Commerce · Ch 11 — Staffing
Introduction
Introduction
The people who work in an organisation are not just employees — they are its foundation. No matter how strong a company’s strategy, technology, or capital may be, it cannot grow without talented and hardworking individuals. This is why staffing is treated as a core function of management: it ensures that the right people are placed in the right positions at the right time.
Staffing is the process of finding, selecting, training, and developing the human resources an organisation needs. The textbook opens this chapter by stating a fundamental truth: the principal assets of any firm are its people. Machines wear out, money can be borrowed, but a committed and skilled workforce is what drives long-term growth.
An organisation can achieve its objectives only when it has the right persons in the right positions.
This single sentence captures the essence of the entire chapter. It means that even the best-laid plans will fail if the people executing them are mismatched to their roles. Staffing is therefore not a one-time hiring activity — it is a continuous requirement. As the organisation grows, it needs a continual infusion of quality staff to sustain that growth.
The textbook makes a clear link between staffing and organisational success. Without adequate staffing — that is, without proper provision for human resources — no organisation can hope to meet its goals. This is why staffing is considered an essential requirement, not an optional add-on. Every manager, at every level, must be concerned with getting the right people and keeping them motivated and developed.
“Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning” (as stated by Narayana Murthy former, CEO of INFOSYS.)
At a time when organisations are debating the strategic importance of their human resources, Infosys, a consulting and software services organisation, includes its human resources on its balance sheet to affirm their asset value. The rationale for this is as follows: “The long term success of a company is usually examined on certain financial and non-financial parameters. Human resources are among these new non-financial parameters that challenge the usefulness of evaluating corporate success solely on traditional measures. Human resources represent the collective expertise, innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial and managerial skills endowed in the employees of an organisation.”
As a knowledge intensive company, Infosys recognises the value of its human assets in maintaining its competitive position. It realises that these assets can easily walk away, as competitors in India and abroad covet its IT talent. Consequently, the challenge facing Infosys is how to attract, retain and develop its human assets in a highly competitive and dynamic environment?
Most of the current human resource practices at Infosys result from the vision of the leaders and the culture that they have created. Narayana Murthy, known for his leadership and vision is the public image of Infosys. His leadership style is humble and straight-forward, quite uncommon in the world of Indian business. He believes in sharing wealth with his employees and in leading by example. In a knowledge-based business like Infosys, he sees the importance of consistency in rhetoric and action in empowering employees. He is credited with creating a culture of closeness and empowerment at Infosys. His management style, rare among Indian business leaders, is based on western management.
Source: Sumita Raghuram, Fordham Graduate School of Business
What it shows: For a knowledge company, people are the real assets — so valuable that Infosys places them on its balance sheet. Because that talent can walk out any evening, the whole managerial task of attracting, retaining, training and developing the right people — that is, staffing — becomes central to the firm's success. This chapter is about that function.