Staffing Process in Organizations - Essay Example

After recruiting the new staffs, organizations should also ‘staff’ the recruited staffs optimally as part of the staffing process. That is, when the recruited and the existing employees fall short in their performance, mainly due to lack of skill and knowledge about the process, they can be coached and mentored as part of the staffing process. In competitive environments, every organization including public or private or MNCs or domestic organizations should keep on upgrading its product and services, and for that, the employees have to be upgraded first. Likewise, before the ‘greenhorns’ are placed in highly responsible positions, they need to be given necessary orientation and training as part of the staffing process. Actually, after the recruitment and apportionment is done, the employees will be prepared to start the work as soon as possible. But, sometimes or most times, the recruited employees should need to be given orientation and training to integrate or assimilate with the working environment and importantly fulfill the work needs. That is, the prospective employees may show optimum interest, performance, etc at the time of recruitment, but after selection, while working in the organization they many under-perform. That is, after performing well during the recruitment process and getting the job, they may become over-confident and may not put the same effort during their work. Also, if the organization fails to give them an optimal working environment as promised during the recruitment process, employees may not perform well in that scenario also. So, this where an optimal staffing process through coaching and mentoring will come into the picture, equipping the recruited employees and matching the job needs of the organization. Staffing involves coaching and mentoring the job seekers to make them fit for a particular job (koreone.com) Coaching and Mentoring as part of the Staffing process As part of the staffing processes, organizations should coach or mentor the recruited staffs and even the old employees, for it reach the top echelons. “Coaching and Mentoring can be used to effectively unlock the potential that already exists within any organization. The organization’s most valuable resource is its people or put more concretely, the knowledge and passion that resides within the hearts and minds of its people... introducing coaching and mentoring within any organization, will reap the benefits to the organization” (oaktraining.com). That is, when the recruited employees fall short in their performance, mainly due to lack of skill and knowledge about the process, they can be coached or mentored. As mentioned above, after the recruitment, the employees will be prepared to start the work, but when they have doubts about the processes and also fall short in performance, the recruited employees as part of the staffing process should need to be coached or mentored to get the much needed confidence and motivation. This coaching or mentoring will be mainly carried out at the time of recruitment and can also be incorporated as a regular or annual feature, and this constitutes the best practice. Need of the staffing process After the recruitment, while working in their jobs, employees, en masse (not one or two), may under perform because of certain shortfalls. In that case, coaching or mentoring programs can be carried out by the organizations in a large scale, at regular intervals. “Coaching and mentoring, whether on an executive level or for overall staff, are increasingly being recognised as important in employee development.” (impactfactory.com). Organizations by using the services of existing experienced employees or experts from outside can coach or mentor the under-skilled existing workers and also the newly recruited groups of workers. An wholesome coaching and mentoring program will do a world of good for the employees, as they will become equipped skill wise and knowledge wise, and will be able to undertake theirs allocated work with renewed confidence. Research shows that mentoring and coaching are among a host of interventions employed by organizations (de Janasz & Sullivan, 2004) to improve human performance. So, by recruiting skilled employees and importantly by coaching or mentoring the existing and new employees optimally through an optimal staffing process, organizations can actualize many opportunities, and achieve optimum success. Coaching and Mentoring have become an integral part of any organizations’ functioning, with the recruited employees themselves expecting some aid. This trend of employees expecting coaching or mentoring is visible in many organizations. “Recent CIPD surveys have reported that the use of coaching and mentoring as development tools are on the increase within organisations. According to respondents, 72% use formal mentoring schemes and 88% expect line managers to deliver coaching as part of their day to day work.” (trainingzone.co.uk). As both coaching and mentoring are equally beneficial to the employees and the organizations, most often both the terms are used interchangeably. . “This is not surprising as both involve an experienced hand helping a learner to become more effective” (Oystercorp Pty Ltd). But, actually there are some overt as well as subtle differences between these two programs or processes. Importantly, if these differences are grasped, it can help the organizations correctly use either one of the two staffing processes, according to the situations or needs, thereby reaching the intended targets and getting the intended benefits. Mentoring Background Mentoring constitutes a kind of developmental relationship that will evolve, when a more experienced ‘expert’ guides or teaches a less experienced protégé as part of the staffing process. “Mentoring involves skills transfer from a more experienced to a less experienced person” (Oystercorp Pty Ltd). Historically, the term “Mentoring” has been in use from earlier centuries, as the word “Mentor” itself is derived “from a character in Homer’s Odyssey, where a goddess takes on an old man’s appearance in order to guide a young boy through a difficult time” (trainingzone.co.uk). Staffing process – coaches’ and mentor’s roles The first difference between coaching and mentoring is that, coaches will not be ‘experts’ in any specialized field of interest, while mentors will be usually experts in a particular area. That is, coaches, without being the experts, can observe the activities of the recruited group in an organization, find out what is going wrong and importantly can help the individuals correct those wrongs by themselves. “They are skilled in questioning and listening (as are many mentors) but it is the coach’s role to enable the individual to find answers within themselves” (trainingzone.co.uk). Also, the coaches will monitor the outcomes, and if the outcome was not up to the expected levels, they will again involve themselves in finding out the correct solution, to get the desired results. Mentors on the other hand, being experts will have extensive and in-depth knowledge about a particular field, and so can find out the wrongs the recruited individuals are doing. But, mostly mentors will not observe the activities of the individuals from an analytical or a critical view to find out the wrongs, instead the recruited employees in organizations will only approach the mentors more often and seek their advice. Whatever be the situation, the mentors will only advise, without directly involving themselves and will help the recruited employees to achieve the intended outcomes. If the outcomes are not in the desirable side, there are not many mentors who again or repeatedly involve themselves, to help the concerned individual. Most times the advice of the mentors is forced to be taken by the individuals, without giving inputs from their side. So, the training or teaching from a mentor will be one-dimensional, while coaching involves interaction and discussion between the coach and the individuals, with optimum suggestions taken and implemented. “In short - a mentor is someone to learn from and a coach is someone to learn with” (Oystercorp Pty Ltd). Goals and job focused Coaching in organizations will mostly be goal centric, as part of the staffing process. That is, coaches will be appointed by the leader or the management team, to achieve certain targets within a specified deadline. To do that, coaches has to assess and improve the recruited employees focusing on that set targets. That is, coaches have to mainly focus on what the recruited employees should do to reach the set targets, mostly ignoring the individuals’ personal issues or non-target issues (if those issues hamper the target oriented initiatives of the individual, then only the coach will deal with it). So, the coaches’ focus should only be on the targets and it is his/hers’ duty to make the recruited employees also focus on the targets. The other important duty of the coaches is that, coaches have to achieve those targets as mentioned above within a set deadline. “Coaching is usually a ‘time bound’ relationship with a defined duration to meet the specific goal identified.” (trainingzone.co.uk). But, Mentoring is not overtly goal centric and deadlines based, it is an overall development of recruited employees, which take place at its own time. So, mentors will ‘mentor’ the recruited employees at different stages in opportune moments, to achieve positive benefits, not objectives. Apart from the benefits, it as part of the staffing process will provide the individuals an opportunity to improve their knowledge and also experience. “Mentoring is usually delivered as part of a development plan or at induction and forms part of a longer term professional development path, which opens doors, shares experiences and widens individuals’ networking systems” (trainingzone.co.uk). “Longer term professional development path” is the key, because mentoring process can go on for a long time through mostly successes and some failures, even surviving relocations or change of places, career growth, etc. So, one of the differential aspects between coaches and mentors is that, coaches’ work will be job-focused or goal centric, while mentors’ job involves focusing on the recruited employee as a person, their career and his/hers overall development. Development of relationship during the staffing process The relationship between the coaches and the recruited employees, mentors and recruited protégés will also be different. That is, an organization will first hire the coach, and then while working on the assignment, the coach will establish a relationship with the recruited employees or subjects, which will last till the assignment reaches its logical end. Even while the assignment is going on, the relationship between the coach and recruited employees will not always be on the favorable side, with problems creeping in now and then. Whatever be the nature of the relationship during the assignment, when the assignment reaches its logical end and is completed, the relationship between the coach and the recruited employees may continue only in some cases, with each other parting away in their own ways. But, in case of mentoring, the mentors and the recruited employees can have a relationship as long as they could, even after the recruited employees become permanent employees. Mostly, it would not end after achievement of some targets or completion of some tasks, it will continue for a longer time. “The duration of their relationship varies along with the intended impact. While coaching is more short-term and specific, the mentorship programme is prolonged and holistic. The common factor is that both are guided by business interests” (Dev, 2001). Actually, it is the prerogative of the mentors and the recruited employees or protégés to continue the relationship further or end abruptly, with the protégés mainly taking the initiatives to maintain a long term contact with their mentors. “Even in formal mentoring programs the protégé and mentor have choices—to continue, how long, how often, and our focus. Self-selection is the rule in informal mentoring relationships with the protégé initiating and actively maintaining the relationship” (corporatetraining.ie) Read More