Management Staffing - Assignment Example

Management Staffing What is the definition of strategic staffing? What is the objective of strategic staffing and what are the primary issues or challenges in developing a strategic staffing approach? Strategic staffing is the process where the staffing implications of business strategies are identified and addressed. It is a long-term strategy that involves recruiting, training, developing, and maintaining effective workforce within the organization. To perform this function effectively, managers must understand four fundamentals points. All managers in an organization are responsible for staffing. This function should view employees as an important or critical resource of the organization. The hiring; the training and development must match employees’ skills and needs to the company’s goals and objectives. There exists a large body of complex, comprehensive body of laws and rules governing relationships between employers and employees. The main objective of strategic staffing is to recruit and retain individuals with specified education levels, to meet perform duties that have been clearly defined by the organization. This is not the usual staff hiring, since the company has to hire the best individuals to perform the core business of the organization. The Challenges in developing a strategic staffing approach are in clearly defining the number of staff to be hired. This depends on the work to be done. The other challenge is in identifying the types of employees to be hired. This refers to the employee capabilities that should be considered in the hiring process. The other challenge is in identifying the staffing resources that are available. This means the Human resource department must have the capacity to carry out the recruitment process. Planning for the staff retirement plans, effects of turnover, and the office space available against the number of employees to be hired is significantly a tiring process. The other challenge is in development of staffing plans to capture the talents of individuals being hired and to eliminate duplication of roles. 2. Explain the difference between a staffing strategy and a staffing plan? Staffing strategies are long-term and specific enough to describe how the need for staffing will be met and are part of the organizations business strategy. They contain the implications of staff hiring and the actions to be taken to address those implications. On the other hand, a staffing plan is short-term. It describes staffing actions whose time line is usually less than a year. It is specific to the actions the organization has to take to implement staffing strategies that best address staffing issues. These plans are implemented in a specific planning period. They include recruiting, retention and planned losses. 3. How would you go about defining the right staffing levels for your company?  By using quantitative methods such as regression analysis, staffing ratios and project based staffing. Regression analysis will be used to determine the relationship between staffing and other variables. Work ratios will give the relationship between work output and the number of staff required to produce that work output. Project based staffing will show the number of projects to be done and the number of employees required. 4. Provide three uncontrollable and three controllable staffing actions that could occur when creating a staffing model? The uncontrollable actions include recruiting personnel for positions that candidates have accepted but have not reported for work. Additionally, positions that candidates are being considered and the openings would be filled in the planning period. In terms of promotions and transfers, there could be lock-up promotions, and promotions based on seniority. In terms of losses, voluntary turnover, normal retirement, and contract staff expirations should also be considered. Controllable actions include approved openings with no candidates to fill them, having an opening for which no candidates have been identified and early retirement programs or reductions in work force. 5. Staffing ratios is one of the simplest forms of defining required staffing levels; provide an example of what a staffing ratio is, and how you would use it in determining staffing levels.   A staffing ratio refers to matching the work output to the number of employees required to produce that output. For example, if a writer can handle 390 articles in a month, 3900 articles are required to be submitted by a certain time of the month, then 10 writers will be required. In determining the staff levels, I would divide the amount of work required to be done overall and the capacity of one individual. This would give the number of staff required to perform a task. 6. In getting line managers engaged in the workforce planning process, what are the four  solutions within the context of the 30,000-foot approach?  The best approach would be to let them understand what they will gain from the implementation of the process and how it will make them to be better managers. This is because the development and implementation process of the plan will ensure managers have the right talents to implement business plans. The second way is to make sure that they understand the objectives of the process and the outcomes. Let them know that the objectives are to meet the desired business results and that the output is realistic and implementable. The third way is to let them fully understand the strategic staffing process’ implementation. Lastly is to let them understand their role in the process. This is essential so that they know how much time and commitment is required in the process. 7. How do companies develop management candidates in advance of their needs?  Companies get suitable candidates during hiring by preparing for the interview process. The interviewer writes down the staffing issues, with the possible solutions, services offered by the company long-term strategies, and objectives. These questions are asked to the mangers being interviewed with the aim of getting the best candidates who understand the policies, objectives and strategic plans of the company. 8. How could you apply staffing strategies in workforce planning if top management is  resistant to accepting staffing plans to address a given problem?  The top management should be made to understand the problem and its implications. Once the problem is defined clearly, they need to be shown the impact of the strategy in solving the staffing issues. 9. What does a “zero” based approach mean? Explain how this concept applies in  workforce planning.  It is used when the plans of the projects define the number of staff of each of the segments required in the project. This method is used when new projects are starting and the managers need staffing for these projects. 10. Identify the four steps of the strategic staffing process and the most important elements in each step.  The first is to define critical staffing issues and select those for which specific strategies are required. The second is to define the staffing gaps and surpluses available in a company. This is measured against staff availability and the demand. The third step is in developing staffing strategies. These plans should be long term and should address the staffing issues in the best way. The last step is in defining the staffing plan. Since a strategy is long term, they should be reduced to plans, which have time limits. The staffing actions should be defined here and the specific actions to be used to achieve this plans. 11. Do you believe the horizontal or the vertical approach for implementing your workforce planning process is better? What is your basis for you position?  The vertical approach is better than the horizontal approach. This is because there is high impact to getting a problem fixed. Staffing issues cannot just be addressed by one step hence the vertical approach ensures thorough review of solving the problem. Approach B narrows down the scope to handle the issues. Approach b is sequential in problem solving; hence build a credible and reliable process. 12. Describe the two types of implementation frameworks. Which one is generally more  effective, and why? There are two types of implementation frameworks, the scope and the impact. Scope defines the size of group to be included while impact gives the extent to which the organization is affected positively. The impact is more effective than the scope. The impact is realistic and measurable in terms of achievement in the implementation process. Works Cited Bechet, Thomas. Strategic Staffing-a practical toolkit for work force planning, 2nd Ed. New York: American management Association (AMACOM) 2007, Print. Read More