a section remains with the manager who heads it.
- The staffing process runs through estimating manpower requirements, recruitment, selection, placement, orientation, training and development, appraisal, remuneration, and promotion and transfer.
- Manpower requirements are estimated by workload analysis, which shows the people the work requires, and workforce analysis, which shows the people already available; the gap between the two indicates how many are to be recruited.
- Recruitment is the process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply. It is a positive process, since it enlarges the field, and it involves identifying sources, assessing and choosing among them, publicising the vacancy and securing applications.
- A source of recruitment is judged by the time it takes, the ratio of applicants to appointments, its cost, its ability to supply the right number and type of people, and its effect on the morale of existing employees.
- Internal sources are promotion, transfer and re-employment. They are familiar, economical, quick and motivating, and need no induction, but they restrict choice, cannot fill every vacancy, lead to inbreeding, weaken competition and set aspirants against one another.
- External sources are advertisements, employment exchanges, educational institutions, placement agencies, casual callers, direct recruitment at the gate, recommendations of present employees, labour contractors and the internet. They offer wider choice, fresh talent, healthy competition and completeness, but are expensive, slow, uncertain and unsettling for those hoping for promotion.
- Selection is the screening of candidates to choose the most suitable. It is a negative process, since it works by elimination; it is a multistep process; and it always follows recruitment.
- Errors in selection are costly, because efficiency falls at once, the money spent is not recovered, a confirmed appointment is difficult to reverse, and the results of a whole section depend on the people in it.
- The selection procedure runs through preliminary screening, the application blank, employment tests, the selection interview, medical examination, checking references, and final approval and job offer, usually followed by a period of probation.
- Employment tests fall into proficiency tests, which measure present attainment, aptitude tests, which measure the capacity to learn, and personality tests, which measure temperament. Tests are objective and comparable but not fully reliable, and they are used to supplement the procedure rather than to replace it.
- The interview judges personality and overall suitability, cross-checks earlier information and informs the candidate about the job. It is time-consuming, cannot test skill directly and is open to interviewer bias.
- Training is the organised process of improving the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for a specific job. It is needed for new employees, for existing employees whose skills have fallen behind, before promotion, for safety, for versatility and whenever technology changes.
- Training raises productivity, reduces supervision, improves safety, economises on materials and machinery, lifts morale, permits promotion from within, and gives the enterprise stability and the capacity to grow. The employee gains performance, earnings, career prospects, safety, satisfaction and mobility.
- Training differs from education in being practical, job-related, short and paid for by the employer, and from development in being job-centred, technical, time-bound and initiated by the employer, while development is career-bound, conceptual, continuous and driven by the individual.
- Training is classified by purpose into induction, job, safety, promotional, refresher and remedial training.
- Methods of training are on-the-job — coaching, understudy, job rotation, apprenticeship and internship — and off-the-job — lectures, conferences, case study, role playing, films, vestibule training and programmed instruction. The first is economical and realistic; the second protects production and suits costly or hazardous work.
Flowchart
FC 10.7 — The Staffing Function In Brief Estimating manpower requirements → recruitment from internal or external sources → selection through successive hurdles → placement and induction → training and development → appraisal, promotion and transfer → fresh vacancies → estimating manpower requirements
10.15 Points to Ponder
- An enterprise that fills its senior posts almost entirely by promotion keeps its people loyal but lets in no fresh talent, while one that recruits mostly from outside gains new ideas and discourages its own staff. Where should a firm draw the line between the two, and should the line be the same for every kind of post?
- Selection is called a negative process because tests and interviews are more dependable for rejecting the unsuitable than for identifying the best. Does a procedure built on rejection end by finding the best person available, or only the least objectionable one?
- Training raises an employee’s skill, and with it that employee’s value to rival firms. Is the risk of losing trained people a reason to train less, or a reason to reconsider how trained people are retained?
- Employment tests are objective, but they may go against candidates whose schooling has been different from that of the majority. How far should a firm rely on written tests when selecting for work that is in any case learnt on the job?
- Most firms confirm an appointment only after a period of probation. What does this continued reliance on probation suggest about the limits of even a carefully designed selection procedure?
- If every manager is responsible for staffing the section he heads, what is left for a personnel department to do, and where should the line between advice and authority be drawn?
10.16 Objective Questions
- A firm needs a large number of unskilled workers for three weeks while a new shed is being built at its plant. Which source of recruitment is most suitable? [1]
- Campus recruitment
- Placement agencies
- Labour contractors
- Recommendations of present employees
- Shifting an employee to a similar post in another branch, with no substantial change in salary, status or responsibility, is called: [1]
- Promotion
- Transfer
- Placement
- Induction
- Assertion (A): Recruitment is described as a positive process. Reason (R): Recruitment works by eliminating candidates who do not meet the requirements of the post. [1]
- Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
- Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
- is true but (R) is false
- is false but (R) is true
- Fill in the blank: The exercise that reveals the number and type of human resources already working in the organisation is called ______ analysis. [1]
- Match each training method in Column A with its description in Column B: [1]
| Column A | Column B |
|---|---|
| a. Coaching | i. The trainee is moved from one job to another to broaden understanding |
| b. Job rotation | ii. Trainees analyse a written account of a real-life problem and suggest solutions |
| c. Vestibule training | iii. The superior guides and instructs the trainee at work and reviews progress |
| d. Case study | iv. Learning takes place on duplicate equipment in a room away from the shop floor |
10.17 Check Your Concepts
- Define recruitment and state why it is regarded as a positive process. [2]
- Distinguish between promotion and transfer on any three bases. [3]
- ‘Selection is a negative process.’ Explain this statement with reference to the way tests and interviews are used. [3]
- Explain any four advantages an enterprise obtains by recruiting from external sources. [4]
- Explain the steps in the selection procedure followed by a large enterprise, stating what each step contributes to the final decision. [6]
10.18 Case-Based Questions
- Girish Pumps is opening a second unit in a neighbouring district. The management has decided that the two shift supervisors for the new unit will be chosen from among the operators already working at the existing plant, since their record over several years is known. The unit will, however, run imported machinery of a kind nobody in the firm has handled, and the machinery is expensive to damage. Advertisements have been issued for the remaining posts, and the applications received run into several hundred.
- Name the source of recruitment being used for the supervisors’ posts, and state two advantages the firm gains by using it. [2]
- Name the method of training suitable for teaching the operators to run the imported machinery, and give two reasons why it is preferred here to training on the job. [3]