Strategic Staffing in an Organisation

Hello friends. Welcome to the first module of the recruitment and selection course of learn Vern.

The title of the first module is the “Strategic context of recruitment”.

Now, the effort, talent, knowledge, and skills of the employees are very important for every organization. These employees are capable of giving a competitive edge to any organization. Due to this any organization is successful in getting ahead of its competitors.

“Henry Ford” once said – “You can take my factories, burn up my buildings, but give me my people and I’ll build the business right back again”.

Bow, you might be wondering, what difference can a good employee make?

Well. Look at any big organization, “meta” which was popular by the name Facebook earlier, or “Google”, where their end-to-end core technologies are designed, developed, and executed by their employees only.

Take the example of “Apple” company. Their employees are capable of making new and model products and that’s what gives Apple a different standing in the market.

If you want to have a look at an example of the automobile industry, have a look at Hyundai. Their employees are fully focused on how to make high-quality vehicles at a low cost.

Therefore, effective staffing is an important part of human resource management. Because this is what lays the foundation for the success of the organization. (Right?)

Now, in research, it was found that an excellent staffing function generates a lot of shareholder returns.

How to Retain by Working with the Hiring Manager and Bringing New Talent into the Organization is a Challenging Task for the recruitment professional because this makes their role more strategic. Okay.

So, when you look at the big picture overall, the staffing professionals bring expertise to the workforce planning and staffing processes including,

– “Evaluating what the job requires”

– “Identifying what competencies, skills, and personalities are required for different job roles”. And,

– “Assessing different characteristics in job applicants”.

The hiring manager himself would be an expert in doing the job for which he is hiring the employers. Therefore, their inputs matter the most in the hiring journey.

In addition to promoting the goals of their firms, staffing professionals promote the goals of society by helping with jobs and organizations in which they are able to be successful and happy.

Well, the staffing activities depend on many factors like “economy, global competition, technology” etcetera.

All these factors help any organization to identify, attract, assess, and integrate new talent into the organization. Okay. And this is the process that we call “talent management”.

As the experts have said,

– “The ability to execute business strategy is rooted in the ability to attract, retain and develop key talent”.

– “Successful talent management creates the most enduring competitive advantage”.

– “No company can be prepared for the best and the worst time”.

During this course, you will see how recruitment and talent management together create an impactful impression on the growth and sustainability of any organization.

Now that we have used the term strategic staffing enough times, let’s actually understand its meaning. But, before that, you have to understand a few core words.

The first word is “Strategy”. Strategy is a “long-term action plan” to achieve a particular goal which is staffing the process of finding the right worker with appropriate skills and qualifications for a role.

Now, what definition do we get if we combine these 2 words? 

Well, Strategic staffing is the process for the organization to become future-oriented and hire people in a goal-directed way, which supports the business strategy and enhances its overall effectiveness. (Got it?)

Now you might ask what is the difference between strategic staffing and traditional staffing? Right?

Well, the focus of traditional staffing is on closing any position quickly and according to their convenience whereas, in strategic staffing, short-term and long-term planning is involved.

In this process, the right number of talented employees are placed appropriately in the organization so that the investment made in them can be maximized and cost-effectively can also be utilized. (Right?)

In any good strategic staffing system, a few things are incorporated.

They are,

– “Long term planning”.

– “Alignment with the business strategy”.

– “Alignment with other areas of HR”.

– “Alignment with the talent pool”.

– “Targeted recruitment”.

– “Scientific assessment of candidates”. And,

– “Evaluation of staffing outcomes against pre-identified goals”.

Now, let’s understand the “flow of staffing process”.

So, as you can see, there are 3 stakeholders here, “the hiring manager, human resource department, and applicant”.

The process starts with the “hiring manager” that “determines the need for any position”. Now, this position is created either due to an employee turnover or due to the implementation of any new projects.

After this, the “human resource department” conducts a “job analysis if needed”.

After that, the hiring manager secures a requisition for that job so that the process can be carried forward.

After that, the Human Resource Department puts up job openings for that position and starts sourcing the recruits.

Now when any applicant sees that opening, he applies for that particular position by filling the online forms or if you want to send some documents or in some cases, if you want to send a portfolio, then on that basis the applicant applies for that job. (I hope you are following the process)

Now, after applying, the Human Resource Department does an initial screening of those applications. After the applications are received, the Human Resource Department screens the applications with a minimum set benchmark and proceeds with the “preliminary candidate assessment”.

On this basis, the applicant appears for some Pre-Screening Tests, Skill Tests, and Psychometric Tests and is interviewed.

After that, the human resource department identifies the finalists and the finalized candidates are then interviewed by the hiring manager.

After that, the selected candidates are given a “contingent job offer”, which we talked about earlier, take it or leave it kind of offer…

Then after that background check and medical tests etc., the candidate accepts the job offer and if he clears the background check also, then the Human Resources Department takes his offer and then accepts it.

When this entire process is completed, then there is a socialization process where the hiring manager and the Human Resource Department inform the organization that a new candidate is about to join. In which department he will join? Which designation he will join? and what is his past experience? (Clear?)

So, after that, the Onboarding process of the candidate starts, and then another so on and so forth process starts.

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In this course, from now on, wherever you hear the term staffing, it will mean strategic staffing.

Well, we have seen the process. So now let’s know what are the “components of Strategic Staffing?”

These are simply a combination of 7 activities that if you complete them strategically, you can create a staffing system that supports business strategy and organizational performance.

The activities are;

– “Workforce planning”.

– “Sourcing talent”.

– “Recruiting talent”.

– “Selecting talent”.

– “Acquiring talent”.

– “Deploying talent”. And,

– “Retaining talent”.

Come, let’s have a look at all these activities in detail.

The first one is “Workforce planning”. This is a process by which you can predict the future employment needs of the organization, assess the current employees, and understand the future of the talent pool.

This means that the managers of the organizations and every individual will have to assess the gaps in the current line of business, new business forecasts, upcoming strategies, and currently expected workforce skillsets. (I hope you are following)

Workforce planning is a joint effort where hiring managers and staffing specialists work together.

The job of a staffing specialist is to understand the forecasted business activities of the organization and to determine how many and what qualifications people are required in the organization.

The staffing specialist then uses the organization's business strategy to specify competencies and talents under which the organization will need to execute its business strategy.

Then, to plan expected job openings, the staffing specialist has to understand the employees and the external current market. Only then he can deploy the required resources.

These required resources are included within the appropriate staffing effort.

Any workforce plan is effective only when it addresses the short-term and long-term goals of the organization and provides solutions by understanding the current in future challenges. Okay.

Now, the second activity is “Sourcing and recruiting the talent”. First of all, we need to understand the difference between both terms.

It is the component of recruitment that focuses on locating qualified individuals. Let me explain it through an example.

A sourcing specialist is responsible for identifying potential candidates for the position of pharmaceutical sales representative and finds out that experienced nurses are most appropriate for this particular position because of their ability to communicate with their physicians to prescribe their firm’s medicines.

Thereafter, the sourcing specialist will identify how qualified nurses can be sourced. Perhaps by giving advertisements in nursing publications. This job is of sourcing specialist. Okay.

Recruitment refers to all organizational practices and decisions that affect either the number or types of individuals willing to apply or accept the job offers….

It is through the process of recruitment that firms are able to create an applicant talent pool out of which qualified and approved applicants are selected. Where sourcing is the process of reaching out to the candidates, recruitment is the process of converting them into actual applicants.

Both Sourcing and Recruitment require different skill sets. That is why when organizations form their talent acquisition team, they include both Sourcing and Recruitment Specialists.

Both these roles are important because if you can't even reach the candidate then how will you be able to convert them? Even if you reach the candidate, then converting can be a challenge. So that's why there is a requirement of both Sourcing and Recruitment Specialist in any team.

Employer branding is a major component of recruitment. This means creating a favorable image in desired applicant’s mind about the organization being a good place for them to work.

Now, these employer brands are not just made by making the experience of an applicant positive. But, the experience of the employees who are already working, if their experience is positive, then they help in creating a 360 Employer Brand. Because here the overall experience counts.

Application to Onboarding - The entire process and the entire life cycle of an employee are of utmost importance for creating an employer brand. (Understood?)

Now, the next activity is “Selecting the talent”. In the process of selection, applicants have to go through various tests and interviews, on the basis of which the organization takes the decision as to whom to hire.

By pre-screening the applicants in the targeted recruitment processes, only a small amount of right but high-quality employees can be hired.

Pre-screening can save organizations not only their time but also money as they only have to assess high-quality profiles. And the rest of the candidates are automatically filtered out.

So, basically, the goal of strategic recruitment is therefore to attract a greater percentage of applicants who are likely to meet requirements and reduce the burden on the selection system. (Right?)

Now, the next activity is “Acquiring the talent”. You have already selected, now it’s time to acquire the talent. That is, it involves putting together all the job offers that appeal to the chosen candidates and persuading job offer recipients to accept those offers.

Most of the time you must have noticed that these offers are given on a take it or leave it basis but for the high potential candidates or those who can convert into future assets, the organizations enter a negotiation where the candidate and the organization both accept the terms and conditions coming midway. Alright.

Now the next activity is “Deploying the talent”. Deployment involves assigning talent to appropriate jobs and roles in the organization.

It can be the deployment of either the external candidates or the internal candidates. Whenever an existing employee develops his skills and his proficiency, he can be employed in new positions through success management or career development.

Now the last activity is “retaining the talent”. Leaving the organization of a candidate can prove to be very expensive. Especially when the employee is a high-performing talent, so tools like succession management and career development are used to keep the employees in the organization. (Got it?)

Now, I am going to show you one case study. You can discuss all the questions related to it in the discussion section below and learn to apply the concepts.

Graphic Designing T-shirt company ABC Corp knows that its growth strategy is completely based on internal promotions.

ABC believes that its staffing activities should bring in talent not only to fill today's positions but also to handle corporate positions in the future.

ABC gets a lot of applications for opening, so they want to screen them effectively.

ABC has currently decided that by following today's trends, they will use social media for sourcing and recruitment for its organization.

So, the company created its own Twitter account and started posting job openings on it. Along with this, the company also put job openings on naukri.com.

Whenever an applicant applies for the position of graphic designer, he first fills the online form which is saved in a database. From that, the recruiter promptly sends the acceptance or rejection decision to the candidate.

For all the candidates who are selected, an auto-triggered email is sent to them so that they can send their portfolios on the portal.

Due to the large size, a lot of uploads get rejected and the company does not currently have any effective cloud storage systems. Because the company gets so many applications that are rejected, their profiles are unable to come back into the system. That is why they cannot be contacted directly for future roles.

All the candidates who get passed have a telephonic interview in which their job-related competencies are assessed.

The top 10 candidates are called for personal interaction and they have a detailed assessment of ABC corps’ culture and job competencies.

Out of these, the top 5 candidates are interviewed by the hiring manager, and 1 candidate is selected from them.

An offer letter is released after the background check. If the candidate rejects the offer, then the offer is issued to the next high-scoring candidate. This process continues till the last suitable candidate is available on the list.

ABC evaluates the effectiveness of the staffing effort on a few specific parameters which are,

– “Number of applications received”.

– “Time taken to fill the position”.

– “Whether or not one of the 2 job offers was accepted”.

If you have any queries or comments, click the discussion button below the video and post there. This way, you will be able to connect to fellow learners and discuss the course. Also, Our Team will try to solve your queries.

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