The staffing process is an important factor for the growth of all companies and businesses across industries.

Handling all required jobs and activities by yourself is doable in the starting foundation. However, as you grow and operate at a higher level, e.g. an enterprise, you’ll need the appropriate human resources.

The question is, how do you effectively organize the process of acquiring new staff and managing them?

In this article, we’ll go over what the staffing process is as well as the necessary steps.

What Is Staffing and Its Process?

Staffing is when you fill a business or organization with the appropriate staff members to take on specific responsibilities.

When you refer to the staffing process, this outlines how you will find and recruit employees from start to finish. For every company, there’s usually an internal system implemented for the staffing process. This ensures a pipeline of the top talent is built so there are staff who are ready to work for any vacancies that become available at any time when required.

What Is The Main Objective Of Staffing?

The main objective of staffing is to build your organization with a strong team to complete the assigned roles and tasks to a good standard.

It’s vital that you recruit the right people as they will have a direct impact and will be representing your brand. Their work and actions can  determine how well you perform as a business, so it’s important to have a strong workforce environment.

The procedure goes as follows:

  • Identifying HCM requirements
  • The recruiting process
  • The selection process
  • Assigning roles
  • Onboarding process
  • Professional development
  • Track performance
  • Payroll and compensation
  • Promotion

What Are The Steps Of The Staffing Process?

There are 9 steps of the staffing process. As an executive or manager, it’s key to organize your HR department and employment methods. We’ll be going through each of these in detail and cover everything you need to know. It’s not too complicated yet it’s an essential step in order to grow effectively and efficiently.

1.   Identify HCM Requirements

The first step for managers, executives, and decision-makers when planning the staffing procedures is to identify your HCM needs.

More specifically, it’s about identifying the positions you need filled and what the ideal staff looks like for those roles. Regarding the ideal staff, this means looking into their professional background. For example, you’ll want to hire those with the skills, experience, and qualifications that prove they’re more than capable of getting the job done.

Before starting on your recruitment process, it’s important to perform an analysis to get the full context of your plans, goals, and what you need in the first place.

2.   The Recruiting Process

Once you’ve identified your staffing needs and human resources requirements, it’s time to find, attract and appeal to those job seekers in making an application. You need a plan where you can develop manpower and strong personnel.

There are several recruiting strategies you can use to acquire the top talent.

A good example of a recruitment method is to create a detailed job posting of an available vacancy and upload it on job boards. You could also use strategic job posting software to manage potential candidates and attract talented job seekers in a simplified way.

Once you’ve appealed to a good amount of qualified applicants, it’s time to review and narrow down the list.

3.   The Selection Process

After receiving applications from candidates, you’ll need a selection process to ensure you only spend time recruiting quality staff.

This part of the process involves activities such as:

  • Screening candidates
  • Scheduling an interview
  • Asking the right questions
  • Making an assessment for applicants
  • Background checks
  • And more…

To make sure you’re selecting the best person for the job and making the best decision, you’ll want to select those who match your job description criteria and company culture.

That’s why evaluating the resume and application of every individual or subordinate is important. It helps to determine if they’re a good fit.

With the help of an applicant tracking system (ATS), you can automate and streamline the process of all your recruiting activities automatically with ease. Not only is it designed to be efficient to improve your productivity and HR functions, but it’s easier to take a scientific approach.

What that means is, you can ensure you’re providing your offices with a talent pool of top applicants with the proper qualifications. That’s because an ATS provides you with options that can select candidates based on objective aspects such as their corporate skills.

When it comes to hiring people faster, some recruiting tools may give you an edge against the competition and be more prepared when searching for staff.

4.   Assigning Roles

This is also known as the placement process.

To maximize your growth, you’ll need to make the most out of your human resources. In your staffing workflow, once you’ve selected your qualified candidates, you’ll want to assign each of them to the appropriate job opportunity and position that are best suited to their skill sets.

When one applicant isn’t the best for a current job opening, it doesn’t mean they’re an unqualified candidate.

You may have a job opening in the future where they’re more suited. If you have a good relationship with them thanks to a good candidate relationship management (CRM) system, you’re more likely to fill that position faster with the leverage of your warm network. That’s another reason why you need to treat your employees well.

They deserve the same respect as a customer. If not and they have a bad experience due to poor communication or for whatever reason, not only will it lead to higher employee turnover rates. But for the record, it may affect your brand image.

5.   Onboarding Process

Once you’ve assigned the applicant to their most suitable role and they accept your invitation to work, it’s now your responsibility to get them ready to complete their duties. This is where they should also be familiarized with the work environmental structure, workflows, and systems before they’re appointed to the field.

To ease the transition and simplify the onboarding process, you can use an onboarding system to reduce your time of hire. It also becomes easier to track candidates and provide a more satisfactory experience as you help them become more familiar with your organization.

For the best induction and collaboration, they need to know what to expect. As you introduce them, be sure to show how they can align with your company values.

 

6.   Professional Development

Professional development refers to the progress of your staffing team to ensure they continuously improve their skills and expertise.

Some staffing activities that can help you achieve this include:

  • Extensive training and courses
  • Further education
  • Regular meetings and performance reviews
  • Completing research-related tasks
  • Slowly increase job responsibilities
  • Shadowing a more experienced colleague

The more knowledgeable and better skilled your employees are, the better they can get their job done. With higher quality service and work output, it can lead to bigger profit and business results.

Throughout your professional career, it’s important to have a growth mindset and to continue learning. As a result, you cultivate strong work habits and practices.

7.   Track Performance

It’s key to track and monitor how your employees are performing.

This part of the process may also be referred to as a performance appraisal. It’s where you keep on top of the work performance of all staff members in specific roles. For every HR function, knowing what areas are your strengths and where you need to improve is valuable information.

It’s easier with staffing software because you’re provided with the appropriate metrics, data, and analytics when you review these details in-depth. With this staffing solution, it contains a reporting feature that can be accessed remotely and on mobile devices.

It also allows you to make sure you’re making progress and on target as you work towards your objectives. Overall, it leads to better human resources management.

8.   Payroll and Compensation

The compensation aspect is where you compensate your staff for their work. Here are a few examples:

  • Job benefits
  • Hourly pay
  • Annual salary
  • Overtime wages
  • Insurance
  • Pensions
  • Rewards

This is the most expensive part of the staffing process. However, it’s one of the best investments you can make. As long as your employees are trained and motivated to do their job to a good standard, you’ll see better results.

Give the appropriate salaries and benefits deserved. Don’t forget to acknowledge their efforts and give credits where they are due.

 

9.   Promotion

Promotion means increasing the current job position rank of a staff member.

As your staff gets better and you can see that their performance has improved, consider giving them a promotion. Keep in mind though that this is dependent on several factors as it includes their experience, skills, and responsibilities which need to be taken into account. E.g., have you noticed any of them taking more leadership and managerial tasks that require more skill?

If you don’t reward your team for their hard work and acknowledge them, it can lead to a lower employee retention rate. Remember, you should value your team if you want to retain them. They’re special, and not just commodities.

 

Is It Bad To Use a Staffing Agency?

It depends. You’ll need to do your diligent research in finding out which of the staffing agencies are best for you that you should hire for your specific company staffing needs. One of the most important things they should be able to do though is cater to your workflow and most unique HR needs.

With the right staffing agency, they’ll have the knowledge and methods that can simplify your job search process.

One of the reasons why they can be an effective resource is because it saves you the time and effort of having to do it all yourself. For instance, they can help with developing your authority in your space, reach out to niche and external networks, manage applications, and advertise your job openings on a job board.

It’s always a merit when you outsource a time-consuming yet essential task to another administrator that specializes in the area.

A faculty of specialists may also provide you with additional services such as:

  • Counselling
  • Guidance
  • Feedback
  • Reports

When you’ve come to a consensus with clear narratives and instructions for what you’re looking to achieve, you can learn and apply new things.

But, there are disadvantages. One of them being the cost.

It’s also not guaranteed that you’ll be hiring the ideal candidate who best matches your company culture. If communication isn’t good either, it can lead to confusion and misunderstandings. Consequently, it may delay the staffing process.

Another solution though is to try and use staffing software. Do your research and see which is most tailored to your biggest needs.

StaffingSoft is one platform with solutions that can enhance your workflow and improve your HR functionalities. You can sign up for a free live online demo below:

 

Conclusion

A good, manageable staffing process is one of the most fundamental principles.

When you’re able to implement these 9 steps of staffing and maintain it on a systematic basis, it leads to effective HR functionality. Everything starts from the core. Working on your internal workflows and systems first ensures an organized structure that’s not just temporary, but sustainable.

If you have any questions or would like to get in touch, please feel free to reach out to us at sales@staffingsoft.com.