Summary

Here is a summary of this NCERT chapter (Chapter 6 — Staffing) from the CBSE Class 12 Business Studies textbook:

• Meaning: Staffing has been described as the managerial function of filling, and keeping filled, the positions in an organisation structure. This is achieved by first identifying the requirement of the workforce, followed by the recruitment, selection, placement, promotion, appraisal and development of personnel to fill the roles designed into the organisation structure.
• Need and importance of staffing: Every organisation needs people to perform its work, and the staffing function finds the right people for the right job. Staffing has assumed greater importance today because of the rapid advancement of technology, the increasing size of organisations and the complex behaviour of human beings; the ability of an organisation to achieve its goals depends on the quality of its human resources.
• Staffing as part of Human Resource Management: Staffing is a function all managers must perform, but it is also a separate and specialised function. In small organisations a manager may handle all employee matters — salaries, welfare and working conditions — personally. As an organisation grows, a separate Human Resource Department of specialists is formed to manage people, and staffing becomes an inherent part of human resource management.
• Evolution of HRM: Human resource management has replaced the traditional concepts of labour welfare and personnel management. It evolved through a series of inter-related developments dating back to the industrial revolution; the emergence of the trade union movement created the need for a person who could act as an effective link between owners and workers.
• Staffing process: The prime concern of staffing is the timely fulfilment of the organisation's manpower requirements. Its steps are:
  1. Estimating manpower requirements — through workload analysis and workforce analysis.
  2. Recruitment — searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply.
  3. Selection — choosing from among the pool of prospective candidates.
  4. Placement and orientation — placement puts the person in the post selected for; orientation introduces the new employee to colleagues and familiarises them with the organisation's rules and policies.
  5. Training and development — facilitating employee learning, because people seek not just a job but a career.
  6. Performance appraisal — evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance against predetermined standards.
  7. Promotion and career planning — addressing employees' long-term growth and promotional avenues.
  8. Compensation — determining the pay and rewards for the work done.
• Recruitment: The process of finding possible candidates for a job. Its two sources are internal — transfers and promotions — and external, namely direct recruitment, casual callers, advertisements, employment exchange, placement agencies and management consultants, campus recruitment, recommendations of employees, labour contractors, advertising on television and web publishing.
• Process of selection: (i) preliminary screening (using the application forms); (ii) selection tests — intelligence, aptitude, personality, trade and interest tests; (iii) employment interview; (iv) reference and background checks; (v) selection decision; (vi) medical examination; (vii) job offer; and (viii) contract of employment. …